Donald Trump would once have been thought an unlikely champion of religious freedom. But he staked out his claim at this year’s National Prayer Breakfast, vowing to liberate churches to use their voices in political campaigns. It could turn churches into the equivalent of super PACs – and encourage super PACs to turn themselves into ostensibly charitable groups. The issue, as UVA law professor Douglas Laycock told us, is preserving “a level playing field for the tax and regulatory treatment of political spending.”
Sens. Joe Donnelly of Indiana, Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota and Claire McCaskill of Missouri are the most vulnerable Democrats heading into the 2018 mid-term elections, according to a new forecast. “We see Donnelly, Heitkamp, and McCaskill as being on shakier ground,” Kyle Kondik, of UVA’s Center for Politics, said in a new breakdown of the races.
This week it became clear that the vice president is not in President Trump's inner circle. "No question, Pence has to be embarrassed by this turn of events. But his major mistake so far has been getting entirely too close to Trump and parroting some of the silly things Trump and his inner circle have been saying," said Larry Sabato, director of UVA’s Center for Politics.
UVA’s School of Continuing and Professional Studies will guarantee admission to its adult degree program for qualified in-state community college graduates.
The University of Virginia athletic scholarship program began to take form on this day in 1937. When the scholarship guidelines were established, education came first. “If he breaks a leg the first year or fails to make the team, so long as he fulfills the other qualifications, we will live up to our contract to see that he gets his degree.”
The Jefferson Scholars Foundation, a private foundation that supports the University of Virginia through undergraduate, graduate and faculty programs, has filled its first endowed professorship. The Paul T. Jones Jefferson Scholars Foundation Professorship will be held by Professor J.C. Cang, a renowned neurobiology professor.
“The speed of change is so rapid now that the kind of work that people do will be continuously reinvented,” said Steven Laymon, UVA’s interim dean of continuing and professional studies. “Digital technology, the ubiquity of data and the globalization of work will be these evolutionary drivers that change people’s jobs on an ongoing basis.”
“The speed of change is so rapid now that the kind of work that people do will be continuously reinvented,” said Steven Laymon, UVA’s interim dean of continuing and professional studies. “Digital technology, the ubiquity of data and the globalization of work will be these evolutionary drivers that change people’s jobs on an ongoing basis.”
Whoever replaces University of Virginia President Teresa A. Sullivan will have to perform a difficult balancing act.
For all the exhausting finishes and unrivaled depth that have marked ACC basketball this season, there have been more than a few eyesores. But there has been an exception. One ACC team has been positioned late to win each of its games. Virginia.
Longtime White House watcher Larry Sabato, the director of UVA’s Center for Politics, said the wave of leaks since the beginning of the Trump presidency is unlike anything he’s seen. “If the Trump administration were a ship with this many leaks, it would have sunk by now,” he said. “Yes, this is a record in my memory.”
A federal judge’s decision Monday night may have dealt the strongest blow yet to President Donald Trump’s attempt to keep residents of seven majority-Muslim countries from entering the U.S., even though the decision applies only to Virginia. “What’s really remarkable here is that the president and the government lawyers are saying, ‘This is a national security order,’ and ‘How dare you rule on this,’” UVA law professor Brandon Garrett said. “But the government could offer no evidence that there was a national security basis.”
Judge Leonie M. Brinkema’s opinion could have much broader implications for the fight against President Trump’s travel ban. “Judge Brinkema spells out a lot more; she really fleshes out one of the possible claims, and that’s the religious discrimination claim,” said David Martin, a UVA professor who, for many years, helped shape immigration policy inside the government.
Sweet Briar has announced that former NASA astronaut Kathryn Thornton will deliver the keynote address during the College’s 108th commencement exercises on May 13. Thornton, now director of the aerospace engineering program and a professor in the mechanical and aerospace engineering department at the University of Virginia, made four space flights between 1989 and 1995.
The list includes the Academical Village and the Rotunda at the University of Virginia.
Lise Dobrin is associate professor of anthropology and linguistics program director at the University of Virginia.
Former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder will participate in a panel discussion on race. The event is co-sponsored by UVA’s Miller Center as part of its First Year Project, a three-year initiative to develop bipartisan insight and recommendations for the first year of the new administration.
Although we like to tell friends about unique things we have experienced, new research from a team including UVA psychologist Timothy D. Wilson suggests that listeners would enjoy listening to familiar stories, as they can better appreciate and understand the content.
To watch the sideline during a Virginia men’s lacrosse game is to watch energy in motion. Go ahead: Try to keep track of Coach Lars Tiffany.
"I would not expect it to occur immediately, but I do see a couple of ways it might arise," said George Yin, a UVA law professor who formerly served as chief of staff for the Joint Committee on Taxation. "When you talk about integrity, about government transparency, those are issues of bipartisan concern. Indeed you can find many, many statements by both Democrats and Republicans supporting the basic principle of eliminating and avoiding conflicts of interest."