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(08/28/09 6:56am)
The University recently altered its activities fees for graduate students this semester to give all full-time graduate students access to University athletic events.\nMany students past their second year of graduate school at the University are still considered full-time students, but have fewer credit hours from classes and spend more time conducting research, said Matt Rannals, president of the Graduate Arts & Sciences Council. Previously, these students only paid a portion of the student activities fee for athletic events but could not access the events for free. The Board of Visitors, though, approved fee changes so that graduate students past their second year would pay full fees, and the athletics department would grant them full access to events, Athletics Director Craig Littlepage said.\n"I think the fact that you were paying a third of the price and weren't getting any access was something they found insulting and a bit of a kick to the face," said David Hondula, chair of Student Council's Athletic Affairs Committee.\nGraduate Council representatives had been working with the athletic department to obtain access to some athletic events for students paying the partial fee, Littlepage said. In particular, the athletic department had considered giving access to several football and basketball games for students paying the partial fee.\n"We were looking at that [option] in the fall of 2008 and early winter 2009, and when this [change] came out that became a moot point," Littlepage said.\nBoth the athletic department and the Graduate Council are making efforts to publicize the recent change, Littlepage and Hondula said.\n"Specifics are still in development, but I know the Graduate Council is doing some flyering and some e-mailing, and the athletic affairs committee [of student council] is planning on doing some work as well," Hondula said.\nAdditionally, the athletic department is using e-mail and an announcement on its Web site to publicize graduate students' access to games, Littlepage said, adding that the athletic department believes the full access should be beneficial for both the graduate students and the University's athletics program.\n"I think it is a win-win - something that'll be beneficial for these graduate students and beneficial for us in terms of getting higher levels of support," Littlepage said.
(08/27/09 12:29am)
The Law School recently opened a new office to assist Law students seeking a judicial clerkship after graduation, expanding an already prominent multitude of career services.\nThe office seeks to answer students' questions and help them find clerkships that will give them experience in their desired career, said Ruth Payne, director of career services for clerkships and programs. The school opened the office as a result of a perceived increase in demand for judicial clerkships - one-year internships that allow new lawyers to work one-on-one with a judge, Payne said.\n"I think a judicial clerkship is an excellent transition from the academic setting of law to the more practical application of being in a firm or practice," said Kevin Donovan, senior assistant dean for career services at the Law School.\nThis practical experience could partly explain why demand for clerkships is increasing, Donovan said. Additionally, the market for legal services might be smaller in the current economy, so clerkships may be a more attractive option than going straight into practice, he added.\nIn general, clerks tend to do a large amount of legal research and writing, Payne said.\nDepending on the clerkship, however, other tasks may vary. For example, clerkships with trial justices can provide considerable courtroom experience, while clerkships with appellate judges are more research-based, Payne said.\nOverall, the University has been successful in placing its Law students in judicial clerkships in the past, Payne said, but the new office should build on these efforts.\n"In some ways this office is just a recognition of the fact that Virginia has a very strong clerkship program and we want to put resources into it to make sure we continue to have a strong ... program," Payne said.
(04/24/09 12:25pm)
During the past 12 months, the University suffered several financial setbacks and was forced to enact several budget cuts for the 2009-10 academic year to cope with the recession. Despite the economic slump and its unavoidable impact on University operations, officials are actively seeking to expand programs and services as they look to the future of the institution.“Virtually all revenue sources have been affected,” said Colette Sheehy, vice president for management and budget, about the past year’s economic crisis and budget reductions. The University’s service units, for example, have received less money, as their customer bases have reduced spending levels. In addition, the Medical Center has seen fewer patients, because several patients with elective procedures have often chosen to defer their appointments, Sheehy said.In October, the University’s state funding for 2008-09 was cut by $10.6 million, Sheehy said. The University also had to plan for a reduction of $12.3 million for 2009-10, Sheehy added.The University’s endowment — which increased by more 25 percent in 2006-07 and 6 percent in 2007-08 — fell by about 25 percent during the six-month period that ended Dec. 31, according to an e-mail from Leonard Sandridge, executive vice president and chief operating officer. Since the decrease, the endowment has remained relatively flat since January, Sandridge’s e-mail stated.“Although none of us feel good about an absolute decline of this magnitude, we believe the endowment is performing well on a basis relative to similar endowments,” Sandridge stated. “We are a long-term investor and we will work our way through this period.”To adapt to the budget reductions, the University continues to use some of the same policies that it implemented during the past year.“Across the University we are holding positions vacant, reducing and deferring discretionary expenditures, looking at the feasibility of consolidating departments with like responsibilities and creatively looking for new revenue opportunities,” Sheehy stated.The University, however, is required to pay for some committed costs, such as utilities, research and teaching, said Anda Webb, vice provost for administration and chief of staff.“No one’s salary has been cut,” Webb said. “One of our priorities is to preserve the core mission of the University, which [includes] teaching [and] research.”Although the budget cuts have affected several University entities, federal grant money for research in the sciences has changed little since last year and may possibly increase as the University applies for grant money funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, said Jeffrey Blank, assistant vice president for research. In addition, the commonwealth recently approved $10.7 million of stimulus money for the University’s 2009-10 operating budget, according to an e-mail from Sheehy.“The stimulus money is just being applied for now,” Blank said. “By the coming year we hope some of the money will be flowing into the University’s research programs.”The stimulus money will increase funding for the National Institutes of Health — the University’s largest source of research grant funding — by about $10.4 billion, or one-third of the pre-stimulus NIH budget, Blank said. In addition, the National Science Foundation — which is the University’s second largest source of research grant funding — is receiving $3 billion from the stimulus, he added.To receive NIH stimulus money, researchers who already have NIH grants can apply for a supplement to their current state of money, Blank said. In addition, the NIH will review applications for additional grants that it did not provide before the stimulus act passed.University researchers may also apply for money from other federal research-supporting agencies, such as the Departments of Commerce, Defense and Energy, as well as from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Blank said. These agencies, however, have not yet finalized their proposal guidelines for stimulus-funded grants.The University, meanwhile, must also remain mindful that stimulus money will only be provided for two years, Blank said.“We’re hoping those [federal] agencies can maintain the research funding at a high level ... so we can maintain the great research that we’re doing here into the future,” Blank said.University-wide projects among different schools have continued through the recession. “There are many collaborations between and among schools that exemplify the spirit of collaboration at the University of Virginia,” University Provost Arthur Garson stated in an e-mail.The Commission on the Future of the University, for example, is continuing to work on its first six initiatives, which are intended “to further distinguish the University,” Garson said. The University also hosted a Leadership in Academic Matters Group and started a University-wide process “to develop cross-school collaboration in research,” Garson added.Even as the University’s pocketbooks continue to be squeezed by the nation’s financial downturn, University administrators still are seeking ways to grow and provide enhanced services to community members. To reach desired performance benchmarks and goals, officials have begun to employ careful budget-planning and decision-making tactics, Garson stated, and despite the challenges posed by the economic climate, the University believes it must achieve its aims eventually.“We are mindful that in times of budget stress that we must spend wisely,” Garson added. “If we fail to act on the recommendations made by the faculty, staff, students, and alumni who contributed to the Commission, five years from now, the lack of progress will be remembered, not the budget issues.”
(04/22/09 6:24am)
Numerous Greek community members and organizations presented their plans and challenges for the upcoming year last night at the 2009 Greek Awards ceremony. Several Greek organizations and their members at the event also were acknowledged for their achievements throughout the past year.The presidents of the Inter-Fraternity Council, the Inter-Sorority Council, the National Pan-Hellenic Council and Multicultural Greek Council reported on the states of their organizations and their relationships with the University community. IFC President Charles Gamper and ISC President Kelly McLaughlin said their organizations are working to improve on-Grounds safety. To help accomplish this goal, the IFC hopes to make its party patrol system more effective, Gamper said.The NPHC, meanwhile, has taken steps to improve its image in the University community, NPHC President Isaac Bawuah said. One of the council’s goals for this year is to increase unity within the organization, Bawuah said. “The plan of action is to motivate each member and individual into upholding the standards [of our organization],” Bawuah said. In addition, Bawuah noted that he plans to attend at least one meeting of each of the Greek councils. He added that his organization has not “reaped the benefits of working with other councils” as much as it could have.MGC President Sharleene Cano-Quiara also said her organization will face challenges in the coming year.“What determines success is how one overcomes these challenges,” Cano-Quiara said. The MGC plans to have at least one major service project a semester and also wants to improve recruitment, its members’ overall GPA and the organization of its Web site, Cano-Quiara said.Various awards were then presented to University fraternities and sororities, as well as to individual members. Among the awards presented were Outstanding Service to the Community, which was given to Delta Delta Delta Sorority. The Outstanding Scholastic Achievement award went to the Alpha Chi Omega sorority, while Outstanding Chapter awards for IFC, ISC, MGC and NPHC organizations were given to the Phi Delta Theta fraternity, the Chi Omega sorority, the Sigma Psi Zeta sorority and the Sigma [Gamma Rho] sorority, respectively.
(04/20/09 6:32am)
The Office of Emergency Preparedness recently announced plans to install emergency warning message boards in University classrooms.These boards will be installed in phases, beginning with larger classrooms, Director of Emergency Preparedness Marjorie Sidebottom said. The first boards may be installed as soon as a week from now.“These [message boards] are similar to the screens you would see ... on, say, the Metro [subway] in Washington, [D.C.],” Sidebottom said. “If there is an important message that would need to be broadcast, there would be an auditory tone and then a scrolling message that would instruct you of what to do.”In normal situations, the screens in most classrooms either will be blank or display the time, Sidebottom said.“I think it’s a good idea,” third-year College student Brian Carroll said. “It can only make things safer, so I don’t see why not.”Second-year College student Sumaira Javed agreed but expressed concerns about the program’s cost to the University.“They should probably go ahead with it,” Javed said, “but I’d be interested to know how much money they would spend on this if it’s going to be in every classroom.”The message boards are just one more component of the University’s ongoing effort to improve how prepared it is for emergencies, Sidebottom said.“The most important thing is that we’re learning ourselves [as a University community] how to respond to emergencies, how to plan for emergencies and how to prepare so [we] can respond appropriately,” Sidebottom said.Also part of this ongoing emphasis on the University’s emergency preparedness are the recent siren tests heard on Grounds, Sidebottom said. Another test will occur today between 7 and 7:30 p.m., she added.
(04/17/09 5:40am)
The Board of Visitors recently approved a $15.2 million project that will address maintenance issues in Newcomb Hall. The project, which is scheduled to begin around May 2010, will be funded primarily by student fees, Newcomb Hall Director Bill Ashby stated in an e-mail.“The focus of the Newcomb Hall renewal project will be primarily to remediate existing building issues and to tackle deferred maintenance,” Ashby stated, adding that the project will not add “any significant amount of square feet to the building.”He noted that parts of the building have deteriorated in recent years because of water intrusion, making it vital that the University perform significant repairs. To start addressing this issue, the University completed a roof replacement project last year, Ashby stated, but the newly approved project will allow the University to repair the damage and help prevent it from reoccurring.“The project will also allow the University to renew many of the heavily utilized public spaces, such as the Ballroom and Main Lounge and Theater and Theater Lobby,” Ashby stated in the e-mail.Additional renewal work will take place in the building’s basement, student activities areas and game room.Third-year Commerce student Masa Masuda, though, said he does not see Newcomb Hall’s physical condition as a visible problem.“I don’t think the maintenance has ever gotten in the way,” Masuda said, adding that he mainly visits the building to eat at the dining hall.Engineering graduate student Marshall Tabetah agreed, adding that, in most respects, the building’s infrastructure has not made it difficult for him to use its services. He also said Newcomb Hall’s layout, however, can make it confusing to navigate through the building.“I think apart from knowing where to locate oneself precisely, there is no problem,” Tabetah said.Newcomb Hall will remain open during the renovations in 2010.
(04/15/09 5:32am)
The Board of Visitors approved tuition increases yesterday for the 2009-10 school year. Tuition and fees for in-state undergraduate students will increase by about 5 percent — or $375 — to $7,873, while the out-of-state figure will increase by about 7.5 percent to $29,873. The price of meal plans, meanwhile, will increase by about 5.4 percent on average, while the price of undergraduate housing will increase by 5.1 percent.The money will pay for the increasing costs of services such as utilities, the Student Systems Project and the AccessUVa program, said Melody Bianchetto, assistant vice president for budget and financial planning.Graduate student tuition and fees for housing and meal plans will also increase, according to a University press release. In-state graduate student tuition will increase $495 to $12,635, while the out-of-state costs will also increase by $495 to a total of $22,635. Darden students also will face tuition increases, with both in- and out-of-state rates rising by $3000, increasing the in-state total to $43,500 and the out-of-state total to $48,500, according to the press release. In-state and out-of-state Law School tuition and fees, meanwhile, will increase by $2,000, bringing the in-state figure to $38,800, while the out-of-state total will be $43,800. Medical School tuition and fees will increase by $1750 for continuing in-state and out-of-state students, according to the press release. In-state students will pay $34,400, while out-of-state students will pay $44,400. Entering medical students will pay about $750 more than continuing students.These increases, though, are less than what University officials had originally planned.“The University had anticipated greater in state increases and in fact our six-year plan predicted that we would be more in the 9 to 10 percent range for this year,” University spokesperson Carol Wood said, noting that the University feared the worst because of state budget cuts. “Recent allocations of 10.7 million in temporary funding through the Reinvestment and Recovery Act will allow for a partial mitigation of instate tuition creases over the next two years.”The tuition increases “should keep us basically at what we need to operate,” Bianchetto said. “We’ve had budget reductions from the state for the third year in a row ... At the same time, there are cost increases that we need to fund.”For example, the University is spending more on utility bills and the Student Systems Project that runs and provides technical support for the Student Information System. In addition, about one-third of the money from tuition increases will be committed to AccessUVa, Bianchetto said.“We’re expecting that there’ll be greater [financial] need this year because of economic circumstances,” Bianchetto said.Wood added that the University is dedicated to providing the same financial aid to students in need as it currently does, despite the economic downturn. The University is expecting to increase funding to AccessUVa by $10 million, she said.“The University is not stepping back in any way from our commitment to AcessUVa or meeting 100 percent of our students’ need,” Wood said.The Student Systems Project, meanwhile, introduces the costs of technology updates, Bianchetto said. The University has to pay for the system’s software and licensing, as well as the costs of running a help desk, Bianchetto said.“ISIS was an old home-grown system that really hadn’t been updated or kept to date on technology,” Bianchetto said. “[The University was] really just putting band-aids on it to hold it together until we got to the new technology.”Out-of-state students will have to pay an extra $224 to an “out-of-state debt service” fee, which now totals $442, Bianchetto said. The fee is required by the commonwealth and helps cover the cost of state-funded construction, Bianchetto said.The $1,755 student auxiliary fee paid by each student has not increased, according to the press release. This fee covers services such as athletics, student health, recreational facilities, Newcomb Hall, the University Transit Service, Safe Ride, a Microsoft licensing fee and a technology fee that covers projects such as the construction on the South Lawn, Bianchetto said.Though the tuition increases contribute to the University’s finances, the University’s overall budget has not yet been set, Bianchetto noted.“Tuition is just one step in planning the budget,” Bianchetto said. “We have to look at all the cost increases that are coming in to [the University]. We have different revenue sources ... we’re pooling all that together, and we’ll have a proposal to the Board in June.”
(04/08/09 11:20am)
Because of the recession, University Career Services and the Alumni Association’s Career Services are attempting to reach out more to University students and alumni through new programs and strategies.Alumni Career Services, which serves clients who graduated from the University more than six months ago, reported that the number of clients seeking help with resumes and interviews increased by 20 percent since last year, said Tom Folders, a representative of Alumni Career Services and president of the University’s Alumni Association, who presented at Friday’s Board of Visitors meeting. The number of advising appointments at UCS, however, has remained around 7,000 for each of the past eight years, UCS Executive Director Jim McBride said during the BOV presentation. Although the University is still hosting employers through the end of the semester, the number of employers recruiting students has decreased by 26 percent, McBride said. That being said, he also noted that the total number of student interviews has increased by 28 percent.“It would be misleading not to tell you that students graduating in May 2009 are facing one of the most challenging employment markets any of us has ever seen,” he said.McBride also noted that a recent study showed that 77 percent of employers said internships were their primary means of recruiting entry-level employees, although more students and fewer organizations attended UCS-sponsored career fairs this year. This disparity was even more pronounced in the spring, McBride said.To adapt to the economic downturn and the reduction in jobs for students, UCS has implemented some new strategies to help students deal with the current economic climate, he said. McBride said one of these strategies was to change the “business model” of UCS’s career counseling.“We made a decision in mid-to-late fall to suggest to students ... [for our career counseling staff] to be their personal career coach throughout the year,” McBride said.This strategy contrasts with the earlier model, in which UCS attempted to serve students as quickly as possible, he said, noting that now, students can visit UCS for 45-minute appointments throughout the year.Another new focus for UCS has been an emphasis on networking to find jobs. In the past, students may have found the concept of networking to be very abstract, as most would not have had experience in the field, McBride said. Now, however, McBride said social networking Web sites can be used to introduce students to the concept of professional networking. He said the same networking skills students learn from using Facebook can be applied to professional networking Web sites such as Linkedin, which is used by about 7,000 University alumni.Similarly, Alumni Career Services has seen about a 13 percent increase in online participation, Folders said. About 14,000 alumni now use Hoos Online, through which alumni can also offer to act as mentors to students and other alumni, Folders said. In addition, Folders said Alumni Career Services is on Facebook and Twitter.With such social networking tools, “you reach people where they are,” Folders said.In addition to networking, UCS is instructing students to “follow the jobs,” McBride said.“Geographically, we are somewhat fortunate,” McBride said during the BOV presentation. “Among the 49 major metropolitan areas with populations of 1 million or more, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that four areas — Washington, Virgina Beach, Baltimore and Richmond — are among those with unemployment rates below the national average [of 8.5%].”Despite the decline in employment opportunities for graduates, UCS has not found that students have lost all faith in the current job market, McBride said during his presentation.“Even with all the dismal economic news, our career counselors would tell you the students we are advising have not displayed panic or fear with respect to the employment market,” McBride said. “True, [students] are concerned, as they should be. But, they are also resilient and pragmatic — both important qualities in these tough times for developing job search strategies.”
(04/03/09 5:05am)
The Medical School’s Foundation for the National Institutes of Health recently received a $30 million grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to participate in a five-year study about the causes of malnutrition in developing countries and its effects on children.Mortality rates in developing countries have subsided in recent years, but the problem of malnutrition still has not been resolved, said Richard Guerrant, director of the University’s Center for Global Health and the study’s lead researcher.“Good water and sanitation is actually worth twice as much as we had ever calculated before,” Guerrant said.Guerrant said though oral rehydration work has reduced the number of deaths from diarrhea in developing countries, many children still are experiencing repeated episodes of diarrhea. As a result, these children tend to have both stunted growth and cognitive development. Unfortunately, it is difficult to find a treatment.To find a treatment, scientists first must find the causes of malnutrition in some children and not others. To answer this question, the study funded by the new grant will test three hypotheses, said William Petri, chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases and International Health at the Medical School.The first hypothesis — which Guerrant proposed — is that children with more instances of diarrhea are likely to be stunted because diarrhea blocks absorption of food, Petri said.The second hypothesis is that bacteria in the gut differ between the malnourished and well-nourished, Petri said. If true, this would mean that the bacteria in well-nourished children are more effective at digesting meals than the bacteria in malnourished children.The third hypothesis is that malnourished children are genetically different from well-nourished children, Petri said.He explained that these hypotheses will be tested through work in eight field sites around the world. Sites in Bangladesh, Brazil, Tanzania and South Africa will be run by University researchers, Petri said, while researchers from institutions like Johns Hopkins University and Washington University will run sites in India, Nepal, Peru and Pakistan.Guerrant said the studies will benefit from new tools and technology.“Diarrheal diseases will be detected by technology we did not have even a year ago,” Petri said. Recent technological innovations will also be used in the intestinal microbe study and the genome scans, Petri said.The new technologies provide the researchers with an excellent opportunity to figure out solutions for malnutrition, Petri said.“The expectation is that if you understand those [genetic] pathways ... you can make drugs to modify [their effects],” Petri said. He also said he thinks that differences between the intestinal flora of malnourished and well-nourished children could be treated with probiotic cultures. By ingesting these cultures, malnourished children could develop an intestinal flora more similar to that of well-nourished children, Petri said.“Forty percent of children in the developing world are malnourished, and probably at least half of all deaths of children under 5 can be attributed to malnutrition,” Petri said, adding that most deaths from diseases like malaria disproportionately affect malnourished children.“It’s proven very difficult to treat malnutrition in Bangladesh and other countries ... because giving additional food is not sufficient to prevent stunting,” Petri said. Studies have found that some children will suffer from malnutrition and others will not, regardless of similar childhoods.“When you think about that, it’s completely counterintuitive,” Petri said. “What is different about that child who became stunted versus the one who was in the same environment and became healthy?”Finding the reasons behind this situation may uncover previously unknown factors that may have a large influence on nutrition and childhood development, Guerrant and Petri said.“That is what [is exciting],” Guerrant said, “... because if repeated intestinal infections are causing these long-term developmental consequences for children, then that becomes far more important than we realized.”
(03/31/09 5:24am)
Vice President for Research Tom Skalak’s office is planning — with the strong endorsement of the University’s provost and Board of Visitors — to hold what Skalak described as a “research conversation.” The focus of the initiative will be to improve interdisciplinary research across the University’s various departments.The plan will not only focus on improving research and interdisciplinary efforts in the sciences and engineering fields but also in the humanities and social sciences, Skalak said. Though the broad initiative has not yet been formally announced, Skalak’s office currently is finalizing the ideas behind the plan.Many complex problems facing society can benefit from the perspectives of multiple disciplines, Skalak said, and the new initiative aims to help the University become a leading force in addressing those important problems. For example, as part of the interdisciplinary efforts encouraged by the plan, scientists studying alternative energy could combine their efforts with social science researchers from the fields of commerce and public policy, Skalak said. This collaboration could lead to public policy advances in terms of alternative energy technology.“We have some real diverse teams that work across schools,” Skalak said, noting that the University currently has people involved with Architecture, Commerce and Engineering School sustainability initiatives working with members of the environmental science and social science departments.Engineering Dean James Aylor echoed Skalak’s sentiment about the significant amount of cross-disciplinary research that could involve multiple departments and schools within the University. Engineering departments mostly collaborate with the Medical School and science departments from the College, he added. Most of the collaboration “happens at a grassroots level with faculty-to-faculty interaction,” Aylor said, but the deans can help to facilitate that interaction.Collaboration in the biomedical engineering department, for example, benefits from the fact that the department includes faculty from both the Medical School and the Engineering School, Aylor said. Other engineering departments tend to collaborate with physical science departments, Aylor said.Collaboration between disciplines can also be beneficial for the Engineering School itself, Aylor said.“[The Engineering School is] not a large school, and I think the collaboration really makes us look a lot bigger from an outside standpoint,” Aylor said.Regardless of the advantages of pan-University collaboration, Skalak emphasized that the research initiative is still in its formative stages.“It’s premature,” Skalak said. “We’re still in the early stages of speaking to all the deans of the schools [and] forming this.”
(03/31/09 5:16am)
University Law School alumnus and former Sen. John Warner, R-Va., recently auctioned off items accumulated throughout his political career to benefit his alma mater.The proceeds — which are expected to range from $10,000 to $12,000 — will provide money for law students working on “pro bono challenges for the legal representation of the indigent and the poor,” Warner said. Of the money to be donated, $5,000 will be given to a student one summer to study with a practicing lawyer, and $5,000 will be given to a different student to do the same the following summer, Warner said. If the auction and his personal funds can support it, Warner may donate a third installment of $5,000 as well, he said.“I was fortunate, like all politicians ... to receive the mementos from organizations that respected the work we were doing,” Warner said.Warner also accumulated memorabilia from the University, as well as from Washington and Lee University, where he studied as an undergraduate, said Susanna Brockman, director of gallery relations for the Potomack Company, which assisted Warner during the auctioning process.Plaques, figures of eagles and presentation platters made up a large portion of the collection, which comprised about 35 to 40 items, Brockman said. Warner said he chose to donate to the Law School as a means of expressing gratitude to the faculty who helped him focus on his education after serving in the Korean War.Law School Dean Paul Mahoney expressed appreciation for the donation.“I’m grateful that [former] Sen. Warner has chosen to help students who follow his example of public service,” Mahoney said.
(03/23/09 6:20am)
As the economic downturn continues, department chairs in various schools are reporting difficulties with hiring faculty and expanding services like course offerings and funding for faculty travel.The commonwealth’s projected budget cuts affect schools and departments differently, based on how much those sections depend on state funds, said Elizabeth Fortune, associate dean of finance and administration for the Architecture School.The University assigns its budget cuts based on a proportionate share of its state funds, explained Colette Sheehy, vice president for management and budget.“What the central budget office does is assign the cuts to the major vice presidential offices,” Sheehy said. She also noted that University Provost Arthur Garson can allocate budget cuts to the different schools however he sees fit.Garson noted, though, that the budget cuts are allocated equally across the schools.“We have to discuss together with the dean and the financial people of the school and the Vice Provost for Administration the best way to do reductions where we will do the least harm and the most good,” Garson said.All departments within the College were asked to cut their 2008-09 academic year budgets by two percent and their 2009-10 budgets by six percent, Economics Department Chair William R. Johnson said.Although implementing budget cuts in the middle of the academic year is a challenge, Johnson said his department has taken significant steps to deal with the decrease in state funding. Like many other departments, Johnson said the economics department cut back on “Other Than Personal Services” expenditures like the purchase of copy paper and other supplies. Secondly, College departments like economics will be more conservative in hiring new faculty, he said.“The bulk of our cuts are going to be taken up by essentially not hiring two [faculty members] that we had initially been authorized to hire,” Johnson said. “So it’s not that the permanent faculty will be smaller but that it will be smaller than it would have been [without the cuts].”English Department Chair Jahan Ramazani and María-Inés Lagos, chair of the Spanish, Italian and Portuguese department, also noted that their departments primarily had to reduce OTPS funds and eliminate positions for potential new hires. The reduction in faculty hiring has also included the cancellation of replacements for faculty members currently on leave, Ramazani said.He said changes in the course line-up will have the most impact on students, adding that the English department cut back on introductory writing classes, introductory literary classes and discussion sections because of state budget cuts. In addition, the department reduced the number of “more labor-intensive” introductory writing classes for students who would have difficulty in the regular classes.“The basic thing is writing classes, obviously, are [some] of the most important, core classes offered by the University to its students,” Ramanzani said. “It’s a shame that we’re having to cut there.”Lagos, meanwhile, said budget cuts both have and have not affected students within the Spanish, Italian and Portuguese department.“Of course we have to be more careful,” Lagos said, “so if students request money for additional things — let’s say if they want to bring a lecturer or they want to [present research] — then we don’t have as much to support those activities. But I think in general it has not been as bad because we have had money from gifts and from savings.”An ongoing problem is meeting student demand for Spanish classes, with about 350 students majoring in Spanish and between 150 and 200 minors. But the department only has about 14 full-time faculty members teaching Spanish. Lagos noted, though, that this was a problem before the economic crisis.“My sense is that the real [results] haven’t been felt as much [in the departments] because, to be honest, the dean’s office has done a good job [of keeping programs intact],” Chemistry Department Chair David Cafiso said. He noted, however, that in recent years, the size of the chemistry faculty and the amount of support the department receives from both the University and external grants has not grown, even as the size of the student body has increased.“In summary, I’d say we’re doing all right, with some minor cutbacks,” Cafiso said, noting that the University’s undergraduate chemistry program has mostly remained stable. He said the department has not had to turn people away from classes, but that some courses — particularly upper-level lab courses — are large because they are relatively expensive to run. The department therefore tries to minimize how many are held.Despite the economic crisis, research money continues to flow into science departments through federal grants from agencies like the National Science Foundation and National Institute of Health, Cafiso said.These federal grants likely comprise about 90 percent of the department’s research costs, Cafiso added. While funding from the NIH has remained relatively flat for the past seven or eight years, this challenge existed as well before the current crisis.William C. Johnson, chair of the department of materials science and engineering, also noted that his department’s research money is about the same as last year. He said this has allowed the department to continue accepting graduate students and hiring postdoctoral researchers, but noted that the budget cuts will still impact student life.“I’ve had to cut back on the number of external speakers,” Johnson said. “The money is a little tighter, but students are still able to take their classes and conduct their research.”While research money has stayed constant for science and engineering departments, schools that are more dependent on state funds are more deeply affected by the University’s budget cuts.For example, state funds form about 61 percent of the Architecture School’s budget, Fortune noted.“When a cut is applied to state funds, it affects us disproportionately, so we really feel the impact,” Fortune said. “A significant portion of our budget is tied up in faculty and staff salaries, so [the cuts] really put the squeeze” on other areas of the budget.Craig Barton, chair of the architecture and landscape architecture department, noted that hosting events was the biggest budget item cut, along with his office’s OTPS costs. This included decreasing the number of student receptions and guest lectures, Barton said. The department also had to reduce funding for faculty travel, which in turn has meant cutting back on faculty fieldwork and research, Barton said.In addition, Barton expressed distress at the new difficulties in hiring faculty and staff.“The process of hiring someone, which is always a rigorous one, has simply gotten more rigorous,” Barton said. “You’re going to have to make a case for why you need somebody.”The faculty of the Architecture School also tried to obtain more grant and gift dollars to compensate for the lack of state funds, Fortune noted, but the department is “just not there yet.”Meanwhile, departments that assist students in finding opportunities like internships have been forced to become more creative, said Bobbe Nixon, development program coordinator for the department of biomedical engineering.“We tend to work with a number of small, high-tech companies, and they’re maybe waiting a little longer to make decisions,” Nixon said. “Here we are in the middle of March, and I’ve got two [internships], whereas I’d normally have about six at this time.”She said her office has tried to train students to be more aggressive in pursuing companies and opportunities and has also encouraged them to submit more résumés to more companies.Nevertheless, Nixon said, additional support has come from sources like Vice President for Research Tom Skalak’s office, which received a grant from the National Science Foundation allowing the University to provide $1,000 for a number of students seeking internships. This helps small startup companies pay part of the costs of hiring an intern, Nixon said, and it has also allowed the office to reach out to more international partners.Materials Science Chair Johnson also noted that there has been a desire to work through the challenges of the economic crisis, and said the outlook on Grounds remains generally optimistic.“In my department, I think most folks understand it’s difficult times,” Johnson said, “and I think the attitude remains positive ... recognizing that working together we’re able to overcome some of these temporary difficulties.”
(03/10/09 5:25am)
The University’s Student Systems Project currently is conducting efforts to educate the University community about the Student Information System, which will soon replace the Integrated Student Information System as the University’s system of record and class enrollment. These outreach efforts include online resources, the Project’s help center and an information session for students and faculty to be held March 16 in Newcomb Hall, said Carole Horwitz, the communications director of the Student Systems Project.Horwitz said the help page for SIS directs students to resources, such as a list of the top 10 important facts for SIS use, a demo of the system, a student guide, a VISTAA advising reporting demo and a list of frequently asked questions.“One of the things we’re doing is to try to get this information out and available to students,” Horwitz said, noting that one of the outreach methods has been to contact student groups about seeing demos of the system.Chris Doran, the user services leader for the Student Systems Project, said several “focus groups” were created last fall for these demos. The groups included representatives from organizations such as Hoos for Open Access, peer advisors from the Office of African-American Affairs and ITC student consultants, Doran said. Student Council and other organizations also were contacted because they “expressed a desire to stay informed and involved,” Doran said.Additionally, Project officials spoke directly to Education, Law and Nursing students, Doran said. He added, however, that information is “open to any student who’d like to come in and ask questions and see how it’s all going to work.”Doran said interested students can meet SIS developers and administrations of the system at next week’s information session, providing those students and University community members the opportunity to ask and answer questions about the replacement for ISIS.The idea for the SIS came about after a Student Systems Project assessment three years ago determined that ISIS would no longer be able to “meet the needs of the University as it goes forward,” Horwitz said. She noted that adviser information and enrollment times were transferred to SIS this week and the new system will completely replace ISIS by August.
(02/24/09 6:19am)
Student voters rejected the referendum to create a multiple-sanction honor system, as seventy percent of total voters voted against the referendum, while only 28 percent voted for it.Hoos Against Single Sanction proposed the initial referendum, which sought to implement a system of less strict sanctions, such as suspension from the University, in conjunction with the current single sanction, in which the only punishment is expulsion. While the current system requires an honor offense to be deemed non-trivial to be punished with expulsion, the referendum would have allowed for trivial cases to be punished with the lesser sanctions.The referendum also would have allowed a trivial honor offense to proceed to a second trial stage, during which three Honor Committee members, rather than a jury of students, would decide the sanction that would be applied.“I’m shocked, but I’m very pleasantly surprised,” said fourth-year College student Nadia Islam, president of Students for Honor. She noted that there were strong arguments on both sides and that she did not expect the referendum to be rejected by such a large margin.Fourth-year College student Bonnie Carlson, a member of Hoos Against Single Sanction, said she was disappointed at the outcome.“It’s upsetting to me based on the negative campaign the “Vote No” side was running, [which] I think was pretty misleading,” Carlson said.One criticism of the referendum was that an influx of trivial cases would make it harder to give the needed degree of attention and care to each case, Islam said. She also was “disappointed to see the loss of student self-governance” that she said would occur if the responsibility of giving out lesser sanctions belonged to Honor Committee members instead of a student jury.Carlson, however, disagreed.“I think it would be a really positive thing to look at honor cases on an individual basis and have the option to have lesser sanctions for lesser crimes,” Carlson said. “Having a ‘one size fits all’ attitude for honor offenses doesn’t work when obviously not all honor offenses are of the same degree.”First-year College student Chelsea David said she believes “a lot of students voted against it because they are so used to the single sanction, and a sudden change would disrupt the system” they were used to.David, who said she voted no on the referendum, noted that — in her opinion — there is not yet a viable alternative to single sanction.“I guess everyone’s scared of single sanction,” David said. “But if you are smart about it, you shouldn’t have to worry, [as long as] you know you did nothing wrong.”Third-year College student Seth Goldin, however, said voter rejection of the referendum does not necessarily imply that single sanction is perfect.“Those who are naive enough to waste their time voting in the elections are the same people naive enough to believe that single sanction works as it is,” Goldin said.Regardless of one’s stance on the referendum, Islam said she believes the referendum was significant because it may have increased voter turnout at the elections and because it led to a greater interest in the subject of honor at the University.“The best part about this for me is the increased dialogue on honor,” Islam said.
(02/23/09 7:08am)
The University’s Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service presented a quality of service and efficiency study to Charlottesville City Council last week to help the city handle the current economic recession.Center Director John P. Thomas said his organization oversaw the research through the Virginia Institute of Government program, which is designed to help local governments.“What the study has done is pinpoint areas where the city can either save, add revenue or take away expenses for the city to better handle the current economic downturn,” study team leader Brad Hammer said. One change the study recommended, which Hammer said city officials strongly agreed with, is to “try to develop the capacity within the city itself to try to provide jobs to U.Va. graduates.” Hammer said the city could do this by working with local companies who look to hire younger employees to create job opportunities. Charlottesville Mayor Dave Norris said this recommendation did more than answer the question of how the city can be efficient on a day-to-day operational basis; it also addressed the issue of how Charlottesville can position itself strategically to become a more viable place for people to do business, he said. West Main Street and Preston Avenue are “ideally situated for the kind of creative, in-fill development” that could attract new businesses and residential development and could give opportunities for people “to live and work and play in the same neighborhood, which is what a lot of people are looking for these days,” Norris said.The study also evaluated Charlottesville’s human services program. While the study found that the city’s human services program is dedicated to the service it provides, the study recommended that Council regularly evaluate the program, Hammer said. He added that he thought the city should compare its human services program against the best practices across the country so that the city is “current with the best practices in both adult and juvenile programs.”While noting that it was beneficial to have a neutral third party conduct an efficiency study of the city, Norris said the study did not sufficiently address the issue of poverty in Charlottesville.“They said we spend a lot of money on programs for the poor and that that shows that we’re a compassionate community and should pat ourselves on the back for it,” Norris said. “We’re not interested in maintaining people in poverty ... We’re interested in moving people out of poverty and that is a different mindset, so I think there’s more work to be done in that regard.”Other recommendations made by researchers included increasing the personal property tax nominally from 4.2 percent to 4.28 percent so that the city’s rate matches Albemarle County’s. That change would yield between $150,000 and $200,000 in added nominal revenue, the report stated. The report also suggested increasing parking ticket fees from $15 to $30, which would generate $100,000 to $150,000 during the year immediately following such a change.Hammer added, however, that overall the city is in excellent financial shape. Attributing the city’s more stable economy to its closeness with the University, he said he does not expect to see the current recession affect Charlottesville for another year and a half.In addition to Hammer, the research team’s other members included former Colonial Heights City Manager Robert Taylor and former Waynesboro City Manager Doug Walker. Norris said Council decided last year that it wanted to bring in an outside group to review city operations.
(02/16/09 6:37am)
University physicists recently developed a new method for making precise measurements of gravity in small spaces, potentially allowing for the creation of new devices with more commercial applications. Assoc. Physics Prof. Cass Sackett, the project’s principal investigator, said the new method, like older ones, is based on using the time it takes for an object to drop to measure the acceleration caused by gravity.In this experiment, rubidium atoms were cooled to the point of being almost motionless, Sackett said. Afterwards, these atoms were dropped in a small space, and lasers were shined on them to give them an “extremely precise kick,” Sackett said.Because of the easily measurable force these lasers can apply, Sackett noted, the method is equitable to measurements about as accurate as those achieved in introductory, college-level physics labs, although it cannot yet go further. He noted, however, that the technique has the potential to become much more accurate and that it has some benefits compared to older procedures.“The nice thing about this method is it only requires 10 to 20 [micrometers] of vertical space, so a practical device can be made very small,” said Graduate Engineering alumnus Jeramy Hughes, who worked on the experiment prior to his graduation.Hughes said previously existing methods, which involved dropping atoms without the use of lasers, required at least 10 centimeters of space, with some instruments measuring a meter tall to obtain a greater degree of accuracy. By using lasers to bounce the atoms more than a hundred times, however, the new technique has been able to replicate some of the accuracy of older techniques, and in a much more practical amount of space.Very accurate measurements of gravity could be useful in various fields, including navigation, oil exploration, the search for underground caves and even the discovery of smuggled cargo, Sackett said. Devices designed to take advantage of the new method researched at the University could detect the small effects that individual objects or places — such as oil or iron fields — have on the Earth’s gravity, allowing scientists, researchers and commercial prospectors to find resources easily without the need of larger, bulkier measuring tools. In this respect, the new technique will enable the creation of devices small enough to be conveniently used on the airplanes, boats, submarines and other vehicles needed for such applications, Sackett said.
(02/10/09 6:22am)
A recent survey revealed a number of patterns in the Charlottesville Latino immigrant community. The survey, which involved University students and faculty, found, among other things, that the average Latino immigrant was less prepared for emergencies than the general population and that a majority of Latino immigrants in Charlottesville came to the United States for economic reasons.Amy Yoder, a Graduate Arts & Sciences student and a lecturer in the department of Spanish, Italian and Portuguese, said the Charlottesville survey was part of a larger effort by the Greater Richmond Red Cross, which also surveyed the Latino communities in Fredericksburg, Petersburg and the Richmond area. The survey was done with the help of student volunteers, Yoder said, who reached out to members of the Latino immigrant community by going to places such as the local Mexican tienda, area soccer games and trailer parks with large Latino populations.Because the study was done on behalf of the Red Cross, many of the questions asked centered on issues of emergency preparedness, especially for house fires, Yoder said.“Many did not have a disaster plan ... There was a lot of confusion about what they needed to do,” Yoder said.Tammie Smith, an intern for the Latino American Pilot Project at the Greater Richmond Red Cross, noted that, for example, 40 percent of the general population said they had a disaster preparedness plan, whereas only 27 percent of Latinos surveyed said they had one.“I think it showed that ... Latino immigrants were less likely to be prepared,” Smith said, adding that language barriers and an overall lack of outreach may be to blame for this reported lack of preparedness.In addition to checking for emergency preparedness, the Charlottesville survey went beyond the Red Cross requirements by asking several other questions, Yoder said. For example, the survey asked if participants had access to necessary healthcare services, whether they had a positive experience living in the United States during the past year and why they immigrated, Yoder said.More than half of all survey respondents indicated that economic concerns were one of their reasons for moving to the United States, Yoder said. Many also retained ties to their country of origin, with 73 percent of non-American citizen respondents stating that they planned to return to their respective countries of origin at some point, Yoder said.Smith noted that these findings were not surprising, and that they confirmed what many researchers and experts already suspected.“Essentially they’re coming here for jobs ... to take care of their families,” Smith said.Yoder added that the survey respondents tended to be more positive than expected when describing their experiences in the past year. She said, of all the respondents to the survey, only five said their experiences in the past year had been very difficult, whereas many said their experiences were OK and some said they were positive.“Students commented on how optimistic and positive and resilient they were as a group because at the same time they were answering that their experience was OK, [even when] they were talking about job losses,” Yoder said, noting that, for example, many Latino immigrants work in the construction field, which has seen significant cutbacks during the previous year.Despite the difficulties encountered by many immigrants, Yoder said the survey team never heard respondents say “I’m going back now.” Ultimately, many respondents answered yes to at least some degree that they were meeting the financial and family support goals they had set out to accomplish, she added.
(02/02/09 10:24am)
The Office of Institutional Assessment and Studies (IAS) is conducting an assessment of the writing programs in each of the University’s undergraduate schools in order to follow the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia’s (SCHEV) requirement for the University to evaluate the success of its students in “core competencies,” said Jonathan Schnyer, IAS Associate Director and University Assessment Coordinator.How it worksThe assessment, upon request by SCHEV, will examine not only the writing skills that students have when they graduate, Schnyer said, but also the “value added” in terms of what students learn during their four years at the University. According to SCHEV’s Web site, the council is responsible for making higher education public policy recommendations to the Governor and General Assembly.The request to assess students “as a whole across the institution” is difficult, Schnyer added, because the University has 6 different schools in which undergraduates take classes. IAS responded to the challenge of conducting a University-wide assessment by focusing on the curriculum within each school in order to determine the success of their programs, Schnyer said.Though an emphasis on writing skills exists throughout the University, Schnyer noted that some schools, such as the Commerce and Engineering Schools, focus on different skills within the writing process, whereas the Architecture and Nursing Schools have similar emphases to the College’s writing program.“Basically, for the College, for example, we designed a rubric in close consultation with the writing instructors and the faculty [in the ENWR program],” Schnyer said. “We collect representative examples of the student work,” he said, noting that 7 learning outcomes, including the ability to draw sound, logical conclusions and the ability to support those conclusions with sound evidence, are the areas which are examined in order to assess student strengths and weaknesses.He added, however, that the assessment also looks at groups of majors in order to see how students in related fields are performing.“We started work on this last spring, got together a committee of faculty and started planning for this during the summer,” Schnyer said. At this point, the committee started collecting “pre-papers” which include sample papers that had been written by first-year College students at the beginning of an ENWR course.Evaluations of pre-papers generally occurred in December and January, Schnyer said. Fourth-year papers will be evaluated by IAS and the faculty committees throughout the spring semester, and the overall results of the evaluations will be analyzed in May and June, Schnyer said.Following this, Schnyer said, IAS plans to submit an initial report to SCHEV September 1, with a more detailed report to be sent to the University’s provost and the deans of each respective school about a month later.The actual collection of the sample papers, like the rubrics themselves, depends on the school, Schnyer said.The College’s first-year papers have been taken from a random sample of teaching assistants teaching ENWR courses. The papers themselves were the first ones done by students in the course, Schnyer said.This is followed by a “pre-post” assessment done to evaluate how well students are learning the material from their first-year writing courses, Schnyer said.The collection of fourth-year papers from the College, however, tends to be more of a struggle, Schnyer said. Unlike the first-year assessment process, fourth-year papers are collected through e-mails sent out by faculty members, said Richard Handler, an anthropology professor who was involved in sending some of the e-mail requests.Schnyer noted that IAS tries to make this sample representative of the University student population, noting that they check to see which students responded to the request when deciding how to adjust for any overrepresentation or underrepresentation based on gender or ethnicity.The sample papers themselves, however, are randomly assigned numbers and then randomly generated when the actual assessment is conducted, Schnyer said. Ultimately, the anonymity of students is preserved during the assessment, so the results are not intended to have an effect on students’ grades or records, Handler said.Handler noted, however, that the most common assessments are those done by every faculty member when they evaluate their students’ work.Outside the collegeIn addition, individual schools may conduct their own assessments in order to satisfy accreditation requirements, Handler said.For example, the Department of Science, Technology and Society, which is responsible for developing the writing skills of Engineering students, prepares for accreditations that are done every 5 years, STS Department Chair Deborah Johnson said. The department performs an ongoing assessment that continuously influences how the department instructs students the next year, she said.“The real challenge [when instructing students] is to... engage a student in sort of being able to think about and even critique their own writing,” Johnson said.Johnson noted that companies that interview students, even in the field of engineering, clearly believe that communication skills such as writing and oral presentation are “absolutely essential” for employees to have.This poses another challenge, however, since students often choose engineering because they excelled in math and science and may not have perceived writing as their area of strength, Johnson said.Nonetheless, the key skills taught by STS, which instructs students throughout their 4 years at the University, center around teaching students how to articulate an argument, Johnson said. For example, she noted that students need to know what a claim is, need to give evidence to support the claim and need to organize the paper so that it clearly has an introduction, a body and a conclusion, all of which are built in “a nice sequence.”Johnson added that there are other factors in determining the quality of a student’s writing. “Is it sharp? Is the argument developed?” Johnson said. “Does it show that they understand the audience that they’re writing to?”One of the challenges in this, Johnson said, is for students to be able to write both papers for non-experts in the subject and papers for experts.ENWR: progress and problemsThese concerns were not limited to the Engineering School, said English Prof. Gregory Colomb, Chair of the Department of Academic, Professional and Creative Writing, which directs the ENWR program.“There’s actually a predictable progression,” Colomb said. “When students come in [to the College], there are two things they tend not to know... one is that in the university and professional context, nobody wants to be told what they know... [and] the other thing... is how to make a good argument.”By their fourth year, however, College students tend to be “socialized into an academic discourse,” making it a challenge to teach students how to write like experts without making the argument inaccessible to non-experts.“Giving that there is this predictable movement of students... what we need and don’t have is a way to interact with students more than once through the course of their career here,” Colomb said. “...Our goal is to give writers some ways to analyze what they have produced... so that they can use conscious processes to help them to better those things we can only do passively.”Though the majority of ENWR instruction occurs in the first year, Colomb said, the program remains distinctive in its teaching methodology. The program reflects the belief that most of the writing process takes place through unconscious processes rather than conscious choices, he said.“I can certainly say that within the first year the quality of writing improves dramatically,” said Graduate Arts & Sciences student Ryan Cordell, who is also assistant director of the University’s Writing Center.He noted that the first-year ENWR program is “able to help a wide variety of students with... different levels of writing ability to put down an argument with a clarity that [allows it to] be understood by not only me... but I think by an audience outside [the ENWR class.]”While noting that the program is “truly state of the art,” with a very well trained group of teachers, Colomb said budget limitations prevent the program from expanding its scope.“Before the budget cut we exempted about a third of the first-year class not on the fact that we didn’t think they [needed] a class” but because they could not afford to instruct that many students, Colomb said. He added that budget cuts will cause the number of students exempted from the first writing requirement to increase by about half the current number.Despite the current issues stemming from the budget cuts and lack of a large-scale writing program beyond the first year, the ENWR program still has ideas for new tools that could be implemented once the needed resources were found, Colomb said.In this respect, the IAS assessment will look not just at the bare minimums required by SCHEV but will look to make assessments that are useful to the schools, Schnyer said.“It’s not a particular area of weakness for us, I don’t think,” Prof. Handler said. “We have very strong writing programs at U.Va., so it might have some effect on how people are teaching writing in different disciplines outside the English department.”Colomb added that the state is concerned primarily with the issue of whether universities are doing their job. He said that he doesn’t expect it to examine whether or not he needs to change the content of his classes but rather to see if students are learning what the program is asking them to learn.
(01/23/09 6:50am)
“We will restore science to its rightful place ... We will harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories. And we will transform our schools and colleges and universities to meet the demands of a new age.”In these and other excerpts from his inauguration speech Tuesday, President Barack Obama outlined one of the philosophies of his new administration that could lead to an increasing governmental emphasis on “maintaining the pipeline of innovation that exists at universities,” including but not limited to developments in the core sciences, University Vice President for Research Tom Skalak said. This increased emphasis on — and funding for — various research and academic efforts, Skalak said, could benefit several University projects.Skalak noted that though the new administration has just taken office, detailed descriptions on federal Web sites explain the areas the new administration may focus on, specifically concerning Obama’s proposed economic stimulus package.Among those foci are higher education and the “fundamental, discovery-oriented research” core sciences, Skalak said.Skalak added that the new administration’s goals, particularly in regards to the proposed economic stimulus, may aid some of the University’s capital construction projects, including the renovation of Garrett Hall to house the Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy and the installation of new heating and air conditioning systems for the Medical School’s Jordan Hall facility, which Skalak said is the University’s largest medical research building.“That’s an immediate project that would be necessary to keep state-of-the-art research moving forward,” Skalak said. He noted that funds could also go toward improving the Chemistry Building’s teaching laboratories, which would allow cutting-edge teaching experiments to occur in the chemistry program.“Right now the new administration just took over ... so what we believe will happen is a series of discussions,” Skalak said, noting that these talks may include, among other participants, state and federal government officials and for-profit and not-for-profit institutions such as universities. Additional institutions and interest groups conducting and representing research efforts throughout the country could also participate, Skalak added.This dialogue among groups, Skalak noted, would not be limited to the sciences and would have wide-ranging effects in various fields, including information technology, the arts, social sciences and the humanities.Overall, some of the basic areas of interest expected to receive funding from the new administration are sustainability, health information technology, energy conservation and financial security and information assurance, Skalak said.Explaining that innovations in those areas would connect to wide-ranging challenges such as the search for new energy, Skalak said such projects “drive job creation and they help drive the pursuit of happiness, as Thomas Jefferson would say.” He added that he believes Obama has “made a clear link between the basic values of society and the mechanism that we use to achieve that.”University Assoc. History Prof. Brian Balogh, who is also chair of the Governing America in a Global Era program at the Miller Center of Public Affairs, said the politics of science has not been particularly controversial in many respects. He noted, however, that there have been debates about issues as wide-ranging as stem cell research, abortion and the occasional episodes of scandal within the scientific process.“Probably where science comes closest to drawing public attention is in the [Food and Drug Administration] ... as well as the [Environmental Protection Agency],” Balogh said, adding that one may find controversies there regarding agriculture and pollution.While noting that Obama’s inauguration remarks may have been directed toward former President George W. Bush’s own decisions on topics such as stem cell research and climate change, Balogh said he foresees an emphasis primarily on using science to support economic sectors.“We know what Obama has talked about — what his transition has talked [about],” Balogh said. “He has consistently talked about replacing faith or belief with the kind of analysis that’s more solidly grounded in science.”
(01/22/09 7:19am)
The evolving, younger face of the nation is expected to produce changes in the field of medical school admissions, according to a recent survey by Kaplan Test Prep and Admissions. The study’s results, which were released yesterday, show that almost half of medical schools surveyed across the country are considering increasing the number of seats in their entering class. The study also showed that factors such as the MCAT and monitoring of social networking profiles may be gaining increasing prominence in the admissions process.Amjed Mustafa, Kaplan director of pre-health programs, noted that this year’s survey, which is the latest of Kaplan’s yearly medical school admissions surveys, was based off interviews with 85 admissions officers at U.S. medical schools. “We do these surveys typically to increase awareness and to hit on the major hot topics and issues that are going on in the field of medicine,” Mustafa said, noting that the surveys also allow Kaplan to investigate trends in the world of admissions.The survey results were particularly interesting, Mustafa noted, because of the insight they provide into the current concerns of admissions officers. In this respect, Mustafa said, part of the survey’s focus was on admissions officers’ reactions to an expected future shortage in physicians.This shortage, Mustafa said, is attributed to the nation’s aging population. He explained that a third of today’s physicians are older than age 55, meaning that in 10 years their retirement will combine with the aging of the overall population and simultaneously create a greater demand for healthcare as well as a smaller number of practicing physicians. Mustafa noted that this predicted shortage of physicians has caused many medical schools to consider increasing the number of available seats for prospective students.In particular, he noted that 44 percent of admissions officers surveyed said they were planning to increase the size of their entering classes. Those who were not planning to do so, Mustafa said, were limited by considerations such as the need for more professors, resources and classroom space.University Physician R.J. Canterbury, who also serves as associate Medical School admissions dean, agreed, noting that his office is planning to increase the number of students accepted into the Medical School in the coming years. He said this increase will require more resources in key areas.Canterbury noted that the emphasis in medical education is shifting away from lectures and clinical work and moving toward a clinical focus. Because of this, Canterbury said, expansion efforts will have to focus on recruiting more faculty for small group interactions, hiring more “actors” to play the role of “standardized patients” with specific diseases and having more training sites for students to learn from current patients.Ultimately, much of this expansion and change in educational focus at the University’s medical school is expected to be accomplished by the construction of a new medical education building that is expected to be completed by spring 2010, Canterbury said. This means that the class entering in fall 2010 will increase from the current total of 142 students to 148, with an expected 160 students per class in the following years, Canterbury said. “The entire state is interested in having an increased number of medical students across the commonwealth.”Another aspect of the Kaplan survey, Mustafa noted, revealed a changing emphasis in medical school admissions, particularly in the importance placed on the Medical College Admissions Test. According to the survey’s results, 44 percent of admissions officers reported that the MCAT was the single most important factor in admitting applicants. This was a significant increase from the 34 percent who reported this the previous year, Mustafa noted, and was in many cases a result of a 15-year study by the Association of American Medical Colleges that was published last year.This survey, Mustafa said, showed a 0.7 rate of correlation between performance on the MCAT and performance in both medical school and the United States Medical Licensing Exam.“Medical schools realized, ‘If I have one score, and if that score’s already telling me a lot about the applicant, [or] at least the quantitative aspect, then [I’m] going to use that score,’” Mustafa said, adding that this consideration allows admissions offices to save resources. He noted, however, that other factors are still very important in medical school admissions.Canterbury emphasized this, noting that although the MCAT “predicts performance in medical school and [on] the licensing exam,” it does not necessarily receive the single greatest focus in the University’s admissions office.“We sometimes have applicants with perfect MCAT scores who we don’t interview because other aspects of their application are deficient,” Canterbury said, adding that grade point average, healthcare experience, altruistic activities, letters of recommendation and personal statements still play large roles in the process.The potential monitoring of social networking sites may also require potential applicants “to be very careful about how they’re presenting themselves,” Mustafa added, especially because some Web sites make it possible to view information that was removed from individual profiles. He noted, though, that the percentage of medical school admissions officers who had visited such profiles according to the Kaplan report was only 14.Canterbury said the University’s medical school admissions office does not have a policy of looking through social networking sites “unless there’s a reason,” noting that applicants sometimes have brought up the subject both in interviews and in applications.“That’s certainly made admissions officers look, but we don’t go actively searching for it,” Canterbury said.