Students in The University of Virginia's "Politics of Food" class, are taking a closer look into the U.S.'s food practices, and why we get our food the way we do.On Tuesday, the class took a trip to Polyface Farm in Swoope, where food production is brought back to basics; taking it straight from the land, while nurturing the environment. For some of the students, they had never seen anything like it. "This is my first time at a farm so this is pretty exciting. It's definitely much better smelling than I expected," said fourth year student James Farmer.
Parents hoping to get a grasp on reports of sexual assault at the University of Virginia will have to look beyond statistics, according to experts. Although much of the narrative of a Rolling Stone article describing an alleged gang rape at UVa has fallen apart, the university is still under investigation by the U.S. Department of Education for the way it handles reports of assault. It also is being sued by an anonymous student who claims she was raped in 2012 and administrators mishandled evidence in her case.
(By Eileen Chou, an assistant professor at the Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy at the University of Virginia) What is your preferred method of signing a loan application, travel reimbursement, or tax return? Not too long ago, your choice was limited to ink color — blue or black. With advanced technology, however, people can now sign a document without lifting a pen, such as by entering a PIN or inserting a software-generated signature. These "e-signatures" not only provide more flexibility, but more importantly, they're convenient and efficient, and coul...
In a small long-term study, obese patients who had gastric bypass surgery were half as likely to die as those who didn’t have the surgery, researchers found. They saw little difference in death rates for the first two to three years, but 10 years after gastric bypass surgery, even diabetic patients had significantly better survival if they had the surgery. “There's really limited long-term follow-up data, especially comparing bariatric surgery to no surgery or the usual medical care,” Dr. Peter Hallowell, the study’s senior author, told Reuters Health. “We&rsq...
Chris Hulleman, of the University of Virginia, and Judy Harackiewicz, of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, addressed a different fundamental student need: motivation. Throughout the semester, they asked high school students to author short essays relating the content of their science classes to their personal lives. For the students who were less confident in their abilities in science class, the effects were impressive. As a result of writing these personally relevant essays, these students become more interested in science as a discipline, thus bolstering their course grades by about...
Former Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell has been sentenced to 2 years in prison for taking money and gifts in exchange for promoting a dietary supplement while he was in office. He will turn himself in by February. McDonnell faces penalties beyond Tuesday's sentence in federal court. With his political career now over, the University of Virginia Center for Politics weighs in on a dark day in state politics. The center's director, Larry Sabato, says McDonnell was very lucky in a very sad circumstance. Sabato says the two-year sentence was exceptionally light. Beyond the sentenc...
Since the early days after the Sept. 11 attacks, when news emerged that most of the airline hijackers came from Saudi Arabia, dark allegations have lingered about official Saudi ties to the terrorists. Fueling the suspicions: 28 still-classified pages in a congressional inquiry on 9/11 that raise questions about Saudi financial support to the hijackers in the United States prior to the attacks. Philip D. Zelikow, who was executive director of the 9/11 Commission, and has read the pages, thinks they should remain secret. Now a professor of history at the University of Virginia, Zelikow com...
The University of Virginia Health System reported 56 positive cases of influenza in the past week. Dr. Costi Sifri, of U.Va., called that number “the tip of the iceberg,” expecting more positive cases of the flu as labs at U.Va. complete more tests.
(By Shira Luriea, a first-year earning her PhD in Early American History at the University of Virginia) No matter what field you’re in, grad school will at some point demand a piece of writing from you. Kelly has provided an excellent “taxonomy," from dissertations to emails, that makes clear that the ability to write well is important to grad school success. With this in mind, I am offering a follow-up to Kelly’s post with some tips for improving your writing.
What's new about the Library of Virginia’s exhibit “To Be Sold: Virginia and the American Slave Trade” is its single focus on the domestic slave trade within the United States from the 1830s to 1865. The library’s curator for the exhibit, Maurie McInnis, University of Virginia vice provost for academic affairs and professor of art history, utilized artifacts from the library’s permanent collection in addition to items on loan from other institutions.
Wilds’ interview with The Intercept conflicted with testimony he gave during Syed’s murder trial, which was reassessed by the Serial podcast. But after a conviction, the burden of proof shifts to the accused. “Once a person has been convicted at trial he is no longer presumed innocent,” Brandon Garrett, a University of Virginia law professor who serves on the advisory board for the National Registry of Exonerations.
The Republican-led House is poised to require in 2015 that the congressional Joint Committee on Taxation estimate the revenue effects of tax legislation based on macroeconomic, or “dynamic,” models that have played only a background role in recent years and tend to cast a positive light on tax cuts' ability to boost the economy. Lawmakers probably wouldn't hesitate to give the Joint Committee on Taxation what it needs to meet congressional demands, said George Yin, a former JCT chief of staff from 2003 to 2005 who teaches tax law at the University of Virginia.
The Virginia Quarterly Review is due for another staffing change-up, as the contract of its editor will not be renewed this summer. The Review’s publisher, Jon Parrish Peede, said Monday that W. Ralph Eubanks would depart the 90-year-old literary journal in June.
When the 114th Congress convenes on Tuesday, it will mark the first time since 2006 that Republicans control both sides of Capitol Hill. “The trick for Republicans is that they have to pass substantive pieces of legislation that will actually be signed by the president so that, in two years, they are not called the ‘do-nothing Congress’ again. This could help the Democratic presidential nominee and maybe Democrats running for Senate,” said Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics.
Deirdre Enright, Professor of Law at the University of Virginia and Director of Investigations at UVA’s Innocence Project Clinic,take listeners behind the scenes in the work of the Innocence Project Clinic at the U.Va. Law School and a case they worked that was showcased on the new NPR Podcast, Serial.
Bob McDonnell may be the first Virginia governor caught feeding at the wrong trough, but others — some guilty of far more nefarious conduct — blazed dubious trails elsewhere. Larry J. Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia, said, “It’s dangerous to generalize too much about these cases. Some were just deeply corrupt people, and they did what came naturally.”“Others were a product of their state’s culture,” he said. It’s that category where McDonnell might best be included, said Sabato, author of “Goo...
When slaves living in Tidewater Virginia spied British warships anchored just offshore during the War of 1812, they didn’t see invasion. They saw freedom. Eager to recruit expert local guides, British commanders promised to provide protection. So hundreds of slave families risked life and limb to get to the ships and become free. Historian Alan Taylor, PhD’86, uncovered a surprising number of firsthand accounts of these escapes, most of them written by slave masters or their white neighbors.
Presenting the 30 Under 30 2015 in Law & Policy who are projecting their worldview in the capital and on the Internet. List includes Emily Renzelli '12, a Fourth Circuit clerk.
Thomas Hogshead Tullidge Sr., 87, passed away Dec. 27, following a period of declining health. He was educated at Staunton Military Academy, the United States Military Academy, Class of 1950 and the University of Virginia Law School.
University of Virginia associate head football coach Tom O’Brien, who as head coach turned around programs at Boston College and N.C. State, announced his retirement Tuesday.