In The News

Central Virginia and the University of Virginia will be well represented in the 2012 London Olympic Games, which begin Friday. Athletes competing for the gold include: UVa field hockey players Paige Selenski and Michelle Vittese and UVa swimmer Lauren Perdue. The  list also includes numerous alumni. 

In a series of academic studies on cognitive aging, Timothy Salthouse, director of the University of Virginia Cognitive Aging Laboratory, tests mental functioning by asking respondents to perform tasks such as naming a synonym to a random word, detecting patterns or recalling a list of words. Coming up with a synonym is an example of a task that requires crystallized intelligence, or the ability to process a stimulus (the word) and relate it to an item in memory (the synonym). Tasks requiring processing and some knowledge or experience tend to peak in the late 50s. The other tasks require spe...

Robert Baird Cabell A 1948 graduate of the Law School

Skip Burzumato Assistant director of the National Marriage Project With fewer wedding bells ringing, marriage in America has evolved News & Observer | July 26 Mark Edmundson A professor of English and author of "Why Read" What Will Get Swamped in the Tsunami of Online Education? Patheos (blog) | July 25   James Davison Hunter A professor of religion, culture and social theory Trust-busting Huffington Post (blog) | July 25   Kyle Kondik House editor for the Center for Politics How Do We Make Elections More Competitive? The American Prospect | July 25 Dr. Marcus Martin V.P. and Chief Officer f...

Public universities and colleges in the United States continue to struggle with state funding cuts and a slowly recovering economy, Standard & Poor's Ratings Services said on Wednesday, adding the sector has a mixed outlook. ... Facing big budget holes in the wake of economic recession, many states slashed spending, including funding for higher education. ... The average credit rating for the 146 public universities S&P rates is A-plus with a stable outlook, with only three achieving AAA ratings on their debt -- University of Virginia, University of Texas System and University of Michigan, the...

Three environmental groups have graded Charlottesville as one of Virginia's "greenest" cities. The James River Association, Potomac Conservancy and friends of the Rappahannock released a review of Virginia's county and municipal ordinances to assess the use of sustainable development practices. ...The Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation, the University of Virginia, Virginia Commonwealth University, George Mason University and the Center for Watershed Protection assisted in the review and assessment.

The way Virginians voted in the 2008 Presidential election could be a precursor to things to come. During that election Virginia turned from a red state to a blue state.  New research from the University of Virginia's Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service says despite a red history of Republican support, Virginia's political future is impacted by a few key demographic changes.

Engineers at the University of Virginia are designing and building a bio-inspired robot that's based on stingrays and manta rays. Batoid rays "are wonderful examples of optimal engineering by nature," explains Hilary Bart-Smith, associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering. Rays are graceful swimmers, and can conserve energy by gliding for long distances.

Mantabot has a plastic body and silicone fins modeled directly on the cow-nosed ray — a cousin of manta rays and stingrays in the "batoid" ray fish family. Smaller or larger versions of the robot could swim effortlessly through the oceans as they run U.S. military reconnaissance missions or conduct scientific surveys of the underwater world. "We are studying a creature to understand how it is able to swim so beautifully, and we are hoping to improve upon it," said Hilary Bart-Smith, a mechanical and aerospace engineer at the University of Virginia. "We are learning from nature, but we also are...

Two local educators have been chosen for awards from the University of Virginia Curry School of Education Foundation, according to a news release from the university. Robert Grimesey, superintendent of Orange County Public Schools, is set to receive the 2012 Outstanding Superintendent Award.  Sharon Varney-Mahieu of Louisa County High School was selected to receive the 2012 Outstanding High School Teacher Award. The awards are presented annually to graduates of Curry. Both awardees were selected from a pool of national nominees. The awards are set to be presented at a dinner Oct. 25.

What makes a book a book? For Michael F. Suarez, director of the Rare Book School at the University of Virginia, a collection of texts on an e-reader doesn’t qualify in the fullest sense.

Political analysts may be holding their breath this fall, but it\'s Virginia that\'s turning blue.   So says an expert on demographic trends in the Commonwealth.  Dustin Cable works at the Weldon Cooper Center, where social scientists study population trends in Virginia.  He\'s especially interested in partisan politics and sees two things that suggest the Commonwealth may be turning into a blue state. "We\'re looking at growing diversity and growth in Northern Virginia."

Batoid rays, such as stingrays and manta rays, are among nature's most elegant swimmers. They are fast, highly maneuverable, graceful, energy-efficient, can cruise, bird-like, for long distances in the deep, open ocean, and rest on the sea bottom. U.Va. researchers are designing an "autonomous underwater vehicle" that someday may surpass what nature has provided as a model. The vehicle has potential commercial and military applications, and could be used for undersea exploration and scientific research.

The Building Tomorrow Academy of Gita, about an hour outside of Uganda’s capital city of Kampala, is an amazing example of what can be accomplished when local communities and international organizations work together toward innovative solutions to educational challenges. ... In the 2007-2008 school year, undergraduate architecture and engineering students at the University of Virginia’s Architecture Studio reCOVER and its Engineering in Context Capstone Design Program designed Gita’s seven classrooms, its library, its latrines, its office space and its outdoor play and learning space (includin...

The current project on which Bill T. Jones has settled is intriguing, one that will unfold for local audiences beginning Wednesday evening at 8 on the stage of the Ted Shawn Theatre at Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival. "Story/Time," a project Jones developed during a U.Va. residency, has Jones seated at a table in the middle of the playing area reading stories. ... Jones happened upon Ted Coffey, an associate professor of music at the University of Virginia, during a panel discussion on the role of chance in the creative process. Impressed with Coffey's understanding of the mid-20th-century av...

Robert Poland Atkinson The Rev. Robert P. Atkinson The Journal (Martinsburg, W.Va.) | July 25 James Manning McCarthy He received a Bachelor of Arts with Honors in Business Administration from the University of Virginia in 1959. While at U.Va. he lived on The Lawn, an honor reserved for students of academic merit, and was a member of Chi Phi fraternity and The Jefferson Society. James Manning McCarthy, age 74, of Peachtree City The Citizen (Fayetteville, Ark. | July 24

Barry Hite He graduated from U.Va., where he picked up the comedy bug and started an improvisational comedy group called the Whethermen. He is a member of the Second City's Laugh Out Loud Tour. Second City's local appearance includes Va. native Barry Hite The Examiner (Washington, D.C.) | July 24 Matt McLean Sterling, Va., native and 2011 University of Virginia graduate McLean will compete in the 800-meter freestyle relay in London. London 2012 Olympics: Local athletics go for gold ‎Washington Post | July 24 Chris Murray Murray placed fourth in the co...

Mark Edmundson A professor of English Massive Online Open Courses: From McLuhan to MOOC Huffington Post (blog) | July 23 Paul Freedman and Jeffrey Jenkins Freedman, an associate professor in the Department of Politics and Jeffrey Jenkins, associate professor and Director of Graduate Studies at the Miller Center, discuss  how current political systems could be improved. Sunday Morning Wake-Up Call: Improvements in Politics Charlottesville Podcasting Network | July 22 Larry Sabato Director of the Center for Politics Ann Kirkpatrick banking on kinder District 1 race Tucson Citizen | July...

  Virginia's public universities fared well overall in the survey.  UVA, Virginia Commonwealth, George Mason and Virginia Tech all saw declines in spending, although equity ratios were down 8% at Old Dominion and 12% at George Mason.  The survey also showed the University of Virginia with a hefty cushion against future costs -- an endowment per student of more than $157,000 – compared with about $16,000 at Tech, $8,000 at VCU, $7,000 at ODU and $1,800 at George Mason.

Unfolding details of the negotiation that led the University of Virginia into Stanford University's Coursera online consortium last week reveal a poignant episode of bad timing. On June 8, the leaders of the university's Board of Visitors asked for the resignation of President Teresa Sullivan. Among their chief complaints: U-Va. was ignoring perhaps the most significant development in the brief history of online collegiate learning, the vast experiment in global online learning launched by Stanford, MIT and Harvard. Earlier that day, a group of academic deans at U-Va. had discussed the pros...