House Democrats are “this close” to winning control of the chamber, but the latest UVA analysis of the race shows that they haven’t locked it down and may be a few seats short. “A race-by-race analysis of Democratic House targets shows the party is close to winning the majority, but they do not have it put away, in our judgment, with Election Day less than three weeks away,” said Kyle Kondik, managing editor of Sabato's Crystal Ball, in his new post.
(Commentary by Kyle Kondik, political analyst at UVA’s Center for Politics) For all the talk of the House generic ballot, President Trump’s approval rating, and other big-picture factors that point to the overall direction of the fight for the House, the battle for the majority comes down to a district-by-district slog.
Just one day before his inauguration, UVA President Jim Ryan announced a new working group that aims to improve relationships within the community.
A basketball star and a team owner and philanthropist will join forces to lead the University of Virginia’s campaign to garner $5 billion in donations during the school’s latest fundraising effort. The campaign will help pay for future expansion in all departments, as well as funding to assist faculty and students. Former UVA basketball standout Malcolm Brogdon will join UVA School of Law graduate and co-manager of the Karsh Family Foundation Martha Karsh in serving as co-chairs with Peter Grant II.
The University of Virginia has created a presidential working group to determine how to focus on improving the relationship between town and gown. UVA President Jim Ryan has asked the group to identify the most pressing issues for the community and to explore the best long-term structure for developing solutions, possibly through the establishment of a council or board. A report from the group will be delivered to Ryan by February. The feedback is part of one of Ryan’s larger goals of using community engagement and feedback to shape UVA’s strategic plan.
Virginia football coach Bronco Mendenhall has been vocal about the program’s need for improved facilities. On Thursday, he put his money where his mouth is. Mendenhall and his wife, Holly, have donated $500,000 to the construction of a new football operations center as part of the athletic department’s $180 million master plan. The gift is the largest of its kind made by a head coach in UVA history.
Bronco Mendenhall took a big risk when he left BYU to take over Virginia’s football program three years ago. The Cougars had posted 11 straight winning seasons under Mendenhall. The Cavaliers had put up just one in the last eight years. The announcement Thursday of a $500,000 gift pledged by Mendenhall and his wife, Holly, for a new football facility is a clear sign he believes he made the right move and plans to be at Virginia for the long haul.
Some students in UVA’s Darden School of Business are getting ready for a weekend full of hard work to help nonprofits in the Charlottesville community. The Building Goodness in April Foundation will do a fall build day Saturday. More than 70 student volunteers will partner with skilled Building Goodness Foundation volunteers and contractors to transform spaces inside of Computers4Kids and Foothills Child Advocacy Center.
(Commentary co-written by UVA professor Charles Marsh, director of the Project on Lived Theology) Our country claims to “hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” Chief among these rights is life, but these days we are asking a lot of questions about life: What are lives really worth? And whose lives matter?
Essentially you go to a Virginia community college, you get your two-year associate's degree, and you check a number of boxes. This is an actual contract between the Virginia community colleges and the Virginia university system. So you look at this contract for UVA and you take X number of courses. You get a 3.4. You are guaranteed admission to UVA. That's amazing.
Former Virginia first lady Dorothy McAuliffe was honored Thursday for her work to end childhood hunger at the launch of the First Lady’s Food Lab, a new program and facility at UVA’s Morven Farm.
In an attempt to make management positions more available to women, California passed a law on Sept. 30 requiring women to hold seats on public corporate boards. Kellogg Prof. David Matsa and University of Virginia Prof. Amalia Miller studied how a 2006 gender quota passed in Norway affected corporate decision-making.
So can Avenatti lead the Democrats out of the wilderness? It’s unlikely, but it was also unlikely that a politically inexperienced reality TV star defeated more than a dozen Republican challengers before felling the many-headed Clinton beast. “There’s anger and then there’s anger,” says Larry Sabato, the veteran University of Virginia pollster. “A lot of Dems want the latter.” He thinks that Avenatti could outlast his Democratic opponents the way Jimmy Carter did in his successful 1976 primary campaign. Sabato’s praise for Avenatti is, well, not exactly praise: “He’s mean as a snake.”
A new scholarship to provide financial assistance to students enrolled in the PVCC Early Childhood Education Program has been established in memory of the late Julia Broome. The Julia R. Broome Endowed Scholarship will be awarded annually and was established by her husband, Dr. O. Whitfield Broome and family. Dr. O. Whitfield Broome is Frank S. Kaulback Jr. Professor of Commerce Emeritus at the University of Virginia and has served on the UVA faculty since 1967.
Ask people to describe a Georgia O’Keeffe painting, and most will mention prominent flowers, striking colors, New Mexico landscapes and cows’ skulls. But before she made a name for herself on a national and international scale, a young O’Keeffe was filling a notebook with watercolor depictions of the Rotunda, Minor Hall, gardens and other features of the University of Virginia.
Up to 30 percent of children in low-resource countries suffer from stunted growth. Inadequate nutrition and diarrhea have long been blamed, but scientists have, until now, been unable to explain a large percentage of stunting cases. Two new studies, however, show that a tremendous number of children with no signs of diarrhea are carrying harmful infections. These infections ultimately prevent them from reaching their full potential and perpetuate a vicious cycle of poverty. "If we're just targeting diarrhea, that may not be enough. We need to be addressing these asymptomatic exposures as well,...
Researchers at the UVA School of Medicine have found a way to help scientists understand the causes of cancer with unprecedented speed. According to a release, this discovery will accelerate the development of new and better treatments and help researchers find ways around roadblocks that currently stand in the way.
Obviously, you don’t need $900 million to be happy, but millions of Americans are stressed out living paycheck to paycheck. Psychologists from Purdue University and the University of Virginia recently analyzed World Gallup Poll data from 1.7 million people in 164 countries, and cross-referenced their earnings and life satisfaction. Although the cost and standard of living varies by country, they came up with a bold conclusion: The ideal income for individuals is $95,000 a year for life satisfaction and $60,000 to $75,000 a year for emotional well-being.
Martin O’Malley, the former governor of Maryland, held a discussion at UVA’s Miller Center on Wednesday on how the country needs to move toward using more renewable sources of energy.
Minnieland Academy teachers were recently recognized for their participation with the University of Virginia’s Center for Advanced Study in Teaching and Learning and the Curry School of Education, which piloted the first private preschool assessment with the Virginia Kindergarten Readiness Program.