Pointy yellow pencils. Fresh blue jeans. Brand new bookbags. They're the items that make sitting in a plastic chair for eight hours bearable for kids who've grown accustomed to lazy summer days.
With uses ranging from the practical to the inane, nanotechnology, the science of the small, may be the next big thing. In fact, things are getting so small that scientists need multi-million dollar microscopes to see what they are building. For example, in 1989 an IBM scientist succeeded in writing the letters of his company using individual atoms. Researchers in this growing field often manipulate objects that are a hundred thousand times smaller than the width of a human hair. Although such an accomplishment may seem pointless, futurists such as Eric Drexler say nanotechnology will become the center of a new-age revolution. Drexler's book "Engines of Creation" envisions a future where tiny machines are capable of building any object from scratch - whether it be food, cars or even more tiny machines. Nano-hype? Drexler's vision of a world filled with machines probably won't be realized for a very long time, if ever.
After looking over a year, University officials turned their search westward for a new director of Newcomb Hall. Bill Ashby, who now serves as director of business services at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, will begin his new job Oct.15.
The University lost a devoted friend and musician on Saturday when second-year student Maria Diaz was killed on her way back to school from her Virginia Beach home. Diaz died when the 1986 Saab she was driving ran off the left side of Route 64 West and slid sideways into a tree in New Kent County, Virginia State Police spokeswoman Corrine Geller said. "She died at the scene," Geller said. Police were called to the crash site at 5:17 p.m.
Economics Prof. Edwin T. Burton is among the leading contenders for a commissioner seat on the Securities and Exchange Commission. The SEC regulates the nation's securities markets to ensure fair business practices for all investors. Now there are two vacant commissioner seats on the SEC and two more openings are expected soon, leaving President George W.
Earlier this month the House passed a bill banning any form of human cloning in both the private and the public sector.
Honor Committee members said they hope to have all of the 130 honor cases filed since last spring by a physics professor completed by Christmas, despite slow progress on investigations this summer. Committee Chairman Thomas Hall said while the necessary Committee personnel were in town this summer, many investigated students could not be contacted for a number of reasons, including being out of the country on vacation. Now 37 of the 130 cases have been investigated by Committee officers, 11 have been scheduled to go to trial and 26 were dropped without a trial.
Gov. James S. Gilmore III (R) said Wednesday he soon will decide whether to secure funding for the University's proposed special collections library. Gilmore met with University President John T.
Following a five-hour standoff Tuesday afternoon, Charlottesville police negotiators persuaded a double murder suspect to surrender himself into custody. Police believe city resident Craig Edmund Nordenson, 20, attempted to rob three people sitting under the coal tower near East Market Street at about 4:30 a.m.
As of late Thursday, area police still are searching for prison escapee Timothy Gerald Eads. Eads pleaded guilty in June to 21 charges related to the break-in and rape of an Albemarle woman this January.
A judge committed Jamie Poindexter, the 19-year-old charged with the April slaying of a University graduate student, to the state mental health agency last week. Poindexter is charged with capital murder, robbery and grand larceny in connection with the death of Alison Meloy, who was a graduate student in the department of government and foreign affairs. Poindexter, Meloy's next-door neighbor, was charged in May with the stabbing death of Meloy in her townhouse, located at 2117 Commonwealth Drive.
University Police are investigating a report that two patients used heroin and had sex while checked into the psychiatric unit of the University Medical Center last week. A female patient reported to police July 24 that she and a male patient had sex in the laundry room and injected heroin in her bathroom at the hospital, University Police Captain Michael Coleman said. Earlier that week, Medical Center employees suspected illegal drug use by the same male patient and he consented to a search of his room.
The staff at the University's Information Technology and Communication Office has been busy this summer, fielding countless questions regarding computer viruses. ITC staff said they have encountered numerous viruses this summer, but viruses such as MTX, Hybris, Sircam and Code Red have been reoccurring problems.
With the help of a $2 million donation from three alumni, the Commerce School is in its preliminary stages to expand its Monroe Hall facilities.
As part of the University's continual efforts to improve safety and living conditions in the Greek system, the Center for Alcohol and Substance Education was awarded a grant Friday from the U.S.
Managed health care company Coventry Health Care, Inc. announced Monday that it plans to purchase the parent company of QualChoice of Virginia Health Plan, Inc. QualChoice is the University-sponsored health care plan for students who do not have their own health insurance and is the plan provided for staff members. As part of the definitive agreement, Coventry will pay the Medical Center and the University Health Services Foundation $12.5 million for Blue Ridge Health Alliance, Inc. and its HMO subsidiary, QualChoice, and will enter into a five-year provider contract with the University.
Lawyers representing the University Medical Center met last Friday with five former employees who are suing the University on grounds they were unjustly fired.
As part of the ongoing new student center planning process, Student Council has received a feasibility report from a Charlottesville architecture firm. With $20,000 in funding from the University, Council hired VMDO Architects to conduct a study to determine what the University can do with its space availability outside Newcomb Hall, said Andy Burdick, a member of Council's New Student Center Committee.
Officials of the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia announced that Carl N. Kelly will serve as the agency's new chairman, effective immediately.
U.S. News and World Report's2001 "America's Best Hospitals" issue included eight medical specialties of the University Medical Center as among the finest of their kind. The specialties and their rankings are cancer, ranked 22nd; endocrinology (hormonal disorders), sixth; geriatrics, 49th; nephrology (kidney disease), 49th; neurology, 29th; otolaryngology, (ear nose and throat), 22nd; pulmonary (respiratory disorders), 34th; and urology, 23rd. "It's always good to be recognized by your peers," said Paul Levine, director of otolaryngology, head and neck surgery, at the Medical Center.
