After a narrow race ultimately decided by a single vote, Abebe Kebede, a candidate for Third Year Council vice president, conceded defeat to opponent Natalia Mercado following a statement by the University Board of Electors. The close election was a result of a system designed to avoid actual runoff races.
By Jane Ma Cavalier Daily Associate Editor Student Council's Environmental Sustainability Committee announced a partnership Monday with GrandMarc apartment complex to provide one student with a year of free rent as compensation for working as the area conservation advocate. "We've decided that in order to up our sustainability efforts and increase our recycling program ... we wanted to invite someone to live in our community next year that would be our conservation advocate," GrandMarc Community Manager Frances Thompson said.
Information Technology and Communication is currently piloting The Hive, a new program that allows University students and faculty members to freely access licensed software - once exclusive to on-Grounds computing labs - on their personal computers. The program allows users to upload a window identical to that of on-Grounds computer desktop.
The University Board of Elections announced Monday night that students overwhelmingly voted to pass all three Student Council-related referenda. The first referendum, which sought to amend Article V of Council's constitution, passed with 76 percent of votes. "The amendment will allow for the amendment proposal process to be more clear and fair for students who are interested in proposing amendments," said outgoing Council President John Nelson, who sponsored the referendum.
Colin Hood, the current vice president of organizations for Student Council, was named the incoming Council president yesterday night with 3,587 votes - double that of his closest competitor - while third-year College student Jen Bristol and second-year College student Evan Shields also secured positions on Council's executive committee. "I'm beyond thrilled and I'm really looking forward and really excited to get things going," Hood said.
The University Board of Elections announced the results of last week's elections to fill the representative body of the Honor Committee last night. Third-years McKenzie Furber, Sarah Munford, Greg Siegel, Alex Solomon and second-year Rubana Masood were elected as College representatives for the Committee. Masood has been a part of the Committee since her first year as an adviser. "I would really love to see Honor ... become a bigger part of the U.Va.
Despite the University Board of Election's efforts to publicize and promote the University-wide elections, just 29 percent of students cast their ballots to elect their student leaders last week. "We're a little discouraged by the voter turnout," UBE President Jennifer Kim said.
Last night saw the elections of the new representative body of the University Judiciary Committee after a week-long voting period. Many of the representatives share common goals to increase transparency, efficiency of case processing and equality of representation of UJC. Third-year Will Bane, who was reelected as a College representative, has served as a member of UJC for three years.
As the past week of voting came to a close yesterday night, the University Board of Elections announced the winners of this year's Class Council elections. Charlie Miller and Suraj Mishra, who served as First Year Council president and vice president, respectively, now hold the same positions on Second Year Council.
The Board of Visitors appointed second-year Law student Stewart Ackerly as its new student member at its Thursday meeting.
The Board of Visitors voted Thursday to eliminate the differences between tuition for in-state and out-of-state students for two specialized graduate programs within the Commerce School and Engineering School for the 2010-11 academic year.
[caption id="attachment_33511" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Elizabeth Bass, a graduate of the University and former Madison House employee, served as the organization's Interim Executive Director before taking her new position.
The Faculty Senate unanimously voted last Wednesday to endorse giving University faculty members more rights to their published works and allowing those articles to be more accessible to the public. The Senate voted to do so through its Resolution on Scholarly Publication and Author's Rights, which states that faculty members may provide electronic versions of their work for an open access electronic repository.
As students await the results of this year's University-wide elections for positions in the Honor Committee, Student Council and University Judiciary Committee, Student Council's Diversity Initiatives Committee is currently looking into excessive campaign financing and how it may reverberate into the demographics of student leaders within those organizations. Proliferation of funds Though most candidates spend less than $20 on their campaigns, third-year College student and Honor Committee representative hopeful Adam Michel spent more than $800 on his unsuccessful campaign last year.
The Board of Visitors voted yesterday afternoon to approve the renovation and expansion of Newcomb Hall, a project estimated to cost between $16 and $18 million. "We are going to make it a more efficient and inviting space," said Colette Sheehy, University vice president for management and budget.
Local business owners are optimistic about the future of Charlottesville's economy, according to the latest survey from the Charlottesville Regional Chamber of Commerce. "Our survey indicates that our members are looking at the business environment as being half-full.
[caption id="attachment_33488" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="The elected chairmen hope to advance the organization's goals through their positions by implementing new objectives.
The University awarded Harrison Undergraduate Research Awards to 35 students this year, studying topics as diverse as investigating shipwrecks off the Carolina coast to researching edible rain gardens. The awards provide grants to support independent study projects during the coming summer.
Budget proposals released Sunday by both the House of Delegates and Senate rejected former Gov. Tim Kaine's proposal to transfer $18.8 million from state universities to the commonwealth's general fund, a plan that would have ultimately raise student fees.
The University is considering applying jointly with the City of Charlottesville and Albemarle County to become a pilot community for the installation of Google Fiber, a fiber-optic network that could produce Internet speeds greater than 1 gigabit per second, more than 100 times faster than the broadband connections most Americans can currently access, all at a price that Google says is competitive. "Google has announced publicly that it's looking for communities to install ultra high-speed Internet," Charlottesville City Council member David Brown said about the nomination process, which Google will conduct by accepting applications and online votes until March 26.
