The Virginia Film Festival announced today that it is expanding its acclaimed Community Outreach and Education programs to include a new high school filmmaking competition. The Virginia Film Festival is presented by the University of Virginia’s College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences.
The process to select a new chancellor for the University of Virginia’s College at Wise is moving forward, after the selection of a 15-person search committee. The committee, which is made up of UVa-Wise faculty, staff, UVa-Wise board members, a parent, a student and representatives from the University of Virginia, will meet for the first time April 25. That’s the same day the college’s new convocation center will be dedicated in memory of the late chancellor David J. Prior, who died unexpectedly in February.
With federal and state funds for higher education falling, many schools are turning to faculty inventors to find profitable solutions to the world's medical, social and technical problems. Professors, their departments and their universities can all make money with what's called "Tech Transfer" — moving innovations from academia into the mainstream.
Austin Peay State University’s Gay Straight Alliance will host its Night of Noise Glow Party on Friday, April 20, following the national Day of Silence. Begun in 1996 by students at the University of Virginia, the Day of Silence protests the harassment of GLBT people across the United States and around the world.
Wednesday staff members and volunteers at the Emily Couric Cancer Center made comfort kits for more than 200 patients undergoing chemotherapy. The kits include socks, lotion, water, and an activity pad.
Frank E. Stevenson II (Law '80), a partner in the Dallas office of Locke Lord LLP, has been elected Chair of the Board of Directors of the State Bar of Texas. He will take office during the State Bar of Texas Annual Meeting to be held June 14-15 in Houston and will serve as chair until June 2013.
Geoffrey Mearns (Law '87), provost and senior vice president for academic affairs at Cleveland State University, is the new president of Northern Kentucky University.
Features Serdj Balach, Darden '10, who holds that position at Citigroup’s headquarters in Manhattan.
Stefani Bell of Boyce, Va., is one of four drum majors elected for the 2012-13 academic year. She is a second-year College student studying English and Italian studies. Band director Bill Pease says, “I have four great drum majors for next year. However, I have 225 returners that I think are all great."
Albemarle County police are busy stepping up preparations in advance of the Spring Foxfield Races on April 28. They will also have some help from University of Virginia students. This partnership is nothing new, but every year it becomes increasingly integral to keeping students safe at the races.
Students from the University of Virginia are speaking out against violence. As part of their "take Back the Night Week," students held a Mock Sexual assault trial. On Thursday, April 19 the UVa community will hold a rally aimed at ending violence against men and women on college campuses.
University of Virginia students are developing and implementing green projects to make grounds more environmentally sustainable. Wednesday the Green Initiatives Funding Tomorrow (GIFT) committee announced seven student-run projects that will split $20,000 in grant funds.
Jonathan Haidt
Psychology professor
The Republican Brain
Redding (Calif.) Record Searchlight (blog) / April 17
Barbara Perry
Presidential scholar at the Miller Center
Folks who had real jobs make bad presidents
Columbus Dispatch / April 19
Bethany Teachman
Associate professor of psychology
Why did Zimmerman shoot to kill?
Discovery News (blog) / April 17
Larry Sabato
Politics professor and director of the Center for Politics
Handicapping the Veepstakes: Is Rob Portman the Answer to Republicans’ Palin Problem?
Time magazine (blog) / April 19
Christopher Swift
Fellow at the Law School’s Cent...
Arqball Spin is targeting companies and individuals who want to give the product they are selling a better way to convey the “sense” of an object over the Web. … “We are really surprised at how e-commerce tech has essentially stagnated for that last 10 years,” Arqball co-founder Abhi Shelat told VentureBeat via e-mail. The company was founded by Shelat and Jason Lawrence, two professors who work in the computer science department at the University of Virginia.
Senate Bill 406 gives patients the option of accepting an early money offer from a medical provider after a botched procedure or other medical injury to cut down on court costs and protracted disputes with uncertain results. Opponents say it will prey on uninformed patients in need of quick cash. Jeffrey O'Connell, the professor at University of Virginia School of Law who is pioneering the idea, told the committee yesterday that as a practicing attorney "it struck me that the effort and time and energy that went into resolving these disputes was disproportionate to the benefit that came out."
A group of researchers have begun what they’ve dubbed the Reproducibility Project, which aims to replicate every study from three psychology journals in 2008. Brian Nosek, a professor of psychology at the University of Virginia, is one of the coordinators of the project. “The project does not aim to single out anybody,” he says. He notes that being unable to replicate a finding is not the same as discovering that the finding is false. It’s not always possible to match research methods precisely, and researchers performing replications can make mistakes, too.
Review of a new book by William Lee Miller, professor emeritus and retired scholar in ethics and institutions at the Miller Center. The book is a dual biography of the last two presidents born in the 19th century.
The retirement of one of the University of Virginia’s marquee professors, civil rights leader Julian Bond, will be marked by the establishment of a named professorship and a gala emceed by Wanda Sykes and Chris Tucker. Bond will retire May 1. He is a former national chairman of the NAACP and has had a 20-year career at UVa.
U.Va. scientists are reporting a surprising discovery about autism. Researchers treated mice with an extreme form of the disease and were able to restore normal function and extend their lives. Rett Syndrome is a rare and extreme form of autism in which boys die before or shortly after birth, and girls suffer serious disability.
Stress, whether it’s within the relationship or from external factors, has long been considered a crux of marital dysfunction. Last year, University of Virginia’s Survey of Marital Generosity, found that 29 percent of couples reported the 2007-2009 economic downturn had strained their relationship.