News

News

Anti-spam system will filter U.Va. inboxes

By Whitney Garrison | October 31, 2003

While many students have experienced everything from denied access to delayed mail delivery and inundations of mass e-mails this past week, ITC has good news for frustrated University computer users. Students soon may have the convenience of a user-friendly spam filtration option through the University's Webmail service. ITC Network Systems Manager Robin Ruggaber said the preliminary tests for the anti-spam system look good. "We're fairly optimistic that it will work," she said. Ruggaber said they hope to make the system open to the public in the next few weeks. Anti-spam measures are "something that people have been asking for, for a long time, so we're pretty excited about the project," she added. Third-year College student Matt Oberhardt complained about the abundance of spam in his inbox. "Spam is a pain in the ass," Oberhardt said.

---

News

Housing changes application procedures

By Anthony LaMesa | October 31, 2003

Changes to the University Housing Division's assignment process for the upcoming year will make it easier for first-year students to acquire their desired housing choices, officials said yesterday. Last year, upperclassmen who wanted to switch rooms or housing locations did so in a phase prior to first-year students in the Alderman and McCormick dorms applying for housing, according to Director of Accommodations John Evans. This year, upperclassmen who wish to switch rooms will enter a lottery for priority assignment at the same time as first-year students, which will be conducted after Jan.

---

News

Wounded bear roams Charlottesville

By Christine Wallace | October 30, 2003

A wild black bear has been spotted roaming in the city of Charlottesville for at least the past few weeks. The bear was last seen Tuesday near Barracks Road and Blue Ridge Road, according to Charlottesville Police Sgt.

---

News

U.Va. Health System: Careful when carving pumpkins

By Cavalier Daily Staff | October 30, 2003

The University Health System issued a media advisory yesterday just in time for Halloween, warning potential pumpkin carvers to use caution, or stick to paint, when working on this year's spooky creations. Serious hand injuries can result to both children and adults as a consequence of pumpkin-carving accidents, warned Dr. Greg Degnan, director of the Virginia Hand Center at the University Health System. Serious cuts and permanent tendon and nerve damage can occur instantly if a pumpkin carver's hand is in the wrong place while dislodging a stuck knife, Degnan said. The American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons in a recent study recommended the use of pumpkin carving kits in order to stave off hand injuries.

---

News

Yes, they're real: Duke creates telekinetic monkeys

By Omid Fatemi | October 30, 2003

Although exploratory neurosurgery in the field of primate neurocomputation sounds relatively simple, it has, in fact, proven exceedingly difficult for a very long time.

---

News

States suspend prepaid tuition programs

By Jason Amirhadji | October 30, 2003

As a result of budgetary constraints, the Ohio Tuition Trust Authority, a prepaid tuition program, announced earlier this month that it would not accept payments toward the state's prepaid tuition program next year. Tuition increases, coupled with lower than expected investment returns were cited in a press release as mitigating factors in the decision. In August, the Authority attempted to address these issues by increasing contribution costs, but it was nonetheless forced to freeze new enrollment Oct.

---

News

BURNING THE MIDNIGHT OIL

By Cavalier Daily Staff | October 30, 2003

University construction teams raised a new foot bridge over Emmet Street into place late Tuesday night.

---

News

Unauthorized mass e-mails slow server

By Kathleen Meyers and Riley McDonald | October 30, 2003

Service on the University central mail server slowed dramatically yesterday after a mysterious e-mail was sent to 750 undergraduates Tuesday night.

---

News

Student participates in Senate hearing

By Kara Rowland | October 30, 2003

The U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions addressed intellectual diversity in higher education yesterday, featuring testimony from a University student. In a hearing titled, "Is Intellectual Diversity an Endangered Species on America's College Campuses?," third-year College student Anthony Dick was invited to speak on issues surrounding the University speech policies, his opposition to mandatory diversity training and the academic climate on Grounds. Dick, also president of the Individual Rights Coalition, was joined by three other witnesses: A professor from Brooklyn College and City University of New York, the president of the American Council of Trustees and Alumni and the director of legal and public advocacy for the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE). "The witnesses represent a spectrum of experiences that have been affected by the lack of intellectually diversity," said Josh Shields, spokesperson for the committee's majority staff.

---

News

Student interest in 'passport' program grows

By Natasha Altamirano | October 30, 2003

Last night marked the third in a series of six information sessions for the University's fledgling Passport Program, a joint initiative of students, faculty and administrators designed to encourage student participation in diverse programming and events. The Office of the Dean of Students launched the program last semester in conjunction with the Office of African American Affairs, the International Studies Office and Embrace Diversity. "The program gives people the opportunity to attend events that they would normally not go to and to get a better sense of the diversity within our community," Embrace Diversity President Barrie Leigh Moorman said. Although only in the primary stages of its second year, the program has already drawn a larger group of interested participants than last year, said Neha Shinde, graduate assistant in the Office of the Dean of Students and a member of the program's organizing committee. "At our first information session last year not many people knew about it," Shinde said.

---

News

Fair attracts diverse applicant pool

By Jon Breece | October 29, 2003

Tie and business suit-clad students with resumes in hand descended on the University's Minority Career Day yesterday. The event attracted approximately 1,000 students from 30 colleges and universities throughout the Commonwealth and the District of Columbia, including the College of William & Mary and American University.

---

News

Correction

By Cavalier Daily Staff | October 29, 2003

In Monday's news story "UTS bus hits health system employee," the third paragraph incorrectly attributed Rebecca White, director of University parking and transportation, with providing the names of the bus driver and the person hit by the bus.

---

News

Census to gauge characteristics of University Greeks

By Natasha Altamirano | October 29, 2003

All students in Greek organizations come from upper-class backgrounds. Only those with legacy status will be recruited into certain houses.

---

News

Albemarle County SAT scores increase

By Sarah R. Gatsos | October 29, 2003

Albemarle and Western Albemarle High School students demonstrated their ability to conquer analogies, word problems and geometry this past year. Albemarle County's SAT scores showed an increase above the national average for the graduating class of 2003. The average national SAT score for the class of 2003 was a combined total of 1026.

---

News

As University plans for future, land's use remains in limbo

By Josh Goodman | October 29, 2003

If bigger is better, the University will soon be as good as it gets. Many examples of University expansion, such as the new parking garage, new basketball arena and the South Lawn Project, are well known to students. Others, such as the pending acquisition of the 180 to 200 acre Foxhaven Farm by the University's Real Estate Foundation, have gone virtually unnoticed, but nonetheless have implications for what the University and its surrounding areas will look like years down the road. Making a Deal Foxhaven Farm encompasses a wide swath of land to the West of Charlottesville that touches the Bel Air neighborhood and Birdwood golf course to the North and East, the Charlottesville Reservoir in the West and nearly to Fontaine Avenue in the South.

---

News

Southern Methodist University halts political protest, bake sale

By Whitney Garrison | October 29, 2003

Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas shut down a bake sale last Wednesday in which cookies were offered at different prices, according to the buyer's gender or race. The SMU Young Conservatives of Texas organized the sale and members said it was intended as a protest against the use of affirmative action in college admissions condoned by the Supreme Court in the University of Michigan case decided in June. A lower court banned Texas universities from using race as a factor in admissions in 1996. The bake sale's sign listed the prices for a cookie: $1 for white men, 75 cents for white women, 50 cents for Hispanics and 25 cents for blacks. Similar sales have been held by College Republican chapters at colleges in at least five other states since February. A black student filed a complaint with SMU, saying the sale was offensive.

---

News

Server crashes, students lose access to e-mail

By Whitney Garrison | October 29, 2003

One of Information Technology and Communication Office's four e-mail servers failed early yesterday morning, preventing many students from accessing their e-mail accounts between 5:30 a.m.

---

News

Historical marker dedicated Monday outside Poe room on Range

By Whitney Garrison | October 29, 2003

The University and the City of Charlottesville honored author Edgar Allan Poe Monday by unveiling a historical marker outside he occupied on the Range for one academic session in 1826. Charlottesville Mayor Maurice Cox spoke outside Poe's room, reminiscing about his first experience with Poe's literature and praising the author's prose and poetry. Cox and other officials congratulated the city's Historic Resources Task Force for initiating the historical sign project. Satyendra S.

---

News

Policy expert calls for more state revenue, reforms to tax code

By Anthony LaMesa | October 29, 2003

If Virginia's antiquated tax code is not reformed to provide new state revenue, the Commonwealth will be unable to fund basic services such as public education at former levels of quality, a University economist said.

---

News

UTS bus hits health system employee

By Mary Pumphrey | October 28, 2003

In what officials are calling the most serious accident in University Transit System history, a UTS bus traveling on the Green route struck a pedestrian in the early morning hours Friday. The bus, driven by Clarence Feggans Jr., a full-time non-student driver, struck Margaret Potts, an animal caretaker at the University Health System's Center for Comparative Medicine, as she attempted to cross Jefferson Park Avenue, according to Rebecca White, director of University parking and transportation. Potts' condition was listed as critical as of yesterday afternoon, University Health Center spokesperson Margurite Beck said.