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News

Endowment windfall nets 30 percent raise

By Edward Hock | June 22, 2000

The 2000-2001 budget, approved by the Board of Visitors last Thursday, will include a 30-percent increase in endowment income for programs connected to the University's endowment. The Board approved the unusually high increase, which usually rises 4 percent each year, because of the fund's especially good performance this year. The fund began the year in June with a balance of $1.25 billion and finished May with $1.67 billion. "We were very, very fortunate to have invested in venture capital and private equity," University Treasurer Alice W.

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Rotunda construction to add ramp, fix leaky roof

By Edward Hock | June 22, 2000

Facilities management workers have spent the past week building a plywood wall around Thomas Jefferson's crowning architectural achievement. The temporary fence marks the beginning of renovations that will include a new ramp to provide handicap access to the Rotunda from the Lawn side and repairs to leaks in the roof over offices in the portico. Project Manager Mashal Afredi said the project has been a long time coming. "Actual people who are in wheel chairs always comment" on the poor handicapped access to the Rotunda, Afredi said. Afredi said she and others working on the project have taken care to ensure that the construction will not compromise the Rotunda's architectural and historical integrity. "We probably would have had handicapped access years earlier if not for so many meetings" about preserving the building's original structure, she said. Special steps aimed at retaining the building's historical value include matching materials to the Rotunda and demanding care in the work, Engineering and Design Manager John Davis said. "[University Curator and Architect J.

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Spanish house incident ends in acquittals

By Maria Tor | June 22, 2000

A Charlottesville District Court judge acquitted rising fourth-year College students Gonzalo Carrion and Joaquin Bueno of misdemeanor assault and battery charges. Carrion and Bueno were found not guilty on April 28 of assaulting University graduate Shahnawaz Khan at a March party at La Casa Bolivar, the Spanish House. "We were very happy," Carrion said of the verdict. Police arrested Carrion and Bueno after they fought with Khan when he tried to enter a Spanish House party that had reached maximum capacity. According to Carrion, the judge said in his verdict that because Khan had trespassed, and forcibly entered the house, Carrion and Bueno were acting in self-defense. Carrion said another factor in the acquittal was the fact that when Khan was on the stand, he told a different account of the fight than the one he told the University Judiciary Committee earlier in the semester.

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Alumnus gives $10 million

By Tina Hong | June 22, 2000

College and Darden alumnus U. Bertram Ellis, Jr. and his wife Deborah donated $10 million to the University during Reunions Weekend.

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Johnson files second suit in baby switch

By Tina Hong | June 22, 2000

The mother who received national attention last year for her lawsuit against the University Medical Center for the switch of her daughter at birth has filed a new set of charges against the hospital. Paula K.

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Goodell to help student groups with philanthropy, leadership

By Edward Hock | June 15, 2000

After a four-month search a committee of students and administrators has selected Stephanie Goodell of Millersville University to fill Dean Michelle Samuels's position as Assistant Dean of Students. Goodell will leave her position as Coordinator of Student Programs at Millersville and begin work at the University Aug.

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Bynum, a 'double hoo,' takes over after serving as interim director

By Tina Hong | June 15, 2000

Cornelius L. Bynum was selected on June 2 as director of the Luther P. Jackson Cultural Center. Office of African-American Affairs Dean M.

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IRO scuffle ends with compromise, dropped charges

By Maria Tor | June 15, 2000

The scuffle that broke out at a Model United Nations conference in Newcomb Hall March 25 has been resolved without any convictions. Charges of assault and battery against rising fourth-year College student Arun Jesudian for assaulting rising fourth-year College student Richard "Ricky" Kim on March 25 were dropped by Albemarle General District Court Judge Steven Helvin on May 31, according to Jesudian. Jesudian, president of the International Relations Organization, quarreled with fellow IRO member Kim when he tried to get Kim to leave the Virginia International Conference Simulation. Kim was arrested for punching Jesudian in the jaw after Jesudian intervened in an argument Kim was having with VICS Secretary-General Allison Snider. Snider had asked Kim to help other IRO members take out the trash, and he refused.

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Phi Delt loses charter, plans to appeal

By Edward Hock | June 15, 2000

The General Council of Phi Delta Theta Fraternity suspended the University chapter's charter May 2 for violating its risk management policies. The General Council is a five-member board that governs the national actions of the Phi Delta Theta Fraternity. According to Bob Biggs, Phi Delta Theta executive vice president, the action "officially closes" Phi Delta Theta on Grounds. The risk management policy is a set of guidelines governing actions and behavior of all chapters.

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Judge throws out part of Tigrett suit

By Maria Tor | June 15, 2000

A federal judge dismissed seven of the 10 complaints in a $1.5 million lawsuit filed by suspended University student Harrison Kerr Tigrett against the University October 22 1999.

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NCAA forces restructuring of scholarship

By Sam Le | June 15, 2000

In an effort to make its program comply with NCAA scholarship rules and reinstate two Virginia athletes previously suspended, the Jefferson Scholars Foundation has restructured its scholarship into institutional aid under the guidance of the University Financial Aid Office, paving the way for future Jefferson Scholars who wish to compete in intercollegiate athletics. In late January, the University Athletic Department declared rower Jen Blomberg and wrestler Jason Bernd, both rising fourth-years, ineligible to compete after the department discovered that the Jefferson Scholarship violated an NCAA rule prohibiting aid from independent foundations under specific circumstances.

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Riders on the storm

By Lindsay Wise and Nicola White | May 20, 2000

Things got off to a wild start for the Class of 2000 in their first semester when Hurricane Fran stormed through Grounds, causing classes to be cancelled for only the fourth time in University history.

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University to offer new residential college option

By Abby Curran | May 20, 2000

The University soon will have a more international flavor when a new International Residential College opens in the fall of 2001. The residential college, which joins the Mosaic House, Brown and Hereford Residential Colleges as the fourth such complex at the University, will house both American and international students. "We want vibrant, very bright students who have an interest in international studies and foreign languages," said Barbara Nolan, vice provost and chairwoman of the committee that created the final proposal for the college. The new college will be housed in the Munford, Gwathmey and Lewis residence halls on Sprigg Lane.

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Improvements add to stadium budget

By Rakesh Gopalan | May 20, 2000

With its construction deadline rapidly approaching, the expansion of Scott Stadium at the Carl Smith Center is set to open before the Cavs kick off against the Brigham Young Cougars at the first home football game Sept.

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Clark renovation to expand scientific research facilities

By Abby Curran | May 20, 2000

After Clark Hall consistently was ranked as one of the buildings on Grounds in most disrepair, the building will undergo major renovations and gain a new four-story wing as part of a three-year construction project scheduled to start this summer. The new space will be used primarily for research facilities for the environmental sciences department.

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Casteen cites need for added funding in annual address

By Maria Tor | May 20, 2000

University President John T. Casteen III is calling for increased funding to bring the University up to par with its peer institutions. At his annual State of the University address in Old Cabell Hall May 3, Casteen said many of the University's peer institutions receive more state funding to spend on in-state students. For example, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill receives $23,089 per in-state student while the University gets only $11,149 per in-state student. Casteen said the University has suffered since the General Assembly withdrew 10 percent of the University's operating budget in 1990.

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Newcomb director to leave position

By Katie Dalton | May 20, 2000

Before Newcomb Hall Director Eddie Daniels took his position in 1995, the University's student center lacked an outdoor plaza and its dining hall dated to the 1950s. In 1997, the University completed a massive overhaul of the building, and Daniels worked to reestablish Newcomb as a vibrant center of student life -- a task he names as one of his best professional experiences. As Daniels prepares to leave his post this summer and take a position as director of campus activities at the University of Connecticut, he remembers fondly the work he has done in the last five years. "I have had a really good experience at U.Va.," he said.

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Lawyers settle balcony suits for $790,000

By Rakesh Gopalan | May 20, 2000

The Commonwealth has settled two of the five lawsuits that resulted from the Pavilion I balcony crash that killed a 73-year-old woman and injured 18 others during the 1997 Medical School commencement ceremonies. The two settlements, which totaled $790,000, go to the family members of Mary Brashear, who was killed when a section of the balcony fell during the ceremony.

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Honor grants appeal in cheating case

By Katie Dalton | May 20, 2000

The Honor Committee granted an appeal May 4 to second-year Engineering student Patricia Gonzales, who was found guilty of cheating on an organic chemistry exam and was subsequently expelled from the University. Gonzales now will stand a second trial, probably next fall, Committee Chairman Thomas Hall said. Third-year College student Matthew Sachs, a teaching assistant in Gonzales' CHEM 241 course, initiated the charges and Gonzales was found guilty in an open honor trial -- the first open honor trial since Sept.

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Plan gives University more flexibility to set wages for classified employees

By Abby Curran | May 20, 2000

With a fully revamped system set to govern the University's classified employees' pay structure, employers will have more authority over their workers' salaries and will be able to grant pay raises more easily if they so desire. Classified employees are paid a salary rather than an hourly wage and receive health care and retirement benefits.