Charlottesville City Council tentatively approved a real estate tax rate of 97 cents for every $100 at Wednesday's meeting.
More than 30 Lawn residents put "For Sale" signs on their doors yesterday in response to the possibility that Bob Sweeney, senior vice president for development and public affairs, is being considered by the Board of Visitors for Lawn pavilion residency. Lawn resident A-J Aronstein said the signs are the expression of many Lawn residents' concerns about both the pavilion selection process and Sweeney as a potential resident.
Gov. Tim Kaine proposed an amendment yesterday which would ban smoking in commonwealth restaurants.
Environmental Sciences Prof. Todd Scanlon recently received a research grant from the National Science Foundation that will allow him to further his research on the problem of toxic emissions in Virginia. Elizabeth VanderPutten, chair of the National Science Foundation's CAREER Coordinating Committee, said the $449,000 award is meant to encourage younger faculty to pursue research and community education. "We consider this award to be the most prestigious award to young faculty by NSF [and] we expect the awardees to be the leading teacher-scholars over the next generation," VanderPutten said. Scanlon said he will use the grant money to research nitrous oxide emissions as part of the Long-Term Ecological Research project at the University's Virginia Coast Reserve research station on the Eastern Shore. Scanlon said nitrous oxide damages the ozone layer and is more potent as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. "Where we're taking these measurements is in an agricultural watershed where there are fertilizer applications that result in elevated nitrogen levels and when the nitrogen gets broken down, this is where we get nitrous oxide emissions occurring," Scanlon said. Scanlon said he will also research methyl mercury accumulation in the ecosystem at Shenandoah National Park. "In areas where we wouldn't expect to see too much mercury, scientists have found elevated concentrations of mercury due to atmospheric deposition," Scanlon said.
University Law Prof. Robert Turner and former Sen. Mike Gravel, D-Alaska, participated in a debate about the parallels between the war inIraq and the war in Vietnam.
Statistics profiling the 47 students chosen to live in non-endowed Lawn rooms and the 287 Lawn applicants were recently released by the University Housing Division.
Recent reports of attacks on two openly gay law students at Washington & Lee University, one of whom is a University graduate, have resulted in criticism of Washington & Lee's response to the incident. Diane Meier, a second-year Washington & Lee law student and one of the openly gay students who said she was verbally and physically abused, described attacks against a fellow law student, who has chosen to remain anonymous. Meier said last Saturday her friend was walking home from a party where he had been verbally attacked.
Charlottesville Circuit Court Judge Norman K. Moon is expected to hand down a final order to close the case of Dena Bowers v.
The University Judiciary Committee elected third-year College student Connor Sullivan as chair of its executive board in its elections last night. Additional members of the executive board include second-year College student Merriam Mikhail as vice chair for first years, second-year Law student Seth Ragosta as vice chair for trials and third-year College student Dean de la Peña as vice chair for sanctions. "The new Committee is made up of a very talented and dedicated group," outgoing chair Raleigh Anne Blank said.
The Faculty Senate held a working session yesterday where members focused on faculty titles, the Commission on the Future of the University and the role of faculty in the process of creating new schools and initiatives within the University. During the fall semester, Provost Gene Block approached the Academic Affairs Committee and asked that they review the issue of non-tenured faculty members holding professional titles, according to Faculty Senate Chair Kenneth Schwartz. "What is confusing is that when you give people the same title it becomes unclear as to what defines a professor," Schwartz said. According to Medical School Prof.
Student Council approved a bill last night resolving recent uncertainty concerning what qualifications students must meet to serve on Council.
An Architecture School faculty member and class recently received an award from Charlottesville's Planning Commission recognizing the architecture class's work in helping to create an environmental chapter for the city's Comprehensive Plan. The 2007 Eldon Fields Wood Design Professional of the Year Award will go to Karen Firehock, a senior associate at the University's Institute for Environmental Negotiation, and the students in her graduate planning class for adding an environmental focus to the city's planning, according to Charlottesville Environmental Administrator Kristel Riddervold. Firehock said the class, "Green Cities, Green Lands," teaches students the basic principles of environmental planning. "The city needed assistance in writing an environmental chapter for the new Comprehensive Plan," Firehock said. With this in mind, Firehock said her class investigated how to best protect the city's streams by adding wooden buffers and how to change the trail network to improve animal pathways. The class looked at the tree canopy for the whole city, using aerial photos to identify all the trees in the city, and found the city has 31.4 percent tree canopy coverage, Firehock said. According to Firehock, this percentage is much lower than the 40 percent coverage recommended by the National Arbor Day Foundation.
Reflecting on his time at the University and reminding students to cherish their experience, College Dean Ed Ayers gave his final lecture to a packed Old Cabell Hall auditorium last night.
With 48 Native American students attending the University as of last fall, Native Americans make up less than one percent of the school's population.
A recent study conducted at Princeton University reported that "legacy students admitted with lower than average SAT scores to elite institutions have higher drop-out rates and significantly lower grades than minority students and athletes," according to Steven Barnes, spokesperson for the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. The survey was based on a sample of students from 28 U.S.
A change to the Pavilion Assignment policy at last month's Board of Visitor's meeting would enable Bob Sweeney, senior vice president for development and public affairs, to reside in one of pavilions soon eligible for reassignment.
The Charlottesville Transit System is introducing several changes to improve Charlottesville's public transportation routes and services, including a decision to allow members of the University to ride CTS buses at no charge and yesterday's opening of a new downtown transit station. According to Charlottesville Transit Service Manager Bill Watterson, "because congestion has grown, the CTS routes have experienced delays and unnecessary duplicate routes." These changes come in compliance with a transit report published last August that enumerates several suggestions to improve the public transportation system for Charlottesville residents. The report included a suggestion to eliminate the free trolley routes along McCormick and Alderman Roads.
