A railed streetcar system down West Main Street to remedy traffic issues in Charlottesville and improve local transportation was proposed by Alia Anderson, executive director of Alliance for Community Choice in Transportation, at Albemarle County's Green Infrastructure Forum Sept.
In addition to the influx of thousands of fans, tonight's Rolling Stones concert at Scott Stadium promises to bring logistical challenges for University and City officials. The anticipated 52,000 concertgoers are predicted to clog local roads and parking lots. "We're expecting it to be very exciting," said Rebecca White, director of the University Department of Parking and Transportation. Although there will be about 10,000 fewer attendees than a normal sold-out football game, there will be fewer students and fans familiar with the area. "It will be a little more chaotic in terms of traffic and people trying to find their way," Dean of Students Penny Rue said. To make room for the many visitors, parking lots around the stadium will be cleared by 4 p.m. Parking in the Emmet/Ivy, Central Grounds and Health Systems South garages also will be cleared during the 4 to 5:30 p.m.
Campbell Hall, the building housing the Architecture School, will soon undergo a makeover. University President John T.
The Virginia Crime Commission's Campus Safety Task Force will meet this month to review the findings of a two-year study of safety on the campuses of colleges and universities around the Commonwealth, including the University. According to the Crime Commission Executive Director, Kim Hamilton, the study is an effort to create basic standards by which the schools should act to increase security. "We spent 20 months looking at every two- and four-year community, private and public institutions," Hamilton said.
Charlottesville City Council considered an ordinance to eliminate the use of parking decals for cars registered in the City Monday. Presently, the City requires that cars registered in Charlottesville display a decal issued from the City Treasurer's office to fulfill mandates from the state and to prove payment of personal property taxes, Deputy Attorney for Charlottesville Lisa Kelley said. "There has always been a local license requirement, and if a city or county wanted to enforce their local requirements effectively, they needed some sort of physical evidence," Kelley said.
University Police Chief Paul E. Norris, Jr. has resigned from his post at the University Police Department.
Student sponsors of the fall ballot referendum to add a discrimination standard to the University Judiciary Committee's Standards of Conduct decided last night to attempt to pull the referendum because of constitutional concerns in regard to freedom of speech.
William B. Harvey, who previously assisted college administrators with diversity initiatives at the American Council on Education in Washington, is now joining the University as chief diversity officer.
Members of the University faculty issued a petition to President John T. Casteen, III last week scrutinizing the creation of the 2005-2006 academic calendar and requesting a change in protocol. Associate History Prof.
Moore Ruble Yudell Architects & Planners, a Santa Monica, Calif.-based architecture firm, was selected to work on the South Lawn Project yesterday. According to University Relations, the firm has been contracted to work on phase one, or the first four buildings, that will comprise the South Lawn Project. University Architect David Neuman said phase one should take between four and a half and five years to complete. "Specifically the firm, we believed, had a lot of very valuable experience doing similar sorts of projects," Neuman said.
University Medical Center Research Prof. Barry Marshall was awarded the 2005 Nobel Prize for physiology or medicine over the weekend, making him the first current University faculty member to receive the honor. With the help of Australian physician Robert Warren, Marshall discovered that the Helicobacter pylori bacterium causes peptic ulcer disease.
Last night, state legislators and students met to discuss current issues facing Virginia's higher education system, mainly focusing on increasing tuition rates, in the Student Council-sponsored third annual ABC's of Higher Education"forum. Sen.
University Police arrested Martin Straume, an associate professor of research in the University Health System, yesterday afternoon on several criminal charges, including the attempted malicious wounding of a female University graduate student. According to University Police, the attempted malicious wounding of the graduate student occurred Sept.
Polls open next week for the University's fall elections supervised by the University Board of Elections.
The average employee healthcare costs at most colleges and universities increased by 10 percent this year, according to a survey released Monday by the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources. Although healthcare costs for current University employees have not gone up, University Staff Union President Jan Cornell said employees have expressed frustration with the eroding service. The University is self-insured and designs its own health plan, but all claims are processed through Southern Health Services, Inc. In addition to employees having to pay upfront for services, there are not enough doctors and dentists in the Charlottesville area, so many employees are forced to go as far as Fredericksburg or wait for Southern Health to find a provider in the area, according to Cornell. "Southern Health doesn't pay enough to get doctors and dentists," Cornell said.
Seventy scholars from around the world met for a conference yesterday at the University's Darden School of Business to consider the future of digital scholarship. The conference, titled "Summit on Digital Tools for the Humanities," is three-day event which began yesterday.
Three University students were recommended for the Rhodes Scholarship, and four students were named as nominees for the Marshall Scholarship by the University Selection Committee. Fourth-year College students Catherine Neale, James Kennedy and Ryan Fleenor were endorsed by the University Selection Committee to compete for Rhodes Scholarships. Fourth-year College students Lee Skluzak and Chat Hull, as well as Kennedy and Fleenor, were endorsed for Marshall Scholarships. The Rhodes Scholarship offers 32 American students the opportunity to receive two fully-funded years of post-graduate study at England's Oxford University, said Nicole Hurd, director of the Center for Undergraduate Research. The Marshall Scholarship is similar but allows for study at any institution in the United Kingdom, Hurd said. The students had to write a personal statement outlying their planned course of study if chosen to go abroad, according to Hurd. "I would like to pursue a master's degree in higher education," Neale said.
The governing body of the Multicultural Greek Council voted over the weekend to sponsor a new interest group that hopes to establish the first multicultural fraternity at the University. The new interest group, the Fraternal League for All Men, has been working to attain special CIO status for the past three years, FLAME President Anthony Peng said.
The American Association of State Colleges and Universities found in a study released yesterday that the most important factor for high graduation and retention rates is a "campus culture" that reinforces student success and promotes a sense of purpose. AASCU undertook the study in an effort to understand retention and graduation rates of students at public four-year colleges. "Higher education has long been focused on access, but lately there's been more of a demand to focus on success," AASCU Director of Special Projects John Hammang said. According to the study, the most essential parts of "campus culture" in graduation rates are a sense that students can succeed, an inclusive environment for all members on campus and a "strongly held sense of an institutional mission that recognizes the campus as 'distinctive' or 'special.'" The survey chose 12 institutions nationwide with traditionally high graduation rates or significantly improved graduation numbers within their categories.
