(Commentary by Kimberly Jenkins Robinson, Elizabeth D. and Richard A. Merrill Professor of Law and professor of education) For two surreal days this week, I sat next to the family of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson during hearings on her nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court. One word captures my emotions, both as a Black woman professional myself, and a longtime friend of Jackson’s: hope.
(Editorial) Emma Weyant is an elite swimmer, a heralded 2020 Olympic silver medalist, an admirable representative of our country and – as a longtime Sarasota resident and Riverview High School graduate – a wonderful ambassador for our city. But what Weyant should not be – and does not deserve to be – is yet another pawn in the performative culture war being waged by Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Legendary former Virginia women’s basketball head coach Debbie Ryan was in attendance on Thursday morning when Amaka Agugua-Hamilton was formally introduced as the next head coach of the UVA women’s basketball program at John Paul Jones Arena. After the ceremony, the seven-time ACC Coach of the Year gave a glowing review of Agugua-Hamilton and commended Virginia’s hiring of “Coach Mox.”
With the program’s Final Four banners hanging overhead, and the woman who coached the program in those tournaments seated a few rows from the stage, new Virginia coach Amaka Agugua-Hamilton made it clear Thursday – she’s embracing the goal of getting UVA back to where it once was.
(Commentary) A recent study, conducted by Alexandra Feldberg of Harvard Business School and Tami Kim of the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business, found evidence of bias in the hospitality industry when researchers emailed 6,000 hotels for restaurant recommendations from email accounts with seemingly “racial” or “ethnic” names.
“We tend to focus on carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, but forests are not just carbon sponges,” says Deborah Lawrence, an environmental scientist at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. “It’s time to think about what else forests are doing for us besides just absorbing carbon dioxide.”
Global loss in tropical forests is accelerating climate change, leading to an increase in hot, dry summers far beyond the tropics themselves, according to a recent study led by Deborah Lawrence, a UVA environmental scientist. Forest canopies keep the ground below from absorbing solar heat, while the clouds they release do the same for entire regions, the researchers found.
Deborah Lawrence, the lead author of the paper and a professor at the University of Virginia, says although climate models do incorporate the biophysical effects of deforestation, policymakers don’t always have this in mind when they are making their decisions about land use.
Performing a group bonding activity–regular rituals like doing the Walmart Cheer or firing a Nerf toy gun to conclude a project–led to a 16% increase in how meaningful employees judged their work to be, according to research by Harvard Business School Professor Michael Norton. Employees who engage in these rituals also tend to go the extra mile for the company, showing better “organizational citizenship” by doing things like staying late at work to help a colleague. The findings are detailed in the recent paper, “Work Group Rituals Enhance the Meaning of Work,” published in Organizational Beha...
Many colleges have debated what to do about buildings and monuments on their campuses that honor past slaveholders and segregationists. The University of Virginia continues to discuss what to do about the institution’s close association with Thomas Jefferson, for example. And people have known for years about Jefferson’s record on slavery.
(Commentary by Emma Camp, student)) Former Vice President Mike Pence is set to speak at the University of Virginia on April 12, invited by the University’s chapter of Young Americans for Freedom. Normally, a former government official addressing interested students at a public college would be an unremarkable event. However, the editorial board of The Cavalier Daily – the student-run paper at UVA – has declared Pence’s event to be a crisis. … As a former opinion writer for the paper and a current student at UVA, I am disappointed that a group of aspiring journalists would mount such an attack ...
Forty-six colleges outside the Ivy League chose at least one member of that elite group as a peer. Large public research universities – such as the University of Delaware, the University of Virginia, and the Georgia Institute of Technology – and several wealthy private research institutions, as well as selective private liberal-arts colleges, were among them.
The University of Virginia is phasing out on Grounds testing for students. Thursday is the last day of the UVA saliva testing program, and weekly COVID-19 testing is no longer required for the small number of students who are unvaccinated.
Tom Moody, a net artist, musician, blogger, and art critic, died this past Saturday morning from Covid-related complications and pneumonia, according to his gallery, And/Or in Pasadena, California. Moody, a graduate of University of Virginia with a double major in studio art and English literature, was in his 60s.
Readers of The Roanoke Times have known for decades how good Doug Doughty was at covering the University of Virginia and the ACC. On Friday night at the ACC tournament, the retired sports writer [and UVA alumnus] received a prestigious award in recognition of his stellar work. Doughty received the Marvin “Skeeter” Francis Award, which has been given annually by the Atlantic Coast Sports Media Association for distinguished coverage of the ACC or for distinguished service to the ACC.
The Kappa Sigma fraternity recently announced the amount earned from its Stephen Alonzo Jackson Weekend of Giving. Between March 4 and 6, the fraternity raised more than $725,000. The event is named for Stephen Alonzo Jackson, who was the fraternity’s first international president and was a member of the Zeta Chapter at the University of Virginia.
Volunteers are the backbone of Meals on Wheels of Charlottesville/Albemarle, and there is always a need for more. “I really believe in sort of the simplistic mission of Meals on Wheels,” University of Virginia student William Meyer said.
A student at the University of Virginia is using 3-D printing to gain a better understanding of cancer cells. According to a release, third-year biomedical engineering major Ailene Edwards has received a Harrison Undergraduate Research Grant to pay for her project.
“What was true 50 years ago is even more compelling today — the cost of criminalizing millions of marijuana consumers is too high, and it is time to end this failed policy in favor of a sensible form of regulated access.” – Professor Richard Bonnie, University of Virginia School of Law, associate director of the Shafer Commission and author of “The Marijuana Conviction: A History of Marijuana Prohibition in the United States”
Doctors are expecting a pretty high peak for tree pollen season, which happens between February and May, then grass season in the summer, and weed season in the fall. However, relief could be on the way. "One of the things that helps keep the pollen counts down is rain. We're headed into April showers season, so I think allergy sufferers will actually look forward to some of the rain that will dampen down some of the allergies," said Dr. Michael Nelson, chief of the division of asthma, allergy and immunology at UVA Health.