This past weekend I flew back into Dulles from Dallas/Fort Worth and made it about 20 minutes down the road to Charlottesville before intense hunger drove me to a Cracker Barrel right before the Route 29 turn-off.
The University's mock trial team competed at the National Championship Tournament in Des Moines, Iowa, for the first time in its history. Both teams sent by the University finished in the top 15 in a field of 64 teams.
The Student Council Representative Body heard appeals Tuesday night from 11 Contracted Independent Organizations. During the appeals process, Council gives CIOs the opportunity to have decisions made by the Appropriations Committee reconsidered by the Representative Body.
The University announced Wednesday that beginning this fall, health insurance costs will increase and all students will have to prove that they have health insurance before registering for courses. The University's health care provider, Chickering Group, will increase its premiums by nearly 34 percent to $1,600 a year.
Chanting "one-in-four, one-in-four, we won't take it anymore," hundreds of demonstrators marched from the downtown amphitheatre to the Rotunda in the 16th annual Take Back the Night, an event to raise community awareness about sexual assault and domestic violence. "Sexual assault and domestic violence remain a stigmatized and silenced problem," said Larissa Kravamja, president of All Women Attaining Knowledge and Enrichment, a co-sponsor of the event.
The first floor of Gilmer is an area rarely visited by many University students. It is a world all unto its own -- full of laboratories, heavy machinery, chemicals and lab coats.
When the Virginia General Assembly finally passes a budget and adjourns, legislators will leave behind a session that saw high profile debates and hundreds of small bills constituting the nuts and bolts of state lawmaking. At the same time, however, the looming budget impasse, if not resolved, threatens a July 1 government shutdown and keeps recipients of state money unsure of what level of funding they will receive. Out of the spotlight Del.
While it may seem difficult to make changes to an honor system steeped in tradition, Honor Committee and faculty members say they are working to address faculty concerns and ultimately strengthen the community of trust. The Faculty Senate passed a proposition statement yesterday in support of increased dialogue with the Honor Committee in the coming years.
The glass is both half-full and half-empty when it comes to socioeconomic status in higher education, according to William G.
A female University student allegedly was the victim of an attempted sexual assault last Tuesday near a dumpster outside Fitzhugh dormitory, according to University Police Capt.
Rich Felker, a Graduate Arts and Sciences student and member of Students for a Free Tibet, was arrested in the Rotunda Monday for attempting to chain himself to a banister inside the building during a speech by Yang Jiechi, the Chinese ambassador to the United States. University Police arrested Felker and charged him with two misdemeanors: disorderly conduct and an attempt to participate in and/or incite a riot, University Police Capt.
A report by the Family, Gender and Tenure Project at the University says professors requesting extended parental paid leave are significantly more likely to receive it at a private university than a public university, according to a report in the Chronicle. After examining the results of their national study of 168 institutions, Project Director Charmaine Yoest and University Politics Prof.
According to an Associated Press story, three student newspapers -- the Tartan at Carnegie Mellon University, the Aquinas at the University of Scranton and the Gateway at the University of Nebraska-Omaha -- have attracted varying degrees of controversy because of their April 1 editions. The Tartan's 12-page April 1 issue "The Natrat" received dozens of complaints about a cartoon involving an ethnic slur and poems about rape and mutilation, which has led to an administrative investigation.
Like the University, faculty at other Virginia colleges and universities play an integral role in supporting and maintaining their honor systems. At the University of Richmond, faculty members are largely responsible for initiating honor cases even though the system is entirely student-run, said Chase Rowan, Richmond College honor council chair. "They are the principle source of accusations," Rowan said.
Third-year College student Amey Adkins said she never expected to be one of the students selected to live on the Lawn, much less in one of the seven endowed rooms. Adkins was announced yesterday as the next resident of the Gus Blagden Room, an honor colloquially referred to as "the Good Guy" award. "I had nominated someone else, and I wasn't expecting that someone would nominate me," Adkins said.
In a report set for release today, the University Board of Elections recommended that new UBE members make better use of Internet capabilities and that the University adopt a uniform policy on chalking and fliers. The report advised the incoming UBE to consider adding a write-in voting option in the future.
After deferring a rate increase for a full year because of the lack of pay increases for University employees, Parking and Transportation announced yesterday it will increase parking fees. Beginning June 1, consumer permits will increase from $11 to $12 per month, reserved spaces from $22 to $24 and premium reserved spaces from $31 to $34. "We want it to show the low-cost alternative to parking in the closer in lots," Director of Parking and Transportation Rebecca Wright said.
Incoming Student Council President Noah Sullivan released his nominees yesterday for Council's 2004-05 executive board. Sullivan nominated Adam Sanders for chief technology administrator, David Perdue for chief financial officer, Peter Farrell for director of University relations and current Council President Daisy Lundy for chief of staff. "I call it the dream team," Sullivan said.
Charlottesville City Council members have proposed a minimum wage increase from $8.28 to $9 for City employees as a part of this year's budget. The increase is part of Council's living wage policy, implemented in 1999 in an effort to pay all City employees a wage determined by the federal government as sufficient to keep a family of four just above the poverty level, City Vice-mayor Meredith Richards said. Despite Council's efforts to match federal standards in 1999 and make subsequent annual increases of 3 to 4 percent in the wages of all City employees, the City's minimum wage fell short of the $9 federal minimum wage this year. Although the minimum wage increase will cost the city $137,000, Council members are willing to make sacrifices in other areas of the budget to ensure an adequate minimum wage for its employees, Richards said. "It is basic decency on the part of the City to make sure its employees are able to feed, clothe and house their families," Richards said. In order to do so, the City cut $50,000 from its underground and utilities contingency fund, $50,000 from its economic development initiative and $40,000 from the McIntire Parks improvement budget. Council members said they hope that the minimum wage increase for City employees will inspire other local employers to follow its example, as has been the case in the past. "We feel that we set the bar in 1999, and we are setting it again," Richards said.
Lethal Wrecker Service will no longer be towing on Grounds as of 7 a.m. this morning because it failed to meet the requirements set by the University for contracted private towing companies, said Rebecca White, director of parking and transportation.
