AS SOON as first years come to Grounds and move into their dorms, barely after they have had a chance to unpack and meet the stranger they will be living with for the next nine months, they are swept up into a host of activities, lectures and opportunities as Fall Orientation begins.
What's new? How can I help you? Nope, not the normal opening to a column in a newspaper. But this isn't a normal opinion column.
DIVERSITY is a word much discussed at the University as a new generation of earnest egalitarians strives to correct the racist and sexist injustices of our past.
"BE CAREFUL, and here's your BAC card." Congratulations. You've just been armed with what most first years take away from the University's alcohol orientation instruction.
WHEN THE class of 2008 moved into first-year dorms just a year ago, things at the University were different.
SAY GOODBYE to home-cooked meals and get ready to do your own laundry (or not?) every week. That's right, for first-year students, getting acclimated to the lifestyle of a University student can be a shock.
CHARLOTTESVILLE may have been rated the best place to live in America, and the University may be one of the best public universities, but let's face it: This place ain't perfect.
"I'M EMBARRASSED that there's so much air time absorbed by the latest missing-girl story," Michelle Malkin recently lamented to American Enterprise Online.
WHEN STUDENTS see the construction of the new $130 million John Paul Jones Arena, it's easy to see how they could think that the athletic department is a money pit.
WHILE some are valedictorians, class presidents, star soccer players and honor students; for tens of thousands of high school students who are undocumented immigrants, the future of their education ends in 12th grade. In a case brought against several Virginia colleges and universities by the Mexican-American Legal Defense and Education Fund, a U.S.
HECTIC: a word many people would use to describe the process of signing up for classes at the University.
IT SEEMS that, for Virginia at least, it's time to amend the old adage about death and taxes. The only things certain anymore, it would appear, are taxes and virulent opposition to taxes. In time for last month's primary, Americans for Tax Reform, a special interest group that advocates a flat tax, bought out advertising space in subways and newspaper to post their "Virginia's Least Wanted" list of the names and pictures of the 19 Republican delegates and 15 Republican senators in the statehouse who voted with the governor on desperately needed revenue increases this year.
While there are many excellent attributes to the University itself, the most important thing I have learned in my two years at the University has implications that reach beyond the college experience.
I PROBABLY should not have to tell anyone that things are usally more complicated than they at first seem, but that is a lesson students should learn during their first year the University of Virginia.
WRITING an advice column almost never comes easily. Avoiding clichés can become an impossible task.
COMING to the University as a law student, my first experience with the University was being racially profiled.
THE UNIVERSITY has a wide variety of interesting and, to be honest, often confusing or seemingly random traditions and terms.
DESIGNING your dream schedule is easy. The University offers hundreds of challenging, fascinating courses on all of the subjects you could ever want to study.
FREE FOOD. Many students equate these two words with class councils. While we take pride in competing with Dining Services for the stomachs of University students, the mission of class councils does not actually revolve around pizza and barbecue.
ALTHOUGH Thomas Jefferson referred to himself as "the Father of the University of Virginia," his only official title was first rector of the Board of Visitors.
