Serving the University Community Since 1890
The Office of the Architect for the University announced a new home for performing and visual arts on Grounds late last week.
Members of the University's division of the National Pan-Hellenic Council, formerly known as the Black Fraternal Council, revised its executive board structure yesterday when the outgoing and recently elected officers met. Instead of having two co-chairs and a vice chair, the University's NPHC now has one president and two vice presidents.
After over a year of conducting research to evaluate possible improvements to the Charlottesville Transit Service, BMI-SG Transportation Planning presented their suggested changes to City Council last night. Proposed changes for the next year include adding buses to increase reliability but not changing the routes. "The problem is that the buses are caught in congestion," said Frank Spielberg, P.E.
Faculty members can take a more active role in curbing the rising number of mental health problems among students by being attentive to academic performance and being open to students' personal concerns, Dean of Students Penny Rue said. This semester, Rue and Russ Federman, director of the Counseling Center with U.Va.
In a press conference yesterday afternoon, Virginia athletic director Craig Littlepage officially announced former DePaul University coach Dave Leitao as the next men's basketball coach.
Approximately 200 prospective students attended Spring Fling over the weekend, marking unusually high attendance for the annual event initiated in the 1970s to attract African-American students to the University. The weekend was designed to give the prospective students a first-hand experience of University life. "The weekend helped give prospective students an idea of what our experience here as students is like," said third-year Engineering student Isaac Agbeshie-Noye, who serves on the Black Student Admissions Committee in the Office of Admissions.
The Honor Committee last night heard a proposal for an Honor representatives system which would assign each department at least one Representative to act as a contact point for students' honor concerns.
The Corner district has observed increasing Department of Alcohol and Beverage Control activity in recent weeks in response to the efforts of a new ABC officer to fully enforce regulations and have a greater presence in the area. Recently, restaurant owners have met the new officer and worked to improve compliance, including the elimination of post-dinner-hour drink specials and the use of more stringent criteria when checking IDs.
This year's annual Derby Days fundraiser, organized by the Sigma Chi fraternity, placed a greater emphasis on the philanthropic value of the event than in previous years. The changes came in response to concerns that last year's Derby Days fueled competitive conduct among the Inter-Sorority Council chapters and the sororities' desire to ensure compliance with national regulations. ISC President Christina Valencia said the changes included switching the scavenger hunt and Mr. Derby Days pageant to a trivia night and a lip sync competition. The event's tone also was impacted by its increased focus on philanthropy. "Overall, the biggest changes were in the activities in that they were focused on the philanthropy aspect so that the houses could focus on coming together for a cause," Sigma Kappa President Katie Leavitt said. Sigma Chi has made steps toward decreasing the atmosphere of rivalry by emphasizing entire chapter involvement as opposed to participation from the pledge class, according to Valencia. "Hazing can be broadly defined as doing something as a group that others do not have to do, so scavenger hunts go against national policies," Valencia said.
Spirituality is a top concern among college freshman, according to the results of a survey regarding college students' attitudes about spirituality and religion recently released. The survey, prepared by the Higher Education Research Institute of the University of California at Los Angeles, found that more than three-quarters of freshmen are looking for meaning in life.
A new program recently was established to help first-year students find their niche at the University through the aid of a mentor. Adopt a First Year, a mentoring program started by second-year College student Elizabeth Tran, connects first years with upperclassmen who have matching academic, extracurricular and other personal interests. While mentoring programs in previous years have focused more on minority students, the program is the first attempt to broaden mentoring opportunities to the entire first-year class.
The National Collegiate Athletic Association's Division I Management Council approved proposals Tuesday for an extended football season and more scholarship opportunities for female athletes. The possibility of adding one game to the Division I-A and I-AA football schedule was contested only by the Atlantic Coast Conference, the conference to which the University belongs. "People in other conferences wanted to do it because it offers the prospect of higher revenue," said Jack Evans, faculty athletic representative at University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and ACC representative to the Management Council.
Years of treading on the Earth's surface beneath our feet has led the human race to take for granted the power that our rock holds.
A bill was presented to Congress Tuesday that would pay the interest on student loans for graduates who work in a math or science job, including teaching, for at least five years. The Math and Science Incentive Act, which was presented in the House by U.S.
Whether it is one general ability "g" or a variety of context-dependent intelligences, the nature of intelligence has been an elusive concept to clearly define.
In an appropriations appeals hearing held Tuesday night, fewer than 10 percent of the University's nearly 360 Contracted Independent Organizations appealed the appropriations allotted to them by Student Council this semester, according to Rebecca Keyworth, Council vice president for organizations. During the first round of appeals, representatives from five CIOs unsatisfied with the amount of money appropriated to them April 4, presented an appeals to the main representative body of the Council. The appealing CIOs sought funding for valued items that had been excluded from their operational or activity budgets by the Council appropriations committee during the committee's deliberations in late March and early April. Problems that most CIOs found with their allocations from Council were dealt with prior to the appeals because some of the financial discrepancies stemmed from minor oversights on the part of the allocations committee, Keyworth said. Other CIOs were denied funding for certain line items -- items cut from CIO budgets by the Appropriations Committee -- and resorted to appealing their allocations before Council. The Media, Entertainment and Sports Club at Darden, one of the CIOs to appear before Council Tuesday night, sought funding to extend its Web site to include an electronic database, which would include contact information for high-profile speakers and thus streamline event planning for club officers who change every year, club President Ken Zamkow said. "We wanted all this knowledge to be preserved and to not disappear," Zamkow said. Members of the club were concerned that certain items proposed by CIOs are "categorically denied" by the Appropriations Committee. Despite this concern, Zamkow said he believed Council fully debated all proposed items after finishing the opening statements and question-and-answer sessions with the CIOs. Other CIOs present Tuesday night included AGAPE and the Virginia Women's Chorus. Council will inform appealing CIOs whether or not their line items will receive funding within the next few days. A second round of appeals will be held next Tuesday, during which Keyworth said she expects five to 10 more CIO's to present appeals for their unfunded line items.
Varsity Hall was transported to a permanent location near Hospital Drive Saturday. The move took about eight months to prepare for and about eight hours to complete, according to University Architect David Neuman.
