With the Nov. 2 presidential election looming on the horizon and their candidate down as many as six points in the latest Virginia polls, Sen.
The office of Gov. Mark R. Warner issued a letter last week directing the Division of Forensic Science in Richmond to reevaluate old cases using recent DNA technologies in order to exonerate people being held in Virginia prisons for violent crimes that the technologies could prove they did not commit. "In the past, the serologists would sometimes save forensic evidence from case files if they thought they might be able to do some work with it later," Warner spokesperson Ellen Qualls said.
Famed constitutional scholar and Harvard Law Prof. Laurence Tribe recently admitted to not citing passages he took from a book by retired University Politics Prof.
Traditionally stuck to walls, benches, columns and even the ground, flyers have long dominated the University's landscape as they advertise everything from rallies to choral sings to birthdays.
Fifteen years after the University hospital first moved into its towering eight-story home just south of the Rotunda, the portion of Grounds known as the health systems precinct is once again slated for drastic change. The University's Main Hospital, built at a cost of approximately $230 million in the late 80's, is now undergoing an $87 million expansion and renovation, and more projects are on the way. In a largely procedural move last Friday, the Building and Grounds Committee of the Board of Visitors approved a revision in the University's master plan to accommodate nearly $150 million in additional construction over the next decade. "What we're trying to do is look at the footprint and have it make sense to those who use it," Board Member Mark J.
The National Association for College Admission Counseling voted this past week to permit member colleges to implement "single-choice early-action plans," which allow students to submit non-binding early admissions applications but prevents them from applying early to other schools. The vote seeks to bring uniformity to an admissions system dominated by several binding and nonbinding deadlines.
At the Black Student Alliance's second public meeting for its "Zero Tolerance for Ignorance" campaign last night, BSA officers released a list of recommendations to improve race relations at the University. Isaac Agbeshie-Noye, BSA vice president of networking, reviewed the list of recommendations drafted at a Sept.
In a vote that almost did not take place last night, Student Council introduced and passed a resolution to support the reinstatement of recently dismissed English Department teaching assistant Justin Gifford. Gifford was relieved from his teaching position Monday in response to an incident in which he and 23 University students in his detective fiction class were arrested for trespassing at a former tuberculosis hospital owned by the University Foundation. Under standard Council procedure, resolutions are introduced, tabled automatically for one week and then voted upon by the representative body at the next Council meeting. Last night, Council initially voted down a motion to suspend its rules, which would have allowed Council to take an immediate vote. "I think it is important for Council to have the opportunity to express our view on this matter in a timely manner," said Executive Vice President Whitney Garrison, who sponsored the resolution. A subsequent motion to suspend the tabling rule passed, which opened debate on the resolution. Garrison and Council President Noah Sullivan were among the most vocal proponents of the resolution. "This is a complicated issue," Sullivan said.
As the University continues to grow in all directions, its presence is increasingly being felt by the city. Though the University owns enough land to meet its immediate expansion needs, using such resources often requires removing existing tenants from their businesses on University property. To facilitate construction of a temporary core laboratory facility on Main Street, the University is planning to tear down a nearby Papa John's once its lease runs out by the end of the year. Similarly, to support the hospital's current expansion, in 2002 the University purchased and removed two well-known nightclubs including Trax, a two-decade old music venue where the Dave Matthews Band once regularly played. "Everything that's run-down, they're picking up," said Elizabeth Coles, a fiscal tech senior in the Medical School and executive vice president of the staff union at the University of Virginia. For those who will staff the new structures, finding affordable housing in the nearby Charlottesville can be difficult, Coles added. "What about affordable housing for employees who are going to be servicing these buildings?" she said.
Insufficient student ownership of the honor system and the hotly-contested single sanction issue dominated an informal roundtable discussion between a group of faculty members and students last night in Jefferson Hall. The discussion was co-sponsored by the Honor Committee and the Second-Year Council. "The point of a program like tonight is to remind students that there are living issues going on with honor every day," Second-Year Council President Ross Baird said. Seven professors from the College, the Darden School, the Engineering School, the Commerce School and the Nursing School addressed their feelings about the honor system. Astronomy Prof.
The revised architectural plan for the future amphitheater at the east end of the Downtown Mall got the green light from the Charlottesville Board of Architectural Review last night after months of reworking and detail clarification. The BAR passed a motion to approve the current plans for the amphitheater at a special meeting requested by the project's architects from FTL Design Engineering Studio and Donna Walcavage Landscape Architecture and Urban Design. However, the BAR has requested that the architects provide additional plans and alternatives pertaining to railings, lighting and the final coordination of design elements. Architects originally submitted a plan for the new amphitheater to the BAR in June. "Pieces of the plan were okay," BAR Chair Joan Fenton said.
Foreign policy experts came to the Rotunda Dome Room last night as part of a national town hall-style forum series called "Hope Not Hate," which seeks to broaden cultural perspectives between Americans and Muslims in the wake of the Sept.
Members of Student Council hosted an appropriations reform forum last night, kicking off a series of public discussions that will eventually lead to the establishment of a new system of allocating the Student Activities Fund. "There has been talk of reforming the appropriations system because it was created for a smaller number of student groups," Council Vice President for Organizations Rebecca Keyworth said.
Michael Moore is no longer scheduled to speak at George Mason University after the university canceled his visit Thursday. Moore was scheduled to visit GMU Oct.
38-year-old Thomas Clark of Rock Creek Road was charged with assault and battery, trespassing and obstruction of justice Friday after he allegedly grabbed a female student in a Culbreth Theater restroom, according to Sgt.
A new pilot program set for implementation in fall 2005 will allow all students access to former course evaluations for professors whose classes they are considering. The program will be Web-based and most likely run through ITC, according to Student Council President Noah Sullivan and J.
English graduate student Justin Gifford was fired from his teaching assistant position yesterday, following his arrest and the arrests of 23 students in his detective fiction class Sept.
The Board of Visitors approved this weekend a new $1.7 million sports medicine facility, set to be built on the University's North Grounds to accommodate over-crowding in the current athletic department facility. "As the demands have increased, I think the University and the Athletic Department are trying to accommodate the athletes," Head Athletic Trainer Ethan Saliba said. Saliba said the McCue Sports Medicine Center was originally designed to serve the football program but today works with all the of the University's athletic departments. "Because the athletic center was so long under one roof, it became diversified," Saliba said of the McCue Center, which was constructed on the North Grounds in 1991. Officials hope the new facility will allow the McCue Center to focus on football again. "Hopefully expanding the facilities would decompress the volume," Saliba said. The North Grounds at Massie Road and Emmett Street house the core of the University's athletic programs.
