News

Insurance verification blocks thousands from class registration

Just fewer than 3,000 University students who have yet to verify their health insurance information with Student Health will be blocked from registering for spring classes today. In a mass e-mail sent to those who had yet to verify their insurance information last night, students were warned they will be ineligible to register for classes as of today until they verify their information. Since the 1960s, the University has required all students to have health insurance, but only since this fall have students been required to verify their information with Student Health administrators to ensure compliance with the requirement. "Now that we have the capability through computers and through an online system, we can be sure that students have health care," said Virginia Carter, director of external relations for the office of student affairs.

University cancels clinic due to flu vaccine shortage

Following the license suspension of a leading flu vaccine manufacturer last week, University Medical Center officials are saying vaccine rationing will need to take place locally.

T.A. dismissal prompts call for discussion at faculty meeting

English Department Chair Gordon Braden sent an e-mail to the entire English Department faculty yesterday to clarify details surrounding the Monday dismissal of English graduate student Justin Gifford from his teaching assistant position. Some faculty members have requested a collective discussion of Gifford's dismissal at a faculty-wide departmental meeting.

Miller Center recipient of large grant

The leading national organization that provides funds to humanities projects recently announced a $577,500 grant to the University's Miller Center for Public Affairs. The National Endowment for the Humanities, an independent federal agency, will endow the funds as part of its "We the People" initiative to research important ideas and events in American history and share this information with the public, according to the NEH Web site. The funds will be allocated to the Miller Center's AmericanPresident.org program. "AmericanPresident.org is an outreach to teachers, students and the general public to strengthen teaching and knowledge about the American presidency," said Margaret Edwards, Miller Center director for external relations.

State legislators discuss lack of education funds

Funding for Virginia's growing higher education demands dominated the discussion as Commonwealth legislators gathered for the Student Council Legislative Affairs Committee's ABC's of Higher Education Forum last night in the Chemistry Auditorium. While several of the representatives opened with quips about in-state school rivalries and gray hair, Del.

Kerry camp. moves staffers out of Virginia

With the Nov. 2 presidential election looming on the horizon and their candidate down as many as six points in the latest Virginia polls, Sen.

Gov. orders reevaluation of old cases using DNA

The office of Gov. Mark R. Warner issued a letter last week directing the Division of Forensic Science in Richmond to reevaluate old cases using recent DNA technologies in order to exonerate people being held in Virginia prisons for violent crimes that the technologies could prove they did not commit. "In the past, the serologists would sometimes save forensic evidence from case files if they thought they might be able to do some work with it later," Warner spokesperson Ellen Qualls said.

BIRTHDAY

Harvard prof. admits misuse of copyrighted work

Famed constitutional scholar and Harvard Law Prof. Laurence Tribe recently admitted to not citing passages he took from a book by retired University Politics Prof.

Architect office explores kiosks

Traditionally stuck to walls, benches, columns and even the ground, flyers have long dominated the University's landscape as they advertise everything from rallies to choral sings to birthdays.

Here we grow again...

Fifteen years after the University hospital first moved into its towering eight-story home just south of the Rotunda, the portion of Grounds known as the health systems precinct is once again slated for drastic change. The University's Main Hospital, built at a cost of approximately $230 million in the late 80's, is now undergoing an $87 million expansion and renovation, and more projects are on the way. In a largely procedural move last Friday, the Building and Grounds Committee of the Board of Visitors approved a revision in the University's master plan to accommodate nearly $150 million in additional construction over the next decade. "What we're trying to do is look at the footprint and have it make sense to those who use it," Board Member Mark J.

Group OKs new early-action plan

The National Association for College Admission Counseling voted this past week to permit member colleges to implement "single-choice early-action plans," which allow students to submit non-binding early admissions applications but prevents them from applying early to other schools. The vote seeks to bring uniformity to an admissions system dominated by several binding and nonbinding deadlines.

BSA issues proposals to improve diversity

At the Black Student Alliance's second public meeting for its "Zero Tolerance for Ignorance" campaign last night, BSA officers released a list of recommendations to improve race relations at the University. Isaac Agbeshie-Noye, BSA vice president of networking, reviewed the list of recommendations drafted at a Sept.

Council supports reinstatement of T.A.

In a vote that almost did not take place last night, Student Council introduced and passed a resolution to support the reinstatement of recently dismissed English Department teaching assistant Justin Gifford. Gifford was relieved from his teaching position Monday in response to an incident in which he and 23 University students in his detective fiction class were arrested for trespassing at a former tuberculosis hospital owned by the University Foundation. Under standard Council procedure, resolutions are introduced, tabled automatically for one week and then voted upon by the representative body at the next Council meeting. Last night, Council initially voted down a motion to suspend its rules, which would have allowed Council to take an immediate vote. "I think it is important for Council to have the opportunity to express our view on this matter in a timely manner," said Executive Vice President Whitney Garrison, who sponsored the resolution. A subsequent motion to suspend the tabling rule passed, which opened debate on the resolution. Garrison and Council President Noah Sullivan were among the most vocal proponents of the resolution. "This is a complicated issue," Sullivan said.

Growing Pains

As the University continues to grow in all directions, its presence is increasingly being felt by the city. Though the University owns enough land to meet its immediate expansion needs, using such resources often requires removing existing tenants from their businesses on University property. To facilitate construction of a temporary core laboratory facility on Main Street, the University is planning to tear down a nearby Papa John's once its lease runs out by the end of the year. Similarly, to support the hospital's current expansion, in 2002 the University purchased and removed two well-known nightclubs including Trax, a two-decade old music venue where the Dave Matthews Band once regularly played. "Everything that's run-down, they're picking up," said Elizabeth Coles, a fiscal tech senior in the Medical School and executive vice president of the staff union at the University of Virginia. For those who will staff the new structures, finding affordable housing in the nearby Charlottesville can be difficult, Coles added. "What about affordable housing for employees who are going to be servicing these buildings?" she said.

Faculty, students discuss Honor issues at rountable

Insufficient student ownership of the honor system and the hotly-contested single sanction issue dominated an informal roundtable discussion between a group of faculty members and students last night in Jefferson Hall. The discussion was co-sponsored by the Honor Committee and the Second-Year Council. "The point of a program like tonight is to remind students that there are living issues going on with honor every day," Second-Year Council President Ross Baird said. Seven professors from the College, the Darden School, the Engineering School, the Commerce School and the Nursing School addressed their feelings about the honor system. Astronomy Prof.

Board approves amphitheater plan

The revised architectural plan for the future amphitheater at the east end of the Downtown Mall got the green light from the Charlottesville Board of Architectural Review last night after months of reworking and detail clarification. The BAR passed a motion to approve the current plans for the amphitheater at a special meeting requested by the project's architects from FTL Design Engineering Studio and Donna Walcavage Landscape Architecture and Urban Design. However, the BAR has requested that the architects provide additional plans and alternatives pertaining to railings, lighting and the final coordination of design elements. Architects originally submitted a plan for the new amphitheater to the BAR in June. "Pieces of the plan were okay," BAR Chair Joan Fenton said.

Forum series focuses on U.S., Islamic relations

Foreign policy experts came to the Rotunda Dome Room last night as part of a national town hall-style forum series called "Hope Not Hate," which seeks to broaden cultural perspectives between Americans and Muslims in the wake of the Sept.

A STAR IS BORN

Forum participants praise 'hybrid' appropriations idea

Members of Student Council hosted an appropriations reform forum last night, kicking off a series of public discussions that will eventually lead to the establishment of a new system of allocating the Student Activities Fund. "There has been talk of reforming the appropriations system because it was created for a smaller number of student groups," Council Vice President for Organizations Rebecca Keyworth said.