53 items found for your search. If no results were found please broaden your search.
(10/16/09 5:36am)
Despite receiving stimulus money for transportation improvement, the Virginia State Department of Transportation had to cut an additional $134 million from this year's transportation budget because of the recession, VDOT Chief Engineer Malcolm T. Kerley said.
(10/12/09 6:35am)
The Center for South Asian Studies and the East Asia Center, along with several other international studies programs, recently received more than $386,000 to strengthen and elevate their programs for the 2009-10 school year, thanks to late Economics Prof. Gertrude Greenslade.
(10/09/09 6:19am)
The Education School, in conjunction with other colleges and universities is co-sponsoring the Mind and Life Institute's conference, "Educating World Citizens for the 21st Century," featuring the Dalai Lama. The conference, held in Washington, D.C., began yesterday and continues today.
(09/18/09 5:38am)
During yesterday's Employee Council meeting, University Employee Assistance Consultant Mary Sherman introduced the new Alternative Dispute Resolution program, required under Virginia's Restructuring Act of 2005.
(09/17/09 5:03am)
The University Art Museum installed Alexander Calder's 1976 mobile, called "Untitled 1976," in the entrance gallery of the Bayly Building Sept. 9.
(09/14/09 5:46am)
The University recently partnered with Google to set up Vmail, a new alumni e-mail system that launched last Wednesday. Prior to this new service, alumni used e-mail forwarding to continue use of their University accounts.
(09/11/09 5:44am)
Former University History Prof. William "Bill" Wright Abbot, III passed away Aug. 31 at the age of 87.
(04/09/09 5:25am)
During the next two years, six of the University’s nine residential Pavilions will open for new tenants. The Board of Visitors has yet to select tenants for five of the expected vacancies, which include both of Pavilion VIII’s apartment residences.Of the currently vacant Pavilions, Pavilion II currently is closed for renovation, Senior Preservation Planner Brian Hogg said, but will open and be filled in the fall. He explained that the Pavilions undergo major renovations every 20 to 30 years, and minor renovations whenever there is a change in tenants. In keeping with Thomas Jefferson’s vision, the University is “extremely respectful of the historic fabric of the buildings,” Hogg said. “As [the University plans] renovations, [it is] very careful not to destroy historic parts of the interior or exterior as [it introduces] modern technology.”Once Pavilion II’s renovations are complete, College Dean Meredith Woo and her husband Bruce Cumings will move in during the upcoming fall semester. Another change in Pavilion residency also will occur this year; Education Dean Robert Pianta and wife Ann will move from their current home in Pavilion III to Pavilion I during the fall semester. Several of the University’s other Pavilions, meanwhile, will become vacant in 2010. Pavilion V, the current residence of Vice President for Student Affairs Patricia Lampkin and Wayne Cozart, will become available in summer 2010, and Pavilion IX, in which Architecture Dean Karen Van Lengen and James Welty now live, will open in March 2010.To fill the vacancies, Board Secretary Sandy Gilliam said, the Board will first consider the vice president for student affairs and the provost for Pavilion residency. It then will consider the deans of the different schools in the order that they were founded. Lastly, the Board will consider full professors if there is no interest from vice presidents or deans.University nominees for Pavilion residency often turn down the opportunity, though, because of the expected lack of privacy, peace and quiet, Gilliam said. Current Pavilion VIII Upper Apartment resident, Economics Prof. Sarah Turner, however, called the Lawn a “peaceful place to live.” “There have not been more than three nights in five years that I’ve been woken up,” said Turner, whose Pavilion VIII apartment also will become vacant in 2010.The honor of living in a University Pavilion comes with the clear expectation that the tenant will be a “good Lawn citizen” — a phrase coined by Lawn residents, Gilliam said. Pavilion residents are expected to willingly and enthusiastically interact with students and open their homes. Turner said one of the greatest things about living on the Lawn is the ability to entertain students — jokingly adding that she never had, and probably will never again have, a 16-person dining room table.Pavilion VIII is unique in that it still embodies the original vision that Jefferson had for the Academical Village’s Pavilions, with classrooms and offices on the main floor and faculty living upstairs, Turner said. Pavilion VIII also is unique because residency in the two apartments is generally given to junior faculty members, unlike the other Pavilions, Gilliam added.Interested faculty members must apply to live in one of the two Pavilion VIII apartments in a process separate from the one used to decide the remaining Pavilions’ residents. Gilliam said the Board’s secretary recommends one applicant to be approved by a small committee, which includes the chair of the Faculty Senate and the winner of the Gray-Carrington award — a third-year student who may live on the Lawn the next year. The Terrace Apartment of Pavilion VIII currently is vacant and the Upper Apartment will become vacant in 2010, when Turner moves out.
(03/27/09 5:58am)
Education School Prof. Marcia Invernizzi and research scientist Karen Ford recently received a $1.6 million four-year grant to develop a reading assessment program for the increasing number of Spanish-speaking children in United States elementary schools.The grant, provided by the National Center for Education Research with support from the Department of Education, will help the pair create a tool capable of identifying Spanish-speaking children who are at risk for reading difficulties, Invernizzi said. “Previously, when you have a student who doesn’t speak English, or speaks it very well, and is having difficulty reading, you don’t know whether the problem is that they do not speak English or that they have difficulty with reading,” she said, adding that the future assessment tool should help teachers better understand this issue.Invernizzi and Ford will work together to develop Phonological Awareness Literacy Screening español, a Spanish language version of an already existing assessment tool to determine reading difficulties in elementary school students. This tool will screen U.S. Spanish-speaking students — kindergarten through third grade — in their native language. Throughout the next year, Ford and Invernizzi will develop tentative forms of the assessment. They will test phonological awareness — a student’s awareness of speech sounds, rhymes, and his ability to invent spellings for unknown words — and reading abilities.Ford said she hopes that this program will prevent Spanish-speaking U.S. students from getting lost in the education system. If “children are not reading well by third grade, the likelihood is that they will never catch up,” she said, noting that early identification and intervention is key.Invernizzi said the pair is creating a new program because there would be too many linguistic elements to change in the existing test to make it applicable to Spanish-speaking children. In addition, Ford noted that screening tests used in Spain or Mexico cannot be used because most U.S. Spanish-speaking children are bilingual and living in an English-dominated culture.“It would not be an equal assessment,” Invernizzi said.PALS español also will be used for placement of Spanish-speaking children when they first enter school systems, Invernizzi said. Invernizzi and Ford plan to begin testing the assessment tool in 10 different school divisions in Virginia and in several other school divisions nationwide by 2010, Ford said.
(03/26/09 5:38am)
Hunter J. Smith, a long-time University donor, recently pledged $10.7 million to the University’s McIntire Department of Music for the construction of a rehearsal hall.The building will provide an indoor practice space for the basketball band, concert band, wind ensemble and marching band, University spokesperson Carol Wood said.Because of the large size and physical constraints of Old Cabell Hall, the marching band has not been able to use the building. The band thus has been limited to outdoor practice.“If there is bad weather, that’s tough, and we usually cannot practice,” Director of Bands Bill Pease said, noting that a rehearsal hall will make practices more regular and eliminate “painful outdoor practices on cold November nights.”The building also will consist of “a large open room, a music library and facilities for changing,” Wood said.Most importantly, Pease said, “a rehearsal hall will give the kids an opportunity to improve and hone their skills.”Along with her late husband, Carl W. Smith, Mrs. Smith gave $1.5 million to launch the Cavalier Marching Band in 2003, helping with start-up costs for uniforms and instruments, Pease said. In addition to monetary funding, Smith supports the marching band by attending game performances and meeting with students.Construction of the rehearsal hall will begin within the next year and is expected to finish before summer 2011, according to a University press release. The hall will be located on the University’s Arts Common across from Ruffin Hall, the recently constructed studio art building. Wood said Smith wants the building to reflect the University’s traditional architecture.President John T. Casteen, III expressed his gratitude for the donation in the release, explaining that, “Hunter’s continued leadership and interest in the development of the band program will benefit not only generations of music students here at the University, but also thousands of loyal University supporters. We are once again indebted to her for her generosity and her creativity.”Smith and her late husband are among the University’s most generous donors, Wood said. In 1997, they contributed $23 million to the expansion of Scott Stadium. They also have contributed generous amounts to the Architecture, Law, Medical and Darden Schools; the Children’s Medical Center; historic preservation; the Jefferson Scholars Program; athletics; and the University’s College at Wise.
(03/17/09 5:22am)
Asst. Ophthalmology Prof. Paul Yates recently developed a new portable, inexpensive camera to take diagnostic images of the back of the eye, with help from second-year Engineering student Kenneth Tran. The new technology could help catch diabetes in early stages and bring more sophisticated eye care to third-world countries, Yates said.Yates explained that one of the first signs of diabetes is a breakdown of blood vessels in the retina, which can be detected in a photograph of the retina. Diabetics without regular screenings can develop diabetic retinopathy, sometimes leading to blindness. If retina cameras were cheaply made, primary care doctors could perform retina screenings regularly — potentially increasing the early detection of diabetes.The new retina camera could also have a “huge impact on international ophthalmology,” Yates said. “A number of groups fly in to provide eyewear to remote locations. These places often do not have power outlets necessary for the current models to operate.”Furthermore, current portable models have power packs that weigh several pounds, Yates said, noting that the new model is no more than a couple of pounds.Current retina cameras range between $15,000 and $100,000, Yates said, but the newly designed camera likely will cost between $1,000 and $1,500. The camera’s simple design will also make it easier for “typical nursing staff, as opposed to trained retinal photographers” to operate the camera, Tran said.Tran and Yates acknowledged, however, that the new model makes some sacrifices for its lower price and portability.“The image quality is not as good, but the point is, it doesn’t have to be for what its use is,” Yates said, because an initial diagnosis does not require anything more complex.Yates first determined that there was a need for a simple camera while completing his residency in 2002. In the ophthalmology emergency room, he saw a patient at 3 a.m., called the doctor at home and had difficulty explaining what he saw. The simplest solution, Yates said, would have been “taking a picture of the back of the eye with a slightly specialized digital camera and e-mailing it to the doctor.” Six years later, though, no one had developed the technology.Yates’s initial 2005 prototype did not have commercial potential, he said. After Yates shelved the project for a few years, Tran — who described himself as an experienced photographer — started helping with the project.Most importantly, however, he had an “unbridled enthusiasm for the project,” Yates said.Tran said his sense of motivation not only benefited the project, but also his own University experience.“[This project] has definitely made my experience at U.Va. very fulfilling,” Tran said, adding that “even someone with no prior experience or knowledge [about a project] can make big contributions as long as they are interested and motivated.”The University’s Institutional Review Board for Social and Behavioral Sciences and the Food and Drug Administration have yet to approve the camera. Nevertheless, Yates expects that it may be only 18 months until the new retina camera is available.
(02/11/09 7:06am)
The Virginia Press Association recently named former Gov. Gerald Baliles, current director of the University’s Miller Center of Public Affairs, the 2009 “Virginian of the Year”. The VPA awarded Baliles the title because of the “great leadership he has given to the state for each role he has been in,” VPA Executive Director Ginger Stanley said. He cited Baliles’ service in the House of Delegates from 1976 to 1982, Attorney General from 1982 to 1985 and as governor from 1986 to 1990 as examples of his leadership and devotion to the commonwealth.Baliles was chosen by a committee of journalists that select an award recipient annually based on a candidate’s “most recent accomplishments or an accumulation of accomplishments in which the candidate brought favorability to themselves or the state of Virginia [on a national scale],” Stanley said.Alan Murray, a founding Board member of the Miller Center and the current deputy managing editor of the Wall Street Journal, added that Baliles has brought national recognition to the Virginia by bridging academics and government through his post at the Miller Center. “He has done a great job of bringing the Miller Center and Charlottesville closer to Washington, D.C. and engaging in issues of national importance, which is what the Miller Center was set up to do,” Murray said. Baliles also challenged political norms by “consistently call[ing] for a national dialogue that reaches across both parties,” during a time of “increasing partisan bitterness and strife,” Murray said. Since becoming the Miller Center director in April 2006, Baliles has gathered national leaders to debate critical domestic and international topics with the aim of finding resolutions.Baliles stands out from other Virginia governors because of his “consistent stance on an open government,” Stanley said, adding that Baliles helped keep government records and meetings open to the public.As a longtime friend and colleague of the former governor, Virginia Supreme Court Justice Elizabeth Lacy said Baliles put “public service at a very high premium.” While he has always been concerned with all aspects of public life, Baliles significantly improved transportation infrastructure and revenues and increased expectations for elementary and secondary school educators, Lacy said.Lacy added that Baliles also was “instrumental in expanding diversity” in Virginia government. In addition to appointing Lacy as the first female to the Virginia Supreme Court, Baliles appointed Leroy Hassell as the first black justice to the state Supreme Court, paving the way for Hassell to become the first black Chief Justice of the Virginia Supreme Court.To honor Baliles as its Virginian of the Year, the VPA will host a joint banquet with the Associated Press March 20 at the Norfolk Waterside Marriott. In a prepared statement, Baliles said he was honored to have been chosen by the VPA for the award.“The list of accomplished Virginians recognized by the VPA includes leaders who have worked with the Miller Center to further its public service mission, and others whose far-ranging achievements have contributed to our lives,” Baliles said according to the statement. “It is a privilege to join their ranks.”
(02/09/09 7:26am)
New research conducted at the University has identified a genetic variant that could explain why some people drink more heavily than others.University Psychiatry Prof. Ming Li and University Psychiatric Medicine Chair Bankole Johnson tested six different genetic variants of the serotonin transporter gene — the gene known to affect the drinking intensity of alcoholics. The pair found that one of the six variants of the gene, known as SLC6A4, is significantly associated with drinking intensity, which is defined as the amount of alcohol an individual consumes per day.The study, published this month in Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, examined a total of 275 white and Latino subjects classified as alcoholics in 2008. An alcoholic was defined as a woman who consumes at least 21 drinks per week or as a man who consumes at least 30 drinks per week. The two researchers concluded that white males carrying one DNA sequence variation turned out to be heavier drinkers than those carrying a different variation. “If this finding is replicated by other independent studies, we might be able to target this specific variant to treat alcoholics,” Li said, noting that the isolation of the gene could lead to further advancements in the care and rehabilitation of alcoholic patients. Li added that previous studies have shown that the serotogenic system of the brain regulates the rewarding effects of alcohol. More specifically, the serotonin transporter allows neurons to accumulate serotonin — the neurotransmitter that helps regulate emotions and drives. The genetic mutation of the serotonin transporter identified in this study might predispose some individuals to alcohol dependency.With this in mind, Johnson said he hopes the team’s findings will help researchers discover a way to “screen individuals [for this genetic mutation] to determine who may be at risk for severe drinking.”Li said the findings of this study support previous conclusions that the an alcoholic’s brain operates differently from those of non-alcoholics on a fundamental level. He said he expects it will take about two more years, though, to confirm that the genetic variant identified in this study influences drinking intensity.