As the University begins a new semester, leadership of the Faculty Senate has shifted to newly elected Chair Robert E.
The historic Martha Jefferson Hospital, located in downtown Charlottesville, will turn 100 soon. The hospital has plans to celebrate their centennial from September to July. The facilities' history is rife with heroism and quirks.
Despite fear of a parking shortage, power outages, heavy storms and the largest recorded crowd at a University sporting event, transportation and parking problems were few and far between Saturday as the Cavaliers hosted Duke in their season football opener. Though a new garage at the intersection of Ivy Road and Emmet Street designed to provide added game day parking has not yet opened due to construction slowed by weather and local protests, officials said no fans were turned away from University parking facilities. "We're always trying to make things better," said Parking and Transportation Director Rebecca White.
Following Heisman hopeful Matt Schaub's sudden injury during the Cavaliers' season opener against Duke, both Virginia and ACC circuits were flooded with rumors concerning when the quarterback would return.
Some students lit candles and did homework. Others stood and watched the sky. And for many students, last week's severe thunderstorm provided an opportunity to take a break from schoolwork and just play in the rain. Following a power transmission failure between the University and its electrical provider, Virginia Power, approximately 12,000 residents located throughout Central Grounds and surrounding areas lost power Thursday from 9:10 p.m.
The University has formed a new advisory board that will aid the Staff Union. The board consists of community members, business and political leaders.
When the state's new international standard fire code goes into effect in October, University housing will already be safely in line. Since move-in, members of the residence staff have been educating on-Ground residents on the new rules, which include a decoration policy banning paper lanterns, combustible wall hangings and decorative items suspended from the ceiling. "We started informing residents when they moved in, so, instead of them getting fined in October when the fire chief comes around, they know beforehand," said Tricia Amberly, a fourth-year College student and Alderman Road co-chair of residence staff. According to Amberly and third-year senior resident Barrie Moorman, opposition to the restrictions has been minimal among new students. "In the first year area it's easier to enforce because they don't have anything to compare it to," Moorman said.
A shipment of nearly 29,000 floating toys was lost at sea in 1992.The cargo included rubber duckies, beavers and turtles. While typically it takes water six years to travel completely around the North Pacific, it took the ducks only three with the aid of strong winds. They were half way between China and Seattle when a violent storm lodged 20 containers of rubber duckies into the ocean. The toys were said to have been frozen in the artic, which has caused the once yellow hue of the plastic to turned white.
It was a game night like any other, with students in orange and blue ties and sundresses packing the bleachers and the Pep Band decked out in orange vests seated in its usual spot in the front of the student section. Except when the Cavaliers scored, the Good Ol' Song was belted out of speakers instead of performed by the Pep Band. And as fans poured out of the stadium, they came face-to-face with a silent demonstration -- band members lying in front of a cardboard tombstone declaring "R.I.P.
Saturday night's football game scored well not only on the score board, but in the areas of attendance and security as well. A record 61,700 people showed up to witness the Cavaliers shut out Duke 27-0. "We set a record crowd," Athletic Director Craig Littlepage said.
Though many new students might find the transition to life at the University stressful, one might expect black students to be particularly apprehensive about coming to the University.
Although the University Web site estimates textbook cost per semester at $500, many students say they hope that figure is a generous estimate. Textbook prices this year are higher than ever with an average price of $72.83 per book, according to the College Board. Some students try to cut costs by buying used books, but many professors insist students purchase the latest edition. Third-year College student Jean Langley, a psychology major, said her books totaled over $550, mainly because the books were all brand new. All of her professors "said to use the new edition and not the old because there's substantial new material and we're tested on the new edition," she said. Langley's roommate had better luck buying textbooks online. "When I went to the bookstore and found out my books for this semester were almost $600, I nearly flipped," third-year College student Karen Otto said.
Little green men may not be coming, but people across the Commonwealth -- and the world -- are in tizzy about the planet Mars. At 5:51 a.m.
The U.S. Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights issued a letter to colleges and universities nationwide late last month clarifying its position on such institutions' ability to restrict students' speech. The letter was intended to reverse a long-standing misconception that OCR regulations encouraged or even required schools to enact speech codes in order to guard against offensive speech. "OCR's regulations should not be interpreted in ways that would lead to the suppression of protected speech on public or private campuses," OCR Asst.
An unexpected rise in enrollment among first years this year has spawned a housing shortage and may cause additional problems for the University's perennially understaffed academic departments. Officials had hoped to have 3,040 first years enrolled at this point in the year, but the number was 3,122 as of yesterday, according to Director of Institutional Studies George Stovall. "Ultimately it'll get down below 3,100," Stovall said.
In order to maintain greater accountability in the nation's universities, Congress recently re-enacted the Higher Education Act.
Charlottesville brothers Jon and Pete Kirby recently joined friend Francis Ferki in order to create a business venture, Tour De Ville Pedicab Company. Tour De Ville boasts six bright-orange, pedal-powered cabs complete with automobile shocks for a smooth ride. The trio said they hope to recruit 25 peddlers to lease the $4,000 cabs for their shifts, and keep the profits. A ten minute trip, from the University to the Downtown Mall, for instance, costs $3.50 per person; the cab can hold two people.
The first week of classes can be hectic enough, but for students whose computers have been infected by the "blaster" worm or other computer viruses, functioning without bedroom access to ISIS or AOL Instant Messenger has become increasingly frustrating. As of yesterday afternoon, ITC had found 340 infected computers in dorm areas and 903 throughout rest of the University. These latest numbers represent the first noticeable decrease in compromised computers since the outbreak of the blaster worm, which affects many newer versions of Windows, including 2000 and XP, on Aug.
Picture this: An online music service where music plays instantly without downloading time, song information is always accurate, files are always of good quality and personal music libraries can be pulled up on any computer. Does it sound too good to be true?
Smart Tag holders driving north next fall will no longer fumble for change on northeast toll roads, after Virginia's electronic toll-paying system joins the E-Z Pass Interagency Group, the automated toll-collecting organization currently used in nine northeastern and mid-Atlantic states. Gov.
