In just a few weeks, thousands of University of Virginia students are able to return to Grounds. One possible way to track their health is pool testing. That’s when a group of individuals is tested, typically in a low-risk population, to save resources such as reagents, which are difficult to come by right now. However, Dr. Amy Mathers, an infectious disease physician at UVA Health, says pool testing does have some shortcomings.
WVIR-NBC-29 (Charlottesville)
WVTF Public Radio/Radio IQ (Roanoke)
With much of the nation working from home, managers face a challenge: how to promote productivity when people aren’t in the office. Some are turning to sophisticated software to track workers’ every move online, but Roshni Raveendhran, a UVA business professor, says that’s the wrong way to go.
Forbes
Many people are fighting bitterly about all kinds of contracts, ranging from weddings to conferences to leases to factory output. What will happen to all of these contracts? It turns out that we can’t be sure, according to a new paper cowritten by Cathy Hwang, of UVA’s School of Law.
WCYB News 5 (Bristol, Va.)
UVA Wise announced that it is delaying the fall semester start from Aug. 12 to Aug. 26. Additionally, the school is mailing out COVID-19 test kits to students before they arrive on campus.
The New Yorker
On June 2, the music industry launched #BlackoutTuesday, an action against police brutality that involved, among other things, Instagram and Facebook users posting plain black boxes to their accounts. The posts often included the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter; almost immediately, social-media users were inundated with even more posts, which explained why using that hashtag drowned out crucial information about events and resources with a sea of mute boxes. For Meredith Clark, a media-studies professor at the University of Virginia, the response illustrated how the B.L.M.
Nature
In the meantime, funding agencies might be able to help researchers negotiate better rates, says Philip Bourne, dean of data science at the University of Virginia. The U.S. National Institutes of Health does this with its Science and Technology Research Infrastructure for Discovery, Experimentation and Sustainability Initiative – which uses cloud resources to streamline NIH data.
Associated Press
A judge dismissed a legal challenge Monday that had been blocking Virginia officials from removing a towering statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee from the state’s capital city, but he immediately imposed another injunction against dismantling the figure. UVA law professor Richard Schragger said the judge’s ruling was “favorable” for the property owners. “That doesn’t mean the state can’t prevail, but that the judge has at least taken the basic facts and read them in a favorable light for the plaintiffs,” he said.
Building Design + Construction
Built in the 1950s to serve freshmen students, Bonnycastle Hall is part of the McCormick Road Houses complex at the University of Virginia. Prior to their renovation, the buildings lacked many of the amenities and creature comforts found in newer residence halls on UVA’s campus. New interior finishes and an emphasis on transparency and daylighting create a contemporary aesthetic and make the space more attractive to students.
Charlottesville Daily Progress
A documentary about the legacy of George H.W. Bush, co-produced by the University of Virginia’s Miller Center of Public Affairs and VPM public TV, will debut nationally this week. Titled “Statecraft: The Bush 41 Team,” the film offers a unique look at the foreign policy legacy of Bush via the his Presidential Oral History, the historical record and accounts from advisers, according to a news release.
WVIR-NBC-29 (Charlottesville)
A new documentary produced by the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia about the United States’ 41st president will hit television screens Tuesday. “Statecraft: The Bush 41 Team” is a documentary directed by local film maker Lori Shinseki about the presidency of George H.W. Bush.
Richmond Times-Dispatch
Researchers Test Drive New Virus-Killing Robot Prototype at Daily Planet Health Services in Richmond
The weekend provided the real-world test drive of a semiautonomous robot that researchers call Dingo. A UVA robotics professor and fellow researchers envision one day the prototype will be used in airports, grocery stores, train stations and other locations to kill viruses on surfaces.
CIO
A recent article published by UVA’s Darden School of Business underscores how companies can unjustly minimize the value of diversity by only acknowledging its impact on profitability: “When companies value diversity for its impact on profitability, it commodifies blackness and objectifies black people, making them valuable to the extent that they can boost organizational performance.” Providing fair and equitable employment opportunities for all employees is an ethical obligation for organizations simply because it is the right thing to do.
WVIR-NBC-29 (Charlottesville)
Researchers at the UVA’s Motivate Lab are asking students to share their stories of racial injustice to better help with the University’s diversity and equity efforts.
Charlottesville Daily Progress
UVA officials will open up Grounds to students with a set of rules, protocols and tools in place – such as a contact-tracing cellphone app and a student-signed contract – that they hope will allow classes to commence and continue despite the COVID-19 pandemic.
WVIR-NBC-29 (Charlottesville)
A UVA graduate has been named the new president and CEO of the New York Times. Meredith Kopit Levien graduated from UVA in 1993.
WRIC ABC 8 News (Richmond)
The third round of COVID-19 athlete testing at the University of Virginia produced no new positive results, the school announced on Friday evening. The school has reported four total positive cases, three from the football team, out of 235 tests since athletes returned on July 5.
MarketWatch
Republican federal lawmakers are calling for added protections at a time when a handful of states have enacted their own versions of a liability shield against COVID-19 claims. Some companies – and President Trump’s re-election campaign – have also asked consumers to sign waivers. Whether these types of waivers will hold up in court remains an open question, some experts say.
Danville Register & Bee
The prospect of uranium mining occurring at Coles Hill in Chatham, the largest known uranium deposit in the country, took another blow when a Wise County Circuit Court judge ruled against Virginia Uranium, Inc. on Thursday afternoon. In his ruling, Judge Chadwick Dotson described the lawsuit, which had originally been filed in 2015 before finally going to a multi-day trial earlier this month, as “one last effort” by Virginia Uranium and other companies to utilize their property.
Virginia Business
Dominion Energy Inc. Chairman, President and CEO Thomas F. Farrell II will become executive chair effective Oct. 1. Robert M. Blue, the Richmond-based Fortune 500 energy utility’s executive vice president and co-chief operating officer, will succeed Farrell as president and CEO, the company announced Friday. Farrell is a double Hoo Award recipient and served on the University of Virginia Board of Visitors. Blue serves on the UVA Board of Visitors and is a graduate of UVA, Yale Law School and UVA’s Darden School of Business.
Charlottesville Tomorrow
Attorneys at UVA Law’s First Amendment Clinic will represent Charlottesville Tomorrow in an effort to obtain public records from Albemarle County Public Schools.