[caption id="attachment_38963" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Even as the University's budget remains tight, the eighth president promised not to jeopardize the jobs of any employees.
[caption id="attachment_38961" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Although Honor Committee members hoped to see higher turnout at the mock trials, they still believe the sessions provided a good opportunity for students interesting in learning about the system.
[caption id="attachment_38959" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Student Council worked to address safety concerns this semester in light of a spree of criminal activity committed against students near Grounds.
The University Judiciary Committee will end the semester after making several changes to case processing procedure, offering new education initiatives and achieving racial parity with the student body for the second year in a row. UJC's most vigorous effort has involved cutting delays for trials to ensure that cases are handled within an appropriate amount of time after they are filed. UJC Chair Will Bane said although the time-table modifications are internal in nature and not immediately obvious to the student body, there have been significant decreases in case processing time. "It does have a great effect for the accused students who go through our system who are having their cases tried two or three weeks after an offense occurs as opposed to two or three months after the offense occurs," Bane said. Trial statistics will be released in March, which will allow UJC and the student body to examine exactly how the case processing procedure has been affected. Vice Chair for Trials Halley Epstein said her focus has been on accountability in scheduling, which begins with consulting both parties to determine a convenient trial date.
[caption id="attachment_38892" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="The University will continue expansion of on-Grounds facilities, such as housing for students, in wake of possible enrollment increases.
The University's capital campaign, an effort to raise $3 billion by Dec. 31, 2011, is entering its final stretch. The campaign is currently behind schedule despite having secured more than $2.2 billion since its inception at the start of 2004.
The University received a 'D' grade this semester for the amount of core courses it requires for graduation from the American Council of Trustees and Alumni. ACTA's study - which graded more than 700 universities - entitled "What Will They Learn?" spanned the past two years and assessed the schools in seven areas - composition, literature, foreign language, U.S.
The Federal Communications Commission unveiled last week a plan to retool the nation's emergency response system to allow for alerts in more forms than the traditional 911 phone call.
The Inter-Sorority Council and the Multicultural Greek Council recently held elections for their respective executive boards for the upcoming term. The ISC elected Alexis Tarbet as president, Katie Beyer as vice president of the judiciary, Leah Truitt as vice president of administration and Kendall Galant as vice president of recruitment. Meanwhile, the MGC elected Chufan Zhai as president, Nathan Park as vice president, Huyen-Trang Thai as treasurer, Esther Na as parliamentarian and Jessica Andrews as representative for the Inter-Greek Council. Both groups' executive board members will begin their terms next semester. Tarbet, a third-year Commerce student, emphasized her enthusiasm for the coming year of sorority affairs.
[caption id="attachment_38834" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Student Council met last night to discuss a program allowing students to walk instead of ride home with a trained safety official.
Charlottesville and Albemarle County will receive state funding to expand the area's prisoner re-entry initiatives, local officials announced Monday. Some of the funding, which will come from the Second Chance Act, will go toward hiring a case manager who will work out of Offender Aid and Restoration. "At OAR, the re-entry program has been around for 40 years," Re-Entry Program Manager Jason Ness said.
Virginia officials have submitted the state's revised plan to fix the Chesapeake Bay watershed, meeting the Environmental Protection Agency's Nov.
[caption id="attachment_38830" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="McCormick Road participants in this year's First Year Dorm Energy Challenge managed a dramatic 19-percent decrease in energy consumption from last year's residents.
The Supreme Court rejected an appeal yesterday from the Richmond Federal Appeals Court addressing a regulation issued by the Virginia Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission banning advertisements for alcoholic beverages in college newspapers.
[caption id="attachment_38777" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="The Charlottesville-Albemarle Airport uses magnetometers rather than the full- body scanners that the TSA is requiring in major airports to scan for materials.
Despite a nationwide trend of increased doctorate degrees being awarded, the University has seen a decrease in awards during the past few years. The number of doctorate degrees awarded to candidates from schools in the United States increased from 48,763 in 2008 to 49,562 in 2009, a rise of 1.6 percent, according to a recent survey by the National Science Foundation.
The nonprofit organization WikiLeaks published the first of a large cache of confidential communications between the United States State Department and embassies in more than 250 foreign countries last Sunday.
The Student Council Diversity Initiatives Committee has established Hooliday Dining, a new program to provide food and entertainment for students who will remain on Grounds for Thanksgiving Break. As part of the program, The Crossroads at Observatory Hill Dining Hall will continue to serve students during the break and also will allow students to use meal plan swipes for the first time, said Aquiles Damiron, manager of the Hooliday Dining taskforce.
[caption id="attachment_38723" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Much like other schools, the University's Office of Admissions, located in Peabody Hall, above, has seen an increasing amount of applications recently.
[caption id="attachment_38721" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Many of the books that were housed in the Ivy Stacks have been placed in boxes located across Grounds and the state of Virginia, such as these stored in Alderman Library.
