(By David C. Smith, a professor of commerce at the University of Virginia and director of the McIntire Center for Financial Innovation) Should the U.S. overhaul a corporate bankruptcy code that for decades has allowed troubled companies to cast off debt and re-emerge as healthier firms? Yes, suggests a recent report by the Commission to Study the Reform of Chapter 11, an arm of the Washington, D.C., trade organization the American Bankruptcy Institute. Yet many of the commission’s proposals would worsen the bankruptcy process, reduce recoveries and raise the cost of financing for b...
(By Bruce A. Vlk, the Director of Communications and Marketing for the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy at the University of Virginia) Within public policy schools, social entrepreneurship is a relatively new addition to curriculum. Traditionally, society has considered solving social problems the domain of governments and philanthropy. The emerging field of social entrepreneurship has introduced business tools and unlocked global capital markets to solve major social problems, with the promise of building enterprises that are both financially sustainable and ...
(Commentary) The 2015 RHSU rankings recognize 200 of the nation’s most influential education researchers, acknowledging those university-based academics who invest the time and effort to contribute to the public discourse in a way that registers. The rankings are meant to complement like-minded efforts in academe, of the kind that Robert C. Pianta is leading at the University of Virginia’s Curry School of Education.
Larry Sabato, director for the Center of Politics at the University of Virginia, Sabato believes three big names, though, will not be stepping into the 2016 presidential ring. “We’ll be inundated with candidacy announcements in 2015, but three oft-mentioned politicians won’t run for president: Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan, and Joe Biden,” Sabato said.
(By Tony Lucadamo, the lead policy analyst at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center of Public Affairs)Congressional deal making has entered a bizarre new chapter. It is now standard operating procedure for unrelated non-fiduciary legislation to pass as part of larger budget bills. Headlining this new frontier is the recent repeal of key provisions from Dodd-Frank. The GOP was able to push through a Citigroup-written revision to the 2010 finance bill using the ticking clock and prospect of a shutdown as leverage. This has led to predictable blowback.
With a sense of humor and some timely advice for the government and the judiciary, former Richmond lawyer and judge Donald Lemons formally became the 26th chief justice of the Virginia Supreme Court on Thursday. Now a Nelson County resident, Lemons is a 1970 graduate of the University of Virginia and a 1976 graduate of the University of Virginia School of Law. From 1971 to 1973 — after college and before law school — he was a probation officer for the Fairfax County Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court. From 1976 to 1978, he was an assistant dean and assistant professor a...
No more pre-mixed drinks. Security at the doors. And sober brothers at every event, guarding the stairs and with key access to each room. Those are some of the rules that fraternities will have to abide by if they want to throw a party, the University of Virginia says.
Fraternities and sororities at the University of Virginia have a new set of safety rules to follow now that they are reinstated. The changes are in response to the Rolling Stone magazine article about an alleged gang rape at UVA. The question now is, how to enforce them, and who will do it? The Inter-Fraternity Council (IFC) has updated its Fraternal Organization Agreement (FOA) with the university. The updated FOA focuses heavily on how parties are monitored.
Robots are taking over the University of Virginia Saturday when it comes time for the launch of the FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Tech Challenge robotics competition – a national program aimed at encouraging students in grades 7-12 to pursue STEM careers by competing in a technical battle to the finish.
The bomb that exploded outside an NAACP office in Colorado on Tuesday was a rare act of violence apparently aimed at the civil rights organization. But the incident in Colorado Springs, which is currently under investigation by the FBI, brought to mind an earlier era when threats of assassinations and bombings targeting the group were far more common. “Obviously, this is a terrorist attack,” says Julian Bond, a University of Virginia history professor and a long-time chairman of the NAACP.
The highest court in Massachusetts is set to take on an issue vexing justice systems nationwide: how to handle defendants convicted on the basis of evidence tested at crime labs that were found to have flawed practices. “This is potentially an extremely important opportunity to create a model for other states,” said University of Virginia School of Law professor Brandon Garrett, an expert in criminal procedure. “These crime-lab scandals are not going away. There need to be ground rules to grant relief for all these people whose cases are affected.”
For the first time, scientists and the public are beginning to see the large-scale structure of the universe, thanks to the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. "Mapping out the elements in a star is like reading its DNA," said Steve Majewski of the University of Virginia. "We're using those DNA readings to decode the history of the Milky Way from the stars that we can observe today." Majewski is the principal investigator of APOGEE, or the Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment, one of the four surveys that comprise SDSS-III.
In his first book, 'Proof of Heaven,' Dr. Eben Alexander detailed his near-death experience after slipping into a coma for seven days and journeying through what he describes as ‘heaven’. Now, in his second book, ‘The Map of Heaven,' Dr. Alexander looks over 2,500 years of human history, thinking, and how we've come to this point. "This is about the nature of an underlining reality that has always been there and we are kind of just now rediscovering as a culture," said Alexander. A culture that is being explored closely right here at the University o...
Many following the corruption trial of Bob McDonnell and his wife Maureen were struck Tuesday by the 15-minute talk offered by U.S. District Judge James R. Spencer before he imposed a two-year prison sentence on Virginia's 71st governor. Larry J. Sabato, head of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia, noted that "some McDonnell supporters had been complaining since the trial that Judge Spencer was biased against the former governor, but his sympathetic comments — combined with the lenient sentence he handed down — certainly proved the judge's critics wro...
Marie Joyce, 49, a former medical reporter for Virginia newspapers, died Dec. 29 at a hospital in Washington. Joyce, a District resident, was born in Buffalo and grew up in Marlton, N.J. At the University of Virginia, she was the editor in chief at the Cavalier Daily, a student newspaper. After graduation in 1987, she was a reporter at the Free Lance-Star in Fredericksburg.
(Editorial) Before it was discredited, a coed’s sensational story alleging gang rape at the University of Virginia prompted the University’s president, Teresa Sullivan, to suspend fraternity and sorority activities on campus so that underlying problems of frat-house excesses could be addressed. The result, announced Tuesday, is an encouraging and realistic agreement by student and university leaders to crack down on the sort of binge drinking and partying abuses that have given frat-house behavior a notorious reputation on campuses across the nation.
Gertrude Weber, a forceful advocate for the arts and the environment, passed away peacefully on Jan. 6, at her home. Gertrude also became actively involved in the cultural life of the University community. She spearheaded the refurbishment of Old Cabell Hall. She also sponsored the first iterations of the Charlottesville Chamber Music Festival, established an endowed lectureship in the McIntire Department of Music, financed the first accreditation of the Bayly Art Museum and helped establish the museum's collection of baroque and renaissance prints.
The University of Virginia has lifted the ban on Greek social activities that was imposed last semester after an article in Rolling Stone detailed an alleged gang rape at a campus fraternity. The article's accuracy has since been questioned, but the university chose to keep the ban in place while it worked with Greek leadership councils to create new safety policies.
University of Virginia fraternities and sororities will be allowed to resume social activities immediately with the approval Tuesday of their plans to improve safety for members and guests.
New safety rules for fraternities at the University of Virginia would require at least three "sober and lucid" members to monitor behavior at parties, prohibit pre-mixed alcoholic drinks and implement guest lists to control entry to the houses during an event.