Madison House has announced the newly-elected student candidates of its Board of Directors, according to Heather Flow, co-chair of the 2004-2005 Board.
The U.Va. Collegiate Mock Trial A-Team placed second in its division at the Stetson National Tournament held in St.
Last night a new non-partisan student organization, Americans for Informed Democracy (AID), hosted a town-hall meeting titled "U.S.
President John T. Casteen, III gave his 15th annual State of the University address yesterday in Old Cabell Hall, addressing an audience of over 200 people. In his speech, Casteen reviewed the progress that the University has made in academics, finances and community relations over recent years.
Gov. Mark R. Warner announced Monday that he would propose an amendment to the state budget for 2006 that would maintain financial aid for out-of-state graduate students. "The governor thinks it makes no sense to compete with other institutions for the top students if we can't offer them the financial aid," Warner spokesperson Ellen Qualls said. In the state of Virginia, the budget overrides all other laws, but the Governor is able to amend specific language within the budget, as Warner plans to do with this amendment, Quall said. Ethan Sribnick, president of the Graduate Student Labor Union, said he and members of his organization were happy with the developments.
The National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, an independent, non-profit organization, is working with the National Forum to develop a method for measuring each state's "educational capital." The desire to measure college graduates' ability to solve problems, communicate effectively and think critically has existed for many years, yet progress finally is being made according to Margaret Miller, director of the National Forum and a professor in the Education School. "What happened is that employers have been saying for a long time they weren't quite sure what a college degree warranted, or what skills they would bring into the workplace," Miller said.
Charlottesville may be considered one of the best places to live in America, but not for everyone.
Two members of the Faculty Senate spoke at Sunday's Honor Committee meeting to promote a faculty survey on the honor system. Kenneth Schwartz, chair of the Academic Affairs Committee of the Faculty Senate, and Academic Affairs Committee member Ann Hamric spoke in favor of a survey that would illuminate faculty views on the issue. "We are trying to come to grips with ways of discussing faculty opinions on honor," Schwartz said. The Academic Affairs Committee recommended such a survey to the Faculty Senate in response to recent criticism of the honor system by some faculty members. Hamric said the Faculty Senate wants to get an objective view of faculty opinions on the honor system. "Right now, we're getting a lot of opinions and anecdotal evidence," Hamric said. The Faculty Senate voted unanimously to put the survey in the hands of the Honor Committee. "Because it's a student-run system, any data-gathering needs to be run by the students in the interest of student self-governance," Hamric said. The Honor Committee now will have to decide how to address the issue. "Basically, the Senate just handed it to the students, and it's up to the students what happens now," Hamric said. Several Honor Committee members offered suggestions for survey content. Recently-elected Vice-Chair for Investigations Lauren Ross suggested that questions should be added to the survey which polled faculty knowledge about the honor system. "It seemed that in many areas, the questions were opinion-based," Ross said. Another suggested question for the survey concerned the preparedness of the faculty to address honor issues. "A lot of the faculty have not had a lot of exposure to the Honor Committee views and the views of the student body," outgoing Honor Committee Chair Meghan Sullivan said. Both Schwartz and Hamric urged the Honor Committee to act quickly on the survey. "The irons are hot -- you can get a lot of response out of the faculty right now," Schwartz said. Under the Faculty Senate's proposal, the University's Center for Survey Research would conduct the survey. "These folks are experts at this, and they work throughout the Commonwealth," Schwartz said. Both the Honor Committee and the Faculty Senate representatives were interested in discussing the cost of the survey, estimated between $17,000 and $24,000. "I think the specific cost is something we're going to be concerned about as a committee," Honor Committee member Matt Miller said. Schwartz said the Faculty Senate had already spoken to the University Provost about funding. "There's very little around this University that is more important than honor," Schwartz said.
In an attempt to save money, the Student Council Appropriations Committee has adopted a new process of allocating funds to qualified Contracted Independent Organizations.
Member organizations of the Black Fraternal Council unanimously voted last night to join the National Pan-Hellenic Council, Inc., the umbrella organization for the nine historically black Greek letter fraternities and sororities. "Because of the increased accountability that we have to go through with the NPHC, it will create more of a stable structure," BFC co-Chair Brandon Green said.
By Catherine Conkle Cavalier Daily Staff Writer Last night, a student presentation entitled "Trailblazers: A History and Life of U.Va.
A Multicultural Greek Council committee recently completed rewriting its constitution and bylaws and will meet tonight to finalize the changes before presenting it to the MGC Presidents Council for approval. Members of the MGC felt the need to have a revised edition of the constitution and bylaws to better accommodate the growth of the organization, MGC Parliamentarian Margaret Schiller said. Some of the major changes made in the constitution are clarifying the difference between an associate member and a probationary member, said Christina Ridgway, MGC vice president and head of the Constitution Committee. "The terms 'associate member' and 'probationary member' were used interchangeably with the old constitution," Ridgway said. In the new constitution, the associate member refers to an organization under research of becoming a member of the MGC, while a probationary member refers to one that is already an active organization on a probationary period due to misconduct. Another change in the constitution is a revision to the MGC mission statement to include three more goals. "We want our purpose to cover all of our objectives in terms of what we believe in and what our organization stands for," Ridgway said. Other changes proposed in the new constitution pertain to the leadership positions and the voting procedure. The new constitution establishes a one-year term for executive board members and a semester term for chair positions.
Gov. Mark R. Warner unveiled a third generation broadband fiber-optic network connecting all of Virginia's university's to national and international research networks in the Dome Room of the Rotunda yesterday. The new network was hailed for its significance in increasing the competitiveness of Virginia universities in conducting ground-breaking research and receiving federal research grants. "If the Commonwealth is to be competitive, we must make our universities our intellectual capacity creators," Warner said.
The new presidents of three Greek governing councils and the outgoing president of the Black Fraternal Council met Friday to discuss their goals for this year's Inter-Greek Committee. The participation of the new presidents of the Inter-Sorority Council, Inter-Fraternity Council, Multicultural Greek Council, and Black Fraternal Council -- Christina Valencia, Ross Kimbel, Julie Chung and Ryan Chatman, respectively -- marks the first year that three of the Greek governing council presidents have previously served on the IGC. The IGC was founded in the spring of 2003 as a service group and programming entity in charge of Greek Week and Greek Awards, said Kat Shea, a fourth-year College student and IGC facilitator. The council is made up of the Facilitator and two representatives from each of the four Greek councils. One of the major goals of the IGC is involvement in community events, Kimbel said. "It is an avenue by which individual Greek governing councils can come together to reach out to the community of Charlottesville and the University community," Kimbel said. Shea said one of the biggest goals of the coming year is getting the executive boards of the four Greek councils to interact more often with the IGC. "One of the things that is lacking is an overall sense of Greek identity and recognizing we are part of such a large system," Shea said. The IGC is facing a strong year for growth, Valencia said. "It's huge," Kimbel added.
International students may have difficulty getting errors in federal tracking records corrected, according to a Government Accountability Office report released Thursday. The Student and Exchange Visitor Information System is a detailed compilation of the travel plans and academic and criminal records of international students studying in the United States. SEVIS has been found to contain minor errors, and continuing technical problems can potentially cause travel and enrollment difficulties for foreign students, according to the GAO study. Though the report cited progress in the usability of SEVIS's Help Desk support since a June 2004 report, some students still experience difficulties. The GAO report was issued in connection with a Congressional hearing request regarding SEVIS. An Institute for International Education report, released last November, cited a decrease in the number of international students studying in the United States during the 2003-2004 academic year. The GAO report attributes the decline, to changing visa policies and "increased global competition," not SEVIS difficulties. SEVIS staff was increased in 2003 to improve Help Desk accessibility, and requests for data error corrections have decreased since 2003. The SEVIS records are maintained by U.S.
This weekend 96 of the University's most sought-after prospective students visited the University for a weekend of Jefferson scholar tryouts. The students took part in a number of written exercises and tests, interviews with faculty, alumni and administrators, and other activities designed to give the students an idea of what it is like to be a student at the University, organizers said. "It was incredible weekend," said Katherine Klem, a first-year College student and Jefferson Scholar. Klem took part in the program last year as a prospective student and showed Jefferson candidates around this year. "The best part was meeting the current finalists and the other finalists and just getting so excited about the possibility of coming to U.Va.," Klem said. Jefferson Scholars receive full four-year merit-based scholarships to attend the University.
At their meeting last night, the Honor Committee announced its new Executive Committee for the 2005-2006 school year. The new Executive Committee was elected yesterday during the annual Honor retreat attended by the new and current Honor Committee. Newly-elected Honor Executive Committee members include Chair David Hobbs, Vice-chair for Services Trevor McFadden, Vice-chair for Education Randall Warden, Vice-chair for Investigations Lauren Ross and Vice-chair for Trials Stewart Ackerly. The Honor Committee announced its new Executive Committee for the 2005-2006 school year last night. Current chair Meghan Sullivan noted that the new Executive Committee has a combined 16 years experience with Honor. The new Honor Committee will spend the next two weeks preparing to take office. "One of the Honor Committee's main tasks over the next two weeks is transitioning the new Committee," Sullivan said. During the retreat the new Honor Committee was trained in the past and present state of the honor system, including the actions of the current Committee. "The current Committee is handing off a lot of good work we hope to carry forward," Hobbs said. Yesterday, on the last day of the three-day retreat, the new committee discussed their aims for the upcoming year. One of the major goals of the new Executive Committee is the pursuit of diversity. "We need to look into a new and permanent effort to gain diversity in the system," Hobbs said. Ross agreed that the University community has become very diverse and that they would like the Honor Committee to reflect that diversity. Ackerly referenced the issue of initiations bias against foreign students by noting the need to especially recruit international students. Other aims of the new Executive Committee include streamlining the logistical side of honor cases and improving honor education.
Four months ago, the wild horses of the American West were doomed to a deadly fate from which it is unlikely that they will be rescued.
In science everything must be questioned, but there seems to be a dangerous tendency to raise certain concepts above reproach.
