News

A-school planning class recognized by award from City Planning Commission

An Architecture School faculty member and class recently received an award from Charlottesville's Planning Commission recognizing the architecture class's work in helping to create an environmental chapter for the city's Comprehensive Plan. The 2007 Eldon Fields Wood Design Professional of the Year Award will go to Karen Firehock, a senior associate at the University's Institute for Environmental Negotiation, and the students in her graduate planning class for adding an environmental focus to the city's planning, according to Charlottesville Environmental Administrator Kristel Riddervold. Firehock said the class, "Green Cities, Green Lands," teaches students the basic principles of environmental planning. "The city needed assistance in writing an environmental chapter for the new Comprehensive Plan," Firehock said. With this in mind, Firehock said her class investigated how to best protect the city's streams by adding wooden buffers and how to change the trail network to improve animal pathways. The class looked at the tree canopy for the whole city, using aerial photos to identify all the trees in the city, and found the city has 31.4 percent tree canopy coverage, Firehock said. According to Firehock, this percentage is much lower than the 40 percent coverage recommended by the National Arbor Day Foundation.

Dean Ayers delivers last lecture to full house

Reflecting on his time at the University and reminding students to cherish their experience, College Dean Ed Ayers gave his final lecture to a packed Old Cabell Hall auditorium last night.

Native Interest, New Opportunity

With 48 Native American students attending the University as of last fall, Native Americans make up less than one percent of the school's population.

Study notes weaker performance among legacies

A recent study conducted at Princeton University reported that "legacy students admitted with lower than average SAT scores to elite institutions have higher drop-out rates and significantly lower grades than minority students and athletes," according to Steven Barnes, spokesperson for the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. The survey was based on a sample of students from 28 U.S.

Sweeney potential choice for Lawn pavilion

A change to the Pavilion Assignment policy at last month's Board of Visitor's meeting would enable Bob Sweeney, senior vice president for development and public affairs, to reside in one of pavilions soon eligible for reassignment.

CTS to extend free bus rides to members of U.Va. community

The Charlottesville Transit System is introducing several changes to improve Charlottesville's public transportation routes and services, including a decision to allow members of the University to ride CTS buses at no charge and yesterday's opening of a new downtown transit station. According to Charlottesville Transit Service Manager Bill Watterson, "because congestion has grown, the CTS routes have experienced delays and unnecessary duplicate routes." These changes come in compliance with a transit report published last August that enumerates several suggestions to improve the public transportation system for Charlottesville residents. The report included a suggestion to eliminate the free trolley routes along McCormick and Alderman Roads.

Seeing the Future

Roads to close this weekend for Charlottesville 10-Miler

Numerous roads on and around Grounds will be closed the morning of Saturday, March 31 for the 32nd annual Charlottesville 10-Miler road race. U.Va.

College Board to review AP syllabi

High school teachers of Advanced Placement courses have until June 1 to submit their syllabi to the College Board for approval as part of an initiative launched this past January to ensure material in AP classes nationwide is taught consistently. College Board spokesperson Jennifer Topiel said this decision was made to provide teachers and administrators with guidelines that must be in place for AP courses to ensure AP teachers have the resources they need and to help admissions officers better assess the difficulty of a student's curriculum. Under this new measure a teacher must submit his or her syllabus for the College Board's approval in order for a course to be designated as AP on a student transcript, Topiel said.

Community colleges to see tuition hike

The Virginia Community College System State Board voted last week to raise the tuition rate by six percent at all community colleges throughout the Commonwealth.

Honor elects new Executive Committee

The Honor Committee elected its new Executive Committee, to be led by third-year College student Ben Cooper as Honor chair, during its retreat this weekend.

Students discuss racial divide

Addressing topics such as housing and self-segregation, students came together to discuss issues of race in the University community during the third-annual Day of Dialogue on Race yesterday. The forum served as a discussion aimed at fighting racism and prejudice on Grounds, according to Day of Dialogue coordinator Frank Michael Muñoz. "The Day of Dialogue was created out of a perceived need for a forum where student leaders could come together to discuss issues of race," Muñoz said. Participants separated into small groups to discuss their personal encounters with racism and various topics from local newspaper articles that related to race. Second-year College students Sarah Searle and David Newsome said they noticed a correlation between race and housing locations at the University. "It seems like Copeley and Faulkner are predominantly black, Hereford -- Asian, and off-Grounds housing near the Corner seems to be predominantly white," Searle said. Searle added that she believes this correlation is the result of students seeking to return to the comfort and familiarity of their own culture. One group of students agreed the University is a microcosm of the larger issue of racism in America. "The problem is not that we [students] join these groups that are race specific, it's that we allow them to limit the other things that we do," said second-year College student Brian Tucker regarding extracurricular activities at the University. After group discussion, each individual was asked to place himself within a specific racial and ethnic stereotype.

Correction

Friday's article "U.Va. declines to sign climate commitment" incorrectly stated "146 colleges and universities have agreed to sign the commitment out of the 2,700 asked." In fact, 390 schools were asked to sign the agreement in the first phase of the initiative.

Gov. signs bill to create suicidal prevention protocol

Gov. Tim Kaine signed a bill Thursday directing public colleges and universities in Virginia to establish procedures for identifying and addressing the needs of students at risk for suicide. The bill, HB 3064, "requires college trustees to direct development of a plan for how universities will attempt to help students who may have demonstrated self-destructive behavior," Kaine's press secretary Kevin Hall said. The bill was introduced in mid-January by Del.

Downtown lot to change hands

Students and community members could soon see a decrease in the amount of parking available at the Downtown Mall as the board of the Charlottesville Parking Center plans to either sell its assets or engage in a merger. Founded in 1959 to provide parking for the Downtown Mall, the CPC owns a surface parking lot on Water Street and the land under the adjacent Water Street garage. "We have accomplished our mission," CPC President and CEO Jim Berry said.

UBE special election begins today

A special election which begins this morning will allow students to vote on an Arts & Sciences Council constitutional amendment and a referendum that would allow the College to formally thank Dean Ed Ayers for his service to the University. The ASC amendment was introduced as a referendum during the regular spring elections, but technical errors prevented a valid result.

Multi-million dollar DoD grants awarded to three E-school profs.

Engineering School faculty members recently received three multi-million dollar grants from the Defense Department's Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative program. According to Associate Dean for Research Barry Johnson, MURI is a program that seeks to develop "revolutionary ideas" in technology and areas that are significant to the future of the Defense Department.

Young lords' Founder Visits University

Grant to allow replication of College Guides

A University program to increase the number of college applicants from local high schools has gained national attention, and will be reproduced at colleges and universities across the country thanks to recent grants. The University College Guide Program, created in fall 2005, accepts 22 recent University graduates every academic year and places them in Virginia high schools as full-time guidance office employees, said Nicole Hurd, creator and director of the College Guide Program. Because of the success of the program at the University, the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation recently announced that it will grant $10 million to duplicate the program at 10 schools and create the National College Advising Corps, which Hurd said she will direct. Of the 169 colleges and universities invited to join the program, 56 applied, 18 finalists were selected and 10 final grant recipients were chosen, according to Hurd. Jeffrey Williams, director of access and urban outreach at the University of Missouri ­-- Columbia, said the grant from the Cooke Foundation does not begin until August of this year, but members of the program at Missouri are beginning the planning process now. "This issue should be a concern to any institution." Williams said.

Writing instructor receives Southern writing award

University writing instructor and alumna Charlotte Matthews has won the Fellowship of Southern Writers' 2007 New Writing Award for poetry.