Charlottesville Police Chief J.W. "Buddy" Rittenhouse announced his retirement yesterday, ending 35 years of service to the community. Rittenhouse will retire Feb.
As presidential candidates Texas Gov. George W. Bush (R) and Vice President Al Gore (D) embark on whirlwind campaign tours to woo potential voters, both camps have blatantly omitted traditionally Republican Virginia from their campaign itineraries.
The work of University physicians has helped bolster the fight against one of the deadliest diseases on the planet: lung cancer. A lung screening technique, introduced by a trio of University doctors - Thomas Daniel, Jonathan Truwit and Spencer Gay - promotes the early detection of lung cancer. Their method is not only cheaper than past methods but also safer for the patient.
Accidentally-bred mice may hold the cure for a debilitating intestinal disease. The mice, originally bred by a group of Japanese scientists to study the aging process, developed lower intestinal problems and now are key players in the study of Crohn's disease, which is the inflammation of the lower intestine. After scientists realized the mice were no good for their study, they shipped them all the way to Charlottesville, where University researchers are studying the disease. The University research got a jump start recently when the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases gave a $5.1 million grant over five years to fund further study of Crohn's disease. "If this mouse model truly represents human disease, this research will lead to a mechanistic understanding of Crohn's disease and help in the development of new therapeutic strategies," said Biomedical Engineering Prof.
Coming all the way from Kansas, Vicki Coleman set up office in Clemons Library yesterday, where she will serve as the library's new director. "I would like to ensure meeting the needs of the students today and in the future," Coleman said of her new position at Clemons, which also houses the Robertson Media Center. Coleman, who has significant experience in working with library systems, previously worked at the University of Kansas at Lawrence, where she was the director of the Spahr Engineering Library.
While going through their workout routines at the North Grounds Recreation Center yesterday morning, several people were forced to evacuate after a small gas leak at a neighboring construction site. No one was injured and the evacuation took only 20 minutes, said Benjamin Powell, battalion chief of the Charlottesville Fire Department.
The company that produced the identification bracelets used in 1995's infamous University Hospital baby swap filed a motion last week to dismiss one of the switched babies' mother's lawsuits against the corporation. Precision Dynamics Corp.
In his first address to faculty since announcing his resignation last week, Dean of the College Melvyn P.
Ending a long Greek social tradition, sororities will no longer mix with fraternities at fraternity houses if alcohol is served. Almost all of the University's 16 sororities' national chapters have passed policies prohibiting mixers at fraternity houses with alcohol.
U.S. Rep. Virgil Goode (I-5th) emphasized the importance of voting Republican in this fall's elections during a speech to the College Republicans last night, despite his current lack of party affiliation. Goode, a former Democrat who is now an Independent, often aligns himself with Republicans and last night he expressed many views that lined up with GOP positions. For example, Goode voted to eliminate the marriage tax penalty and voted against the estate tax, which places a tax on people's estates to be paid by their heirs.
Admitting women to the University in 1970 was a monumental step for a school that had been predominately male since its opening in 1825.
In 1978, University President Frank Loucks Hereford Jr. told the University Union's Faculty Forum Plus the story of Carol Ann Preston Davis. In 1892, Davis, one of the only women at the University at the time, took a math exam and performed extremely well on it.
Virginia Secretary of Education Wilbert Bryant and Larry J. Sabato, government and foreign affairs professor, are expected to announce a joint partnership between the University's Youth Leadership Initiative and the Virginia Student/Parent Mock Election today in Richmond.
Thanks to the efforts of one of the University's newest charitable organizations, migrant workers in the Charlottesville area will now have access to basic medical care and health education. Beginning this year, the Migrant Outreach Network, a second chapter of the University's Nursing Students Without Borders group, will provide basic health assessments and education to migrant workers in Albemarle and surrounding counties.
Gastrointestinal problems like irritable bowel syndrome and cramping are not common topics of conversation -- especially for women.
The foliage around the Rotunda just got too unwieldy for the otherwise serene Jeffersonian landscape. The 14 boxwood shrubs wrapping around the Rotunda's north terrace grew big and bushy and blocked the view of the Rotunda.
For millions of Americans, Labor Day marks the unofficial end of summer and the last long weekend before fall. For many University employees and students, however, Labor Day offers no break in the routine of going to work or attending classes. While some employees expressed discontent with working on a state holiday, most workers said they did not mind. Pavilion XI employee April Oliver said working on Labor Day was difficult, "especially if you have kids at home." History professor Nelson Lichtenstein, a member of the Labor Action Group, said he and other members of the group think there should be a system in place for employees to influence the University's decision to close on holidays. "There's no mechanism [at the University] to decide whether to close on Labor Day," Lichtenstein said. James Lee, Pavilion location manager, said some workers were unhappy with the system because they misunderstood the compensation policy. Employees will either be given a day off very close to the holiday they had to work, or they can choose not to take a day off and be paid for an extra day, Lee said. University News Services Director Carol Wood said it was unavoidable for the University to have certain employees overlook holidays when students remain in class. "Clearly there are certain people who have to work ... to keep everything moving for the students," she said. But most members of the University community expressed little to no resentment over missing a day off that many Americans accept as a matter of course. Bookstore clerk Scott Burnet said working on Labor Day is not an issue for him. "Everybody who works for the University just gets used to it," Burnet said.
The Honor Committee lost one of its five executive officers at last night's meeting when, in closed session, fourth-year Architecture student Scott Sottile resigned from his position as Vice Chairman for Services and the Honor Committee as a whole. Sottile has served the honor system in various functions for three years, but he said he has become disenchanted with the system since becoming a member of the Executive Committee last spring.
The University's return to the top of the U.S. News & World Report rankings for public universities should have a limited effect on fund-raising efforts, University officials said. U.S.
Concerns about the fairness of a proposed change in the first-year housing assignment system prompted administrators to seek student input over the summer before resubmitting the proposal to the Office of the Vice President and Provost. The new system would attempt to diversify first-year residence halls by randomly assigning students who choose the "first-year housing" option to either the McCormick or Alderman Road areas, rather than allowing them to choose between the two. "The proposal is based on an observation that a higher percentage of African-American students reside in the Alderman area as compared to McCormick," said Director of Housing Mark Doherty. After the proposal originally was submitted early last summer, administrators expressed concern about potentially negative student reactions to the change, Associate Provost Shirley Menaker said.
