Alumnus Frank Batten recently gave a $100 million donation to our fine University to establish a school of "leadership and public policy." Let me be the first to say... we don't want a school of leadership and public policy.
So this is it ladies and gentlemen, the final column of my illustrious writing career. It all began in third grade when a piece I had written about tiger poaching was published in Florida Keys Magazine.
In the wake of yesterday's tragedy, many University students felt unable to help their peers at Virginia Tech.
To the University Community: The shootings this morning at Virginia Tech have turned a seemingly normal day into one filled with grief and disbelief.
The wind howling in the quad of Old Dorms was strong enough to prevent students from lighting their candles as they took part in a vigil for those affected by the tragedy of Virginia Tech. Instead, organizers and first-year College students Katie Welch and Chelsea Cantrell asked the students to move behind Emmet dormitory and form a circle. "Close your eyes and brace yourself against the wind," Cantrell said. For the roughly 80 students in attendance, bracing against the wind meant different things. "I am here because I am hoping to find peace from community," third-year College student Laura Woolley said.
Whistle wind! Embrace the lost. Send spirits with loud moans. Silence radiant flowers. Break still order like our rage. Hum hair before low faces, Liquid tangles blown below. Hide eyes from icy sunlight, Bright bullets slice the soul. Cut power cut exposing lights There's nothing to be seen. Crumple trees' blanketing leaves And dismiss whatever's green. Drown smiling drown laughter With the honesty of loss. Take, wind, our silent prayers And the torrent wave of thoughts. Pound windows, fling the darkness down Let each feel each's chill. Make haughty grass bow down its stalk And mourn for all those killed.
College life is expensive. Well, OK -- it doesn't have to be pricey, if you currently reside in a sub-letted Clemons cubicle, as I do.
If the skies opened up and someone dropped $115 million dollars into my lap, I could think of 115 million different ways to spend it.
D r. Donald R. Erbschloe remembers leaving the University like any other student. He had a bachelor's in math and physics, a high admiration for the honor code and respect for professors that impacted and inspired him. But when he returned to Grounds April 3 to speak to Air Force ROTC cadets, Erbschloe came with an extensive education and experience from his Air Force career. Major George Dowdy, University commandant of cadets, invited Erbschloe to speak to the cadets because his career after leaving the University has taken him from the battlefield to the office, making him a valuable resource for cadets, especially those majoring in the technical fields. Erbschloe is the current chief scientist, Air Mobility Command, Scott Air Force Base.
Vandalism/ damage /destruction of property: RESTRICTED VICTIM of Vandalism/damage/destruction Of Property (C), at John St, Charlottesville, VA, between 01:30, 04/08/2007 and 05:30, 04/08/2007.
You wake up. Your alarm clock shows 7 a.m., but you are oddly awake and alert. You recognize this behavior is weird, even if you do consider yourself to be a morning person.
Every spring, hundreds of male students rush to join fraternities. But, as they walk up and down Rugby Road in search of their new band of brothers, they are not likely to visit Alpha Kappa Psi -- this group isn't your typical fraternity. Don't be fooled by the Greek letters -- while other fraternities recruit males and don't necessarily talk about academics at their meetings, Alpha Kappa Psi is the University's business fraternity and its brothers are both male and female. According to Alyssa Guo, former president and current brother, Alpha Kappa Psi is "the largest coed professional business fraternity in the nation." Alpha Kappa Psi was founded in 1904 and incorporated in 1905 at New York University, according to current president John Sweeney. He said the fraternity's original unifying force was concern about the lack of business curriculum available at colleges and universities. "Most universities focused heavily on liberal arts, and you had to pursue other avenues if you wanted to go into business," Sweeney said. Today, even with the prominence of the Commerce School at the University, the fraternity's goals are still "advancing and promoting business courses at universities" according to Sweeney. The University's Alpha Gamma chapter was started in 1921 and has since been hosting business and social events.
Monticello Curatorial Assistant Jodi Frederiksen was sifting through various artifacts during the course of the painstaking job of cataloging nails, bricks and other such objects when she came across something unusual: tin-plated iron shingles from Monticello's dome, dating back to Jeffersonian times, with signatures scratched into them.
Earlier this week, thanks to the wonders of DNA testing, Larry Birkhead was proven to be the true father of Anna Nicole's baby.
University students and aged NPR listeners alike gathered last Friday to hear best-selling humorist David Sedaris speak of his life in Tokyo, love for "The Zombie Survival Guide" and his unlikely friendship with a convicted child molester.
As finals draw closer, we are con-fronted more than ever by the funda-mental problem of student life here at the University: how to put off our work as long as possible without flunking out of school. I like to think I'm a pretty good procrastinator.
How many speakers have come to the University and asked their audiences to do warm-up exercises? Out of those who may have, how many ask audience members to find partners they do not know, take their faces in their hands, look them in the eye and say, "I love you?" Probably just one -- Dr. Patch Adams -- when the world-renowned, clown-nose-wearing doctor spoke in Old Cabell Hall March 30. As students filed in for "An Evening with Patch Adams," some may have been surprised that the man standing on stage looked different from Robin Williams's character in the movie.
It's April. It's that time of year when showers prepare to bring flowers, when college basketball ends and baseball begins and when 90 degree days are quickly followed by snow in Central Virginia.
If you're like me, you're probably extremely concerned about your level of personal safety in Charlottesville.
The chances are pretty low that in a given week you and your friends will discuss immigration, the political interests of youth in other countries, the place of civil rights activism in current affairs and the importance of building connections with students of other ethnic backgrounds. But sparking dialogue about rarely discussed topics was exactly the point of the University's second-annual Latino Awareness Week, held March 19 to March 23. LAW was organized by La Alianza Coalition of Hispanic/Latino Leaders, an umbrella organization that includes groups such as the Latino Student Union and the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers.
