The committee discussed the large mural in Jackson Memorial Hall that depicts the charge of the corps of cadets during the Civil War Battle of New Market. Col. Keith Gibson, executive director of VMI’s museum system, said, “You see here [up close]: courage, sacrifice, Brother Rat-hood … [But] if you just stand back, and you see a 23- by 18-foot painting, it’s a bunch of guys dressed in gray charging across a field.” “There’s no way that I look at that painting, as a Black man, and get past what is in that picture,” committee member and alumnus Lester Johnson said. “There’s no way for me to pee...
Former governors tend to introduce and co-sponsor more bipartisan legislation, focusing on fewer bills that go further. “It appears these former governors are pursuing a tighter but more aggressive agenda,” says Craig Volden with the Center for Effective Lawmaking at the University of Virginia and Vanderbilt University. “In other words, governors appear to put great effort into a focused set of legislative priorities.”
(Podcast) One of the most amazing things about the human mind is its ability to imagine events that haven’t happened yet. To make a decision about something new – trying a new dish, picking a show to watch, and choosing a career – you have to mentally construct the experience and then predict how pleasant or unpleasant it will be. But this simulation, say psychologists, is often distorted. Our predictions tend to exaggerate how happy or sad we’ll feel, and for how long. “No doubt good things make us happy and bad things make us sad,” says Tim Wilson, a UVA social psychologist. “But as a rule, ...
(Commentary) I asked W. Bradford Wilcox, a conservative professor of sociology at the University of Virginia, for his assessment of the conflict between big business and Republicans. His reply suggested that Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp’s defiant stance will resonate among Republican voters. “The decades-long marriage between the G.O.P. and big business is clearly on the rocks. This is especially true because the G.O.P. is increasingly drawn to a pugnacious and populist cultural style that has more appeal to the working class, and Big Business is increasingly inclined to support the progressive cul...
UVA’s Department of Spanish, Italian and Portuguese will present its fourth annual SIP FilmFest as a free virtual event from Sunday through April 25.
A local film festival is going virtual this weekend. UVA’s Department of Spanish, Italian and Portuguese will be hosting the fourth annual SIP FilmFest beginning on April 18.
A composer of acoustic and electroacoustic music at the University of Virginia has won second prize at the prestigious Iannis Xenakis International Electronic Music Competition. Leah Reid, an assistant professor of composition, was honored for “Reverie,” which premiered at last year’s Technosonics Festival at UVA. The work also won second prize in the XIII International Destellos Competition 2020.
UVA Health has been recognized for its treatment of a condition that can cause seizures, paralysis and bleeding in the brain. Tthe Angioma Alliance has given the health system its highest designation as a Center of Excellence for its care of cerebral cavernous malformations, which are irregular collections of blood vessels in the brain.
Six million dollars a year. That was supposed to be how much money would have gone to UVA’s College at Wise after discontinuing two coal tax credits that subsidized production and employment. Instead of going to mining companies, Gov. Ralph Northam wanted the money to go toward new course offerings in renewable energy and data science. But the House and Senate both rejected the governor's amendment.
There's already a huge number of known biases that mess up our decision making, but researchers at the University of Virginia may have discovered yet another to add to the list. According to a much buzzed-about new study recently published in Nature, humans have a pervasive bias to add things on when searching for solutions--and that's causing us to miss out on a whole lot of great ideas.
(Commentary) The nine most populous states are now home to 51% of us. That's an almost completely different roster than the states that might be considered the homeland for the base of older, whiter and more rural voters: the 17 that joined last fall's Texas lawsuit, which got rejected out of hand by the Supreme Court, seeking to overturn the election. That collection accounts for 17% of the population now. And demographers at UVA’s Weldon Cooper Research Group project that share 20 years from now will be almost the same, 16.5%.
Groups came together at UVA Tuesday for a stop on a national tour to support federal legislation requiring background checks to own firearms. Everytown For Gun Safety is hosting the nationwide road trip and Crozet’s branch of Moms Demand Action and UVA’s Students Demand Action met at the Rotunda.
“I welcome you to join us and share in the experience as we memorialize, as we celebrate, as we commemorate and learn lessons of the contribution of people of color who were enslaved and yet helped to build this university community,” said Mount Zion First African Baptist Church Pastor Alvin Edwards at the opening of last weekend’s virtual dedication ceremony for UVA’s Memorial to Enslaved Laborers.
UVA’s Miller Center of Public Affairs is launching a planning group to preserve the lessons learned during the COVID-19 pandemic. According to a release, more than two dozen virologists, public health experts, clinicians and former officials have joined four leading charitable foundations to lay the groundwork to discover and maintain these lessons. They have formed the COVID Commission Planning Group to prepare the way for a National COVID Commission that will work to help Americans and the world safeguard the common future.
On Tuesday, colleges throughout the country began canceling clinics and urging students to get their shots elsewhere. In some cases, like at the University of Virginia, officials said they will lean on existing supplies of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines.
A UVA spokesman said students will begin receiving vaccines this week, which will give them enough time to receive their second shot before the end of final exams, which run May 7-15.
Dr. Bonds said Monday the lack of J&J supply will affect administration of vaccine to UVA students. She says the state and the Blue Ridge Health District had given the University a cache of the vaccine because the single-dose was so much more efficiently delivered to students. She says there’s still time to administer the two doses of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines to the students, but first doses need to be done quickly.
UVA President Jim Ryan announced Tuesday that the University will not be raising undergraduate tuition for the 2021-22 academic year. The news brought big relief for students and their families. The mood on Grounds was one of gratitude.
UVA is freezing undergraduate tuition at current levels for the next school year, but officials warn that the hold will likely last only one year. The Board of Visitors unanimously voted to not raise tuition during a virtual meeting on Tuesday. The vote came despite pandemic mitigation costs and lost income last year that cost the school more than $100 million, including $44 million for which the school will not see reimbursement.
Liza Myers Borches, president and CEO of Carter Myers Automotive [and a 1997 graduate of UVA’s McIntire School of Commerce], is at the forefront in acclimating drivers to electrifying their rides. In her view, Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam’s signing of the General Assembly’s Clean Cars Virginia bill into law last month allows more dealers to climb aboard the electric vehicle bandwagon.