“I think the only reason we’re here is because affluent families made a big fuss, rightfully so,” said Lucy Montalvo, a mother of a rising kindergartner and a former fifth-grade teacher, at the group’s June 17 meeting. “... I’m glad that we did get to this point because now we can talk for all families, but not all families are represented here. There’s a lack of Black families in this group, as well, so they don’t get to voice their opinions, either.” Montalvo, who works at the University of Virginia’s Equity Center, said in an interview that there wasn’t a similar outcry when the division wa...
Dr. Scott Bender, of the University of Virginia, raised doubts about the psychological tests utilized by the defense experts to arrive at their diagnoses of delusional disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder and autism spectrum disorder. He said some of the tests lacked reliability checks, failed to differentiate between similar diagnoses or neglected to take into account the context of his pending trial.
Dr. Scott Bender, another psychological evaluator who also teaches clinical psychology at the University of Virginia, testified to the allegedly incomplete picture left by mental health experts called by Ramos' defense team.
Dr. William Petri, a UVA professor of medicine who is engaged in research on COVID vaccines as well as the virus’ effects on the immune system, suggested that, given the gender-specific nature of most of the adverse effects reported, recommending different vaccines to men and women in the affected age groups might be a wise approach. “These two side effects can be avoided if women do not receive the J&J and Astrazeneca vaccines and men do not receive the mRNA vaccines. By way of contrast, one in 500 Americans has died from COVID-19,” he said.
(Editorial) It’s election season in Virginia, where Republicans have been hemorrhaging support for more than a decade but have a shot at winning the governorship in November. What’s the state GOP up to? Tattling to the University of Virginia about a liberal professor’s anti-Donald Trump tweets.
(Podcast) Last week, the country of Haiti was rocked by the assassination of its controversial president, Jovenel Moïse – yet another shock for a Haitian political system that was already in a state of crisis. Some are calling for foreign intervention, a controversial proposal with which Haiti has a long and difficult history. To discuss these developments, Scott R. Anderson sat down with UVA professor Robert Fatton Jr., a native of Haiti and a widely published expert on Haitian politics.
Time after time, both policy roads — disorder through foreign inaction, or risky foreign intervention — though seemingly distinct, have led to the same destination for Haiti: an eroding political and economic order that many Haitians consider unbearable. “The state has literally almost completely vanished,” said Robert Fatton, a Haitian-born political scientist at the University of Virginia. “And to some extent this is because of the pattern of assistance that was given to Haiti.”
Statues weren’t the only symbols of white supremacy in Charlottesville. Jalane Schmidt, a UVA professor of race and religion, thinks a lot about this in her work. She is the director of the Memory Project at UVA, which aims to promote research, develop curricula and programming and create opportunities for public engagement to address issues of public memory, memory conflict and memory politics in the wake of the white supremacist violence that came to Charlottesville in August 2017.
(Subscription required) As sea levels rise, salt water pushes in from the ocean and permeates the ground, a process called saltwater intrusion. This process can cause the ground to shift, which can imperil the structural integrity of a high-rise building. Salt water also can deteriorate foundations not built to withstand it. That seawater slowly soaks into the concrete, bringing with it chloride ions that penetrate into reinforced steel bars inside. The steel corrodes and expands, effectively breaking the concrete from the inside out, said John Scully, a corrosion specialist at the University ...
Andrew Abbott became the first UVA baseball player to be selected in the 2021 MLB Draft on Monday. Later in the day, three of his teammates, including two more pitchers, also were drafted. Abbott was selected in the second round by the Cincinnati Reds, who picked him with the No. 53 overall pick. Pitchers Griff McGarry and Mike Vasil also were drafted Monday. Junior third baseman Zack Gelof moved closer to realizing his professional dreams as well, hearing his name called with the 60th overall pick.
That stagnation in federal spending contributed to the largest out-migration of residents Virginia has seen since the 1920s, with more residents leaving for other Southern states than coming in from the Northeast, according to UVA’s Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service.
COVID-19 cases are rising in Prince William County and across the state this week, likely because of the more contagious Delta variant, which is “likely dominant in Virginia or will be soon,” according to UVA’s Biocomplexity Institute.
The University of Virginia has announced that it will soon stop buying single-use plastics. It’s part of a broader sustainability trend across institutions of higher learning, and it could pose a sales opportunity for promotional products companies. … Promo companies that serve institutions of higher education should be thinking about reusable alternatives that schools will need in the months and years ahead, such as tote bags, drinkware, compostable takeout containers and reusable straws.
UVA’s George Rogers Clark statue was removed Sunday. The Racial Equity Task Force recommended this last summer and the UVA Board of Visitors approved it in September. UVA will assemble a committee, including local indigenous communities, that will offer a recommendation about what's ideally next for George Rogers Clark.
UVA’s Karsh Institute of Democracy will hold a two-day event in September to talk about the future of democracy. The UVA Democracy Biennial will take place Sept. 24 and 25 online and in person at the John Paul Jones Arena.
The Los Angeles Chargers are in trouble if Justin Herbert ever throws a meaningful pass to Alex Stern. You’ll be forgiven for not knowing who Stern, a UVA graduate, is or even what position he plays. Just know that he is someone who could prove instrumental in the Chargers becoming a perennial playoff contender once again. A year after drafting Herbert with the sixth overall pick, the team recently hired Stern, who spent the 2020 season as an analytics intern on UVA’s football team, as a data analyst.
After teaching science and Spanish at Virginia schools for nearly a decade, Erica Tharrington is changing her career completely. The dramatic change was inspired by a very tough personal loss, and now she’s turning heartbreak into healing for others.
It was but one tumultuous year in a brilliant life that has persisted for another highly productive, rewarding 51 years. Yet this is the year that weighs on his heart and mind, the year that prompted Duncan Clarke to write a book. Whether or not he expected to arrive at any great truths, he did imagine it would help get his story off his chest. The thing is, researching and writing and building a story into a book tends to bring it back into focus as if it’s breaking news. Clarke had earned his bachelor’s degree at Clark University, his Juris Doctor at Cornell University, and his Ph.D. in poli...
Undergraduate advisers at the University of Virginia told Joe Jamison to create a business based on his passions, so that’s exactly what he did. It wasn’t cookies, coffee or clothes that stoked his fire, however. It was the effort to help others better enjoy life.
Donovan Jones was taught that the Civil War began over state rights and not slavery in an AP U.S. History class at Cosby High School in Chesterfield County. Now a fourth-year student at the University of Virginia, Jones recalls questioning the lesson at the time in his Advanced Placement class as one of the few Black students in a mostly white, politically conservative class. He said his teacher danced around the question to adhere to the curriculum.