News

College Board to offer diversity guideliness

After the University of Michigan affirmative action cases in 2003, the College Board decided to form a diversity collaborative group in order to assist colleges and universities nationwide in making legally and educationally sound policies on financial aid, recruitment and admissions. The manual on financial aid is scheduled to be released in mid-April to all College Board member universities, including the University, said Gretchen Rigol, College Board consultant and coordinator for the diversity collaborative. "We want to make [the manual] available as widely as we possibly can," Rigol said. The volume, entitled "Federal Law and Financial Aid: A framework for evaluating diversity related programs," is the first of three such manuals the College Board plans to release from now until 2006. While some University officials said they will reference the manual, they said the University is focused on a different type of financial aid diversity that falls within federal and state guidelines. "We and the General Counsel believe federal law prohibits this Office from using race as a factor in awarding aid," Financial Aid Office Director Yvonne Hubbard said.

Council amends attendance guidelines

At their meeting last night, Council unanimously passed both a bill amending Council's attendance policy and a resolution that respectfully recognizes the death of Commerce School Dean Ellen Marie Whitener, who died March 22 from meningitis. The bill that amended the attendance policy in the Council's bylaws established new attendance policies for Council members at their regular Tuesday meetings. Council tabled four bills for a week to be voted on next Tuesday as is standard procedure. The first of these bills is a resolution recommending revisions to the online course evaluation data collection procedure. Council also tabled a resolution to implement other forms of student identification instead of using a student's social security number. "The system is kind of old," Council Vice President of Administration Greg Jackson said. The bill, sponsored by Jackson, Vice President of Organizations Rebecca Keyworth and College rep.

Asian Student Union elects new officers

The Asian Student Union elected new officers last night. Michael Tan was elected vice president for organizations, Yasha Mathur was elected secretary, Drew Austria was elected president, Julie Chen was elected vice president for administration and Rohan Shewakramani was elected treasurer.

Report on City police highlights race issues

A special Charlottesville grand jury has made six recommendations for improving relations between the City Police Department and the community, particularly African-Americans.

Early action applications decrease nationally

The number of colleges across the country that reported decreasing numbers of students applying through early action has nearly quadrupled, jumping from 10 percent in 2003 to 37 percent in 2004, according to the State of College Admission report, released this month by the National Association of College Admissions Counseling. The reason fewer students are using the early action processes offered by a number of colleges is unclear, said Jessica Lautz, Research Assistant with NACAC and co-author of the report. Additional research will have to be conducted about these results, including more detailed questions pertaining to early action on this year's survey, Lautz said.

THE CALM AFTER THE STORM

UTS set to begin extended bus service trial

The University Transit Service will offer weekend late-night service in a new pilot program, which will run for four weekends, beginning April 7. "We found that there was a great need for transportation for Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights," said Clayton Powers, Department of Transportation co-chair for the Student Council Student Life Committee.

Student fans could receive priority seating

The Student Council Athletics Affairs Committee will propose a resolution tonight for the creation of a student-fan group called the Hoo Crew. Members of the Hoo Crew will benefit from being able to sit together in a reserved priority seating section during all basketball and football home games. "It has been a big problem when gates open because people who are rushing and fighting for the good seats in the front rows have been injured," said Student Council Engineering representative Keith Favreau, who sponsored the resolution proposing the Hoo Crew. The creation of the Hoo Crew will help eliminate the dangerous rush for seating because member fans will be guaranteed a premier seat, Favreau said. Other advantages of becoming a member of the Hoo crew will include eating dinners with coaches and players and going on road trips for away games, Favreau said. "Hoo Crew will be the result of a lot of hard work to create tangible benefits for students and holding fans accountable for their attendance," Council Executive Vice President Whitney Garrison said. In addition to enhancing fan seating at home games, the main purpose of the Hoo Crew is to increase student involvement and promote school spirit, Favreau said. "The Hoo Crew will improve the appearance of UVA Athletics so that everyone will have on the same T-shirt and be unified in their cheers," he said. The Hoo Crew will be a powerful publicity tool for the University, said Graham Tucker, Council Athletic Affairs Committee chair. "I really and truly feel that this will change the University as a whole, not just our athletics," Tucker said.

Warner signs historic environment bills

Gov. Mark R. Warner signed eight pieces of environmental legislation into law this week, setting aside over $100 million for land and water protection, including the improvement of the Chesapeake Bay. Warner spokesperson Ellen Qualls said the amount is the most that any legislature has set aside for environmental funding in the Commonwealth's history. Qualls said the effort was bipartisan, but the process of finalizing the various bills was long and arduous. "You have to bring together not only Republicans and Democrats, but business groups and environmentalists," Qualls said. She added that the Chesapeake Bay is a serious historic issue for the state because its ecological problems affect a large population. "The health of the Chesapeake Bay is not only in all of our interests, in the surrounding Bay states, from a quality of life standpoint, from an ecological standpoint, but it is also an economic engine for our coastal community," she said. Senator John Watkins (R-Midlothian) authored several environmental compliance bills as well as a bill to create a nutrient trading program. "This has probably been one of the most significant years from the standpoint of legislative and budgetary actions for the environment," Watkins said. The programs created by these bills would give credits to companies with upgraded equipment.

Robo-pessimism: Hubble's last frontier

We are entering an age of introspection that requires all scientists to ponder, "Am I tomorrow's scrap metal?

Police lobby for salary increases

The Charlottesville City Council held its first public hearing of the 2005-2006 budget Monday. According to Vice Mayor Kevin Lynch, members of the Charlottesville Police Department made up a sizable portion of the audience because they sought to voice their financial concerns. "The police are looking for more money this year and looking for more benefits, and they have appealed to City Council," Lynch said.

Anthropogenic Warming

Although there has been much political strife over the concept of global warming and the greenhouse effect, the scientific community often is portrayed as divided when in actuality, there is a great degree of consensus.

Report states PSAT biases some students

An article forthcoming in the National Crosstalk reports that a University of California faculty committee has recently censured the National Merit Scholarship's dependence on PSAT scores. The report finds that the program discriminates against minority applicants and students from low-income families who, on average, score considerably worse on standardized tests than do their white, Asian-American and wealthier peers. "The scores on the SAT have a lot to do with the person's economic status, and that is going to have an enormous impact on poor students, black or white," African-American Affairs Dean M.

Academic Calendar Altered

The University released the 2005-2006 Academic Calendar yesterday. The calendar provides a week for Thanksgiving, and Winter Break will begin earlier in the year. Also, the calendar gives one day, Oct.

CAPS screens students in annual event

The University Counseling and Psychological Services screened 16 students for depression yesterday in an event coordinated by Students for Mental Health Awareness. "Typically we have the highest number of students hospitalized psychiatrically in April," CAPS Assistant Director Lenny Carter said.

Student record system possible nationwide

The Education Department submitted a report to Congress Monday evaluating the feasibility of creating a national student unit record system. The report, which was initiated by the National Center for Education Statistics, focused on whether such an information system could and should be constructed by the government. According to the report, the interest in creating a unit record system was sparked by the desire to monitor issues like the impacts of college price increases and to generate better data in a timely fashion. If the Education Department receives approval from Congress, the new system would contain individually identifiable records of all higher education students in the nation.

Judiciary Committee elects new executives

The University Judiciary Committee elected third-year College student Tim Ormsby as Committee Chairman for the 2005-2006 school year in a meeting last night. "I am very excited," Ormsby said.

BOV committee meeting focuses on future housing plans

Replacement of Alderman Road dormitories was discussed by the University Board of Visitors' Student Affairs and Athletic Committee at their meeting Monday. The Committee adopted a resolution stating that "most of the residence halls on Alderman Road must be replaced" and that the BOV "endorses and supports" the replacement of Alderman Road residences. In addition, the Committee outlined plans to add 400 beds for first-year student housing and 250 beds for upperclassmen housing -- including newly acquired Brandon Avenue and Valley Road apartments -- according to a University Relations press release. The Committee recommended that first-year students continue to live in dorms primarily occupied by students of the same academic level. "We support the notion that all first years should live in University housing," Committee Chair Thomas Farrell, II said.

NICE DAY FOR A PICNIC

IFC Judiciary fills positions

The Inter-Fraternity Council Judiciary Committee appointed its seven executive board members Sunday and is currently in the process of selecting a pool of support officers, including judges, counselors and investigators. A written exam for the selection process was administered to IFCJC candidates yesterday and interviews will be conducted next week. The IFC is seeking to strengthen its Judiciary Committee by a series of education initiatives aimed at reaching all the individual fraternity men in the IFC, IFC President Ross Kimbel said. The 16 members of the governing board have been divided into teams, each to present the new procedures of the Judiciary Committee to four or five fraternities. "It is a major undertaking to coordinate and make all the presentations, but we have received positive response from the fraternity presidents," Vice President for Judiciary Dom Genest said. The presentation will highlight sections eight and nine of the IFCJC's Standards of Conduct, which pertain to parties and social events and rush regulations respectively.