News

IFC fills new officer position

The Inter-Fraternity Council recently accepted Alpha Epsilon Pi President Mike Goldsmith to fill the newly-created position of member-at-large. As the new member-at-large, Goldsmith's main responsibility is to act as a liaison between the governing board of the IFC and the presidents of individual chapters. "Goldsmith will have a seat on the governing board and help increase communication between the board and the presidents," IFC President Ross Kimbel said. According to Goldsmith, the member-at-large position came out of necessity to bridge the gap that exists between the IFC governing board and the presidents of the individual chapters. "Individual fraternity members do not always know what the IFC does and what kind of issues are out there," he said.

Honor stats show higher initiation rate

The outgoing Honor Committee released case statistics for its yearlong term last night, among them the fact that 40 percent of this year's cases were initiated by students. Student initiation rates showed a marked increase for this term. "It was closer to 12 percent last year," Special Assistant to the Honor Committee Nicole Eramo said. Approximately 32 percent of this year's cases were initiated by faculty members, 25 percent by TAs and four percent by administrators. "Faculty and TAs are in a unique position to discover honor violations and therefore have a naturally higher initiation rate," outgoing Vice chair for Trials Nick Staubach said. The increase in student initiations can be attributed to ongoing efforts on the part of the Committee for several years, newly elected Honor chair David Hobbs said. "Increasing student initiations has been a goal of the committee over the past few years," Hobbs said. The rise in student initiations comes as good news to the newly elected Honor Executive Committee, which has listed increasing student initiation rates among their major concerns for their upcoming term, the members of the Committee noted. These and other statistics were presented to and discussed by the outgoing Committee at last night's meeting. The statistics break down the results of investigations, post-investigation panels, trials and post-trial. They also list the attributes of defendants by race, gender, school, athletic status, international student status and offense. Defendant statistics, especially race and international student status are especially important in the Committee's ongoing investigation of the so-called "spotlighting" of minority groups and the "dimming" of majority groups. Prior years' numbers have shown that minority and international students have cases initiated against them at much higher rates proportional to majority. Of the 64 investigations carried on by the Committee this year, 28 went to trial, and 10 of those trials had guilty verdicts, a conviction rate of about 36 percent. The Honor Committee remarked that the investigation and trial statistics are also very useful to the Honor Committee in determining trends and anomalies. Representative Marisa Adelman pointed out that only cheating trials had guilty verdicts this year and all six combined lying and stealing defendants were found not guilty. Eramo said this was fairly typical compared to the statistics of previous years.

BOV discusses University brand

The Board of Visitors meeting that concluded Saturday included a spirited discussion about how to best market the University's most distinctive values and highlighted several competing and diverse visions for the long-term direction of the University.

Black Student Alliance seeks partnership with alumni

At the Black Alumni Alliance Saturday, hosted by the Black Student Alliance, the main focus of the day was a discussion with alumni about possibly forming a black alumni advisory board for the BSA. "The weekend was a way to get the black alumni involved in the black experience here at U.Va.," BSA Alumni Affairs Co-Chair Aaron Blake said. More than 40 black alumni attended, Blake said, as well as student members from the University's various black organizations who were invited to participate in the event. "We believe that there is no one who can support the black student experience better than alums because they know exactly what we go through and they can help us achieve a lot," BSA President Myra Franklin said. At the event, alumni and students conversed about the BSA's past and present place in the University and what it was like when the alumni were students at the University. During the discussion of the BSA's proposal for the creation of the advisory board, BSA members received feedback from the alumni. "Overwhelmingly, alumni expressed their support," Franklin said.

BOV to determine tuition at next meeting

The Board of Visitors deferred formally setting next year's tuition, as they usually do, at their spring meeting which ended Saturday.

Pursuing charges of rape

The following four-part series chronicles the experiences of former University student Kathryn Russell, who, after accusing a fellow student of sexual assault in February of 2004, brought charges up with the University Sexual Assault Board.

April Fools Issue

Today's april fools issue of the Cavalier Daily is only available in print.

Warner approves higher ed. bill

Gov. Mark R. Warner unveiled his proposed amendments to the modified charter legislation yesterday. "The changes that were made were structural changes," Secretary of Finance John Bennett said.

Court ruling strengthens Title IX

A divided Supreme Court expanded Title IX Monday to protect anyone who blows the whistle on sex discrimination in federally funded educational programs from retaliation. Title IX, which was enacted by Congress in 1972, prohibits schools from engaging in discriminatory practices.

TAKING IT OUTSIDE

College Week draws faculty, students

This week, the Arts & Sciences Council is sponsoring College Week, an annual week of free events for students in the College of Arts & Sciences. Plans for College Week include academic events such as majors' fairs for the humanities and the sciences as well as social events including a student-faculty trivia night and the College Carnival. "College Week is essentially a week of fun and interesting events designed to bring students and faculty together," Arts & Sciences Council President-elect David Reid said. All of the College Week events are open to the entire University but are geared especially to students in the College. "One of the purposes of College Week is to foster a unique identity within the University and to provide for the welfare of students in the College," said Eugenio Labadie, First and Second Years' Affairs chair. College Week began Monday with Faculty Student Trivia Night at the Mellow Mushroom, when a team from the Jefferson Society placed first in the trivia contest. "I thought Trivia Night went well," Labadie said.

Contraception sold on Grounds

Planned Parenthood's Emergency Contraception Van came to the University yesterday, sponsored by the student group Voices of Planned Parenthood. Emergency contraception, also known as the "morning-after pill," is a form of birth control that can prevent pregnancy by stopping ovulation or fertilization up to 120 hours after sexual intercourse. Although the Elson Student Health Center provides emergency contraception to students, members of VOX: Voices of Planned Parenthood said they felt it was important to create more awareness about the contraception. "We brought the van just to promote E.C.," VOX President Kimberly Goumenis said.

Committee picks Good Guy Room resident

Third-year College student Matthew Allen was notified Tuesday of his selection to spend the 2005-2006 school year residing in Room 15 of the West Lawn, an endowed room commonly known as the "Good Guy Room." "The only reason I can see myself being the 'good guy' is for people seeing that character in me because of my faith and the grace of God," Allen said. Allen currently serves as the Treasurer of Sigma Chi and is involved in the Committee for Abundant Life Christmas Banquet, Inter-Fraternity Fellowship and Reformed University Fellowship. Allen chose not to apply to live on the Lawn through the Lawn Selection Committee earlier this school year. "There are friends of mine that got on the Lawn through regular admissions that I thought would make better applications," Allen said.

University student leader earns Truman Scholarship

University third-year Catherine Neale is the recent recipient of a Truman Scholarship. "I'm extremely honored and grateful for all of the support I've had from the folks at U.Va., especially from Dean Nicole Hurd at the Center for Undergraduate Excellence and my other mentors, Ed Ayers and Pat Lampkin," Neale said. The Scholarship is annually given to 75 college juniors across the Commonwealth and totals over $30,000, according to a University press release. The Truman Scholarship Foundation selects students who display leadership and interest in government, public service and education, the release said. As a University student, Neale has taken on leadership roles including serving as the president of the Arts & Sciences Council and, most recently, being named as the student member of the Board of Visitors. The Truman Scholarship is especially intended for graduate study, the release said. Neale said she currently is planning to attend law school after graduating and hopes to pursue a career in the field of higher education, working as a law professor and eventually as an administrator. -- Compiled by Kathleen Meyers

Study finds upward growth in suicide rates

Count 20 people around you. According to a recent report conducted by researchers at the University of Iowa, one of those 20 people will attempt suicide while in college. "One of the key findings for me was that 5 percent of respondents have said they attempted suicide while in college," said John Westefeld, a professor of counseling psychology at the University of Iowa and the leading researcher of the study.

Report finds professors exhibit liberal leanings

Liberal and Democratic professors continue to largely outnumber conservatives and Republicans in four-year colleges and universities, especially at top-tier institutions, according to a study published in this month's edition of the Forum, an online political science journal. Of those surveyed, 72 percent of professors identified themselves as "left or liberal," while 15 percent considered themselves to be "right or conservative." In 1984, a different study found that only 39 percent of faculty considered themselves "liberal." The study compared this data with a similar survey taken of the U.S.

UJC appoints new senior support officers

The University Judiciary Committee prepared for an ambitious academic year with the appointment of three new support officers last night. UJC Chair-elect Tim Ormsby described last night's proceedings as "the most competitive selection that I can remember in the last several years." UJC appointed Sarah Abreu, Scott Jones and Ramsey Daher to the positions of senior educator, senior counselor, and senior investigator, respectively.

Rejuvenating U.Va.

While many students at this school will turn the big 2-0 during their stay here, a silent friend in our midst is inching closer to the big 2-0-0. From a distance, the Academical Village looks pristine and white, but up close, its age starts to show through.

College Board to offer diversity guideliness

After the University of Michigan affirmative action cases in 2003, the College Board decided to form a diversity collaborative group in order to assist colleges and universities nationwide in making legally and educationally sound policies on financial aid, recruitment and admissions. The manual on financial aid is scheduled to be released in mid-April to all College Board member universities, including the University, said Gretchen Rigol, College Board consultant and coordinator for the diversity collaborative. "We want to make [the manual] available as widely as we possibly can," Rigol said. The volume, entitled "Federal Law and Financial Aid: A framework for evaluating diversity related programs," is the first of three such manuals the College Board plans to release from now until 2006. While some University officials said they will reference the manual, they said the University is focused on a different type of financial aid diversity that falls within federal and state guidelines. "We and the General Counsel believe federal law prohibits this Office from using race as a factor in awarding aid," Financial Aid Office Director Yvonne Hubbard said.

Council amends attendance guidelines

At their meeting last night, Council unanimously passed both a bill amending Council's attendance policy and a resolution that respectfully recognizes the death of Commerce School Dean Ellen Marie Whitener, who died March 22 from meningitis. The bill that amended the attendance policy in the Council's bylaws established new attendance policies for Council members at their regular Tuesday meetings. Council tabled four bills for a week to be voted on next Tuesday as is standard procedure. The first of these bills is a resolution recommending revisions to the online course evaluation data collection procedure. Council also tabled a resolution to implement other forms of student identification instead of using a student's social security number. "The system is kind of old," Council Vice President of Administration Greg Jackson said. The bill, sponsored by Jackson, Vice President of Organizations Rebecca Keyworth and College rep.