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Tom Wolfe will be the Valedictory Speaker for this year's graduation festivities, according to University Relations. Wolfe will speak May 20 during Finals Weekend 2006. Fourth Year Trustees President Jordan Levy said the Fourth Year Trustees committee chooses the valediction speaker and that the ceremony is unique in its connection to students. "The students get to run [this ceremony] rather than graduation," Levy said.
The Office of the Dean of Students called University Police to intervene when passers-by complained of disruptive behavior from religious demonstrators on Grounds Monday morning. University Police ordered the group to relocate, to not block the pathways and to tone down their demonstrations. The demonstrators, all members of the Woroniecki family, held large canvas posters bearing religious slogans such as, "SATAN RULES!
After six years of service to Charlottesville, the City's Director of Communications Maurice Jones will resign in October to join the staff at the University's Miller Center of Public Affairs. "I am going to be the new director of major gifts for the Miller Center," Jones said.
Virginia Blood Services kicked off the second-annual Crimson War Challenge yesterday among student concern regarding regulations governing blood donation from gay and bisexual men.
The University Judiciary Committee voted unanimously to replace the Sexual Assault Subcommittee with a sexual assault liaison Sunday night. According to sexual assault subcommittee Chair Derek Yeung, this liaison will be a single individual who will attend Sexual Assault Board meetings and keep the UJC informed of its actions. "We're trying to maintain UJC contact with the Sexual Assault Board and the rest of the University community," Yeung said. According to Yeung, the vote is the result of changes made to the Sexual Assault Board constitution last spring, which ended the Board's use of UJC investigators. "Now all investigation is done by people appointed by the Sexual Assault Board," Yeung said. Before last spring, UJC investigators helped the SAB examine cases. "As the Sexual Assault Board became more autonomous, our investigators stopped being a part of that process," UJC Chair Tim Ormsby said. Although sexual assault technically falls under the first Standard of Conduct of the UJC, cases of sexual assault are all forwarded to the SAB, Ormsby said. "Sexual Assault became its own issue, and the SAB has jurisdiction over that," Ormsby said. Because the Sexual Assault Subcommittee no longer coordinates the investigation of sexual assaults it became unnecessary, Ormsby said. "It didn't make sense for it to be a subcommittee anymore," Ormsby said. Yeung is currently serving as temporary liaison and, according to Ormsby, Yueng will most likely be appointed to the official post. "Derek is going to serve as liaison, he's been doing a good job," Ormsby said. The dissolution of the subcommittee does not constitute a change in the by-laws of the UJC because the subcommittee's existence is not mentioned in them, Ormsby said. "In no way does it mean that we're not interested in being a part of this discussion," he said.
The full Board of Visitors gathered in Madison Hall before Saturday's home football game to approve the six-year institutional financial plan and delegate final negotiations of the University's proposed Management Agreement with Gov.
The Educational Policy Committee of the Board of Visitors met Friday afternoon to discuss changing demographics at the University.
University students and administrators distributed 60,000 black ribbons over the weekend as part of an administration-led, week-long campaign to unify the community. Last Friday, 10,000 black ribbons were distributed to places around Grounds where students could pick them up, including the University Health System, the Law School, the Darden School, the Newcomb Hall information desk and Observatory Hill Dining Hall, University spokesperson Carol Wood said. The remaining 50,000 were distributed at Scott Stadium by student and faculty volunteers with small cards that explained the purpose of the ribbons. Volunteers also wore orange T-shirts with a black ribbon on the front and a similar message promoting unity on the back.
Two male University students were assaulted by unknown attackers in two separate incidents near the Corner early Sunday morning, according toCharlottesville Police. The police reported that three black males punched one of the students in the face at approximately 2 a.m.
The Board of Visitors Committee on External Affairs held a meeting Friday regarding the status of the Development Office's efforts to raise $3 billion in the upcoming Capital Campaign.
As both the University and its cross-state cousin Virginia Tech negotiate appropriations agreements with the governor, Virginia Tech's Math Emporium, a technologically-based alternative to traditional classroom lectures, highlights the different approach to mathematical education the University has taken from its Blacksburg counterpart in using state funds. As student-teacher interactions at the University were shown to be at a low compared to peer institutions in a recent survey by the Office of the Dean of Students, the Emporium also offers an alternative to current teaching practices at the University. The Emporium encompasses six introductory math courses and supplements an additional six in the application of mathematic concepts, as well as gaining national recognition for its innovative technology, according to Virginia Tech Mathematics Prof.
Scientific creativity is now an oxymoron. Wonder is systematically driven from the minds of students in favor of rote memorization and blind adherence to dogma.
The Charlottesville Oil Co. initiated a cleanup of petroleum-contaminated soil on Ivy Road last Wednesday, according to the Daily Progress.
With Hurricane Rita expected to make landfall this weekend in Texas, University students are preparing for potential disaster. Students from Texas said they have had difficulty getting in contact with their families back home. "It's difficult to get in touch of them because the cell lines are down and the land lines are backed up because everyone is calling their families," second-year College student Connor Booth said.
The Internet search engine Google is facing a class action lawsuit filed by the Authors Guild in response to Google's attempt to scan collections of books from several university libraries into its database. According to the Authors Guild, Google began to work with the libraries of Harvard, Stanford, the University of Michigan and the University of Oxford, as well as the New York Public Library, in Dec.
New legislation intended to regulate radiation exposure introduced by the European Union will drastically decrease the use of MRI scans to diagnose and treat patients in EU countries, experts claim. The new rules, set to become law in 2008, are part of the European Union Physical Agents Directive, according to The Guardian.
The Information Technology and Communications Office has significantly increased the Home Directory quota for all students, faculty and staff from a range of 75 to 125 megabytes to a new capacity of one gigabyte, or 1,000 megabytes. Home Directory is an online storage service run by ITC.
ITC officials have stepped up computer security at the University after numerous students have received e-mails containing viruses.
