By James W. Ceaser, professor of politics
Political constitutionalism must assume the principal role in any campaign for a constitutional revival. The dominant understanding today is shaped by legalistic constitutionalism, which has become the nation's "epistemological" default option. Until the meaning of political constitutionalism can be recovered, calls for a return to the Constitution will be to little avail.
Over the past half-century, the amount of time college students actually study — read, write and otherwise prepare for class — has dwindled from 24 hours a week to about 15, survey data show. ...At Sweet Briar College, a private women’s school in Virginia, students reported 19 hours of study in an average week. Weekly study among seniors averaged 18 hours at St. Mary’s College of Maryland, 17 hours at the College of William and Mary, 16 at the universities of Maryland and Virginia and Catholic University, 15 at American University and 13 at Howard University.
...University of Virginia football coach Mike London was the luncheon’s featured speaker. London opened his remarks with a clip of UVa football highlights, and announced that during the last four semesters, the football team has had the highest academic grades since the mid-1990s, news that brought a round of applause from the audience.
... "They had a perfect reply," said Myron Nordquist, associate director of the Center for Oceans Law and Policy at the University of Virginia. "Who is the U.S. to come and tell us to abide by a treaty to which you are not a party?"
... Historically, the argument over defense versus domestic spending has been settled with more money for each, said Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics.
... among other things, the report says that a continued ebb of the sun’s field could lead to a “mini ice age,” of the sort that last happened in the 17th century. According to a 2002 study by Michael Mann, then of the University of Virginia, the Little Ice Age appears to have been a 400-year period between the 16th and 19th centuries in which the Earth cooled 0.6 of a degree Celsius, and is concurrent with the last drop in solar wind.
Researchers say the ink sacs found in the UK contain the oldest fossilized pigment ever found dating back to the Jurassic era, about 160 million years ago. ... Study researcher John Simon of the University of Virginia says the molecular structure of the ancient ink is very similar to that of modern cuttlefish Sepia officinalis.
This week new research was published that points to seagrasses as a solution to climate change. Seagrass can store up to twice the carbon of the world’s terrestrial forests. The paper, “Seagrass Ecosystems as a Globally Significant Carbon Stock,” is the first global analysis of carbon stored in seagrasses and was published in the journal Nature Geoscience. [The research was done by an international team including U.Va.'s Karen McGlathery, associate professor of environmental sciences.]
... Teresa Sullivan, unanimously elected by the Board of Visitors, became the University’s first female president in August of 2010, and graduation for the Class of 2012 represented a very significant event for women in leadership roles at the University of Virginia. The speakers – in addition to Dr. Sullivan and Ms. Couric – included the first female rector of the University, Helen Dragas; chair of the Alumni Association Board of Managers, Victoria Dux Harker; and grand marshal Gweneth L. West, a drama professor in the College of Arts & Sciences.
...Tina Ho has graduated from the University of Virginia School of Medicine after using her medical struggles as a child to help others across the globe. ... Ho was class president for four years running. In that leadership role, she created a scholarship for future medical students. It was her drive in the classroom and in those positions that caught the eye of faculty and staff at the School of Medicine.
... But even more than conducting research, universities are also incubating promising new water technology companies. For example, students at the University of Virginia’s Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership at the Darden School of Business are incubating two new water ventures. One example is Apollo Water which is developing a low-cost, easy-to-use water purification and desalinization system for use primarily in the developing world.
... Udacity is a free university (of sorts) that offers “massive open online courses”—or, MOOCs—to anyone with a decent Internet connection and a little self-discipline. ... I enrolled in Udacity’s CS101: Building a Search Engine, with tens of thousands of other students from across the globe. ... On the screen appeared Dave Evans, a computer scientist at the University of Virginia. Over the next seven weeks, his goal was teach newbies like me enough Python—a basic programming language—to build a mini Google.
Daniel V. Pitti, associate director of U.Va.'s Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities, convened a meeting at the National Archives to create a vision and strategy for a National Archival Authorities Cooperative, or NAAC, that could mainstream a new archival-authority standard, released in 2010 and already being tested by IATH.
Work is getting under way on the renovation of the University of Virginia's Rotunda. Media outlets report that the Rotunda's roof and oculus skylight will be replaced. The work also includes repairing exterior brick walls, windows and ornamental sheet metal. Work on the nearly $4.7 million project begins Wednesday. It's scheduled to be completed in August 2013 but the university says it will try to finish the work in time for final exercises in 2013.
The finance committee of the University of Virginia’s Board of Visitors on Tuesday adopted a budget that’s slightly larger than the current year’s, but grim talk accompanied the budget, which showed a dip in research funding and precious little new funding overall.
Vigen Guroian
Professor of religious studies and commencement speaker for Ad Fontes Academy, a Christian K-12 school in Centreville
High School Students Defend Thesis to Graduate
Centreville Patch.com / May 22
Rachel Harmon
Professor of law
Governing Policing: Stop-and-Frisk and Arrest in the 21st Century
Urbanite Baltimore / May 21
Farzaneh Milani
A professor of Persian literature and women's studies
Book TV at University of Virginia: Farzaneh Milani, "Words, Not Swords: Iranian Women Writers and the Freedom of Movement"
C-Span2 BookTV / May 20
Brad Wilcox
Associate professor of sociology...
... While I was researching some themes for the speech, I stumbled on a new book by Dr. Meg Jay, a member of the U.Va. community. She's a clinical psychologist and author of "The Defining Decade: Why Your Twenties Matter - And How to Make the Most of Them Now." ... In this episode, I speak to Dr. Jay on the grounds of U.Va. and ask her about some of the mistakes recent college grads make…and how to avoid them!
... conventional banking as we know it may not be part of the traditional Hispanic upbringing. This has led to a general mistrust of banks and, when coupled with a natural skepticism, would account for the $53 billion attributed to "unbanked" Latino households according to a study by a research arm of the University of Virginia's Darden School of Business...