Bob Gibson, senior researcher at the Academy for Civic Renewal at UVA’s Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service and co-editor of the Virginia News Letter, said the trend of red areas becoming redder and blue ones becoming bluer is something he’s seeing across the state and nation.
“The president spends most of his or her day doing things that he’s not particularly eager to do," Brian Balogh, a presidential historian at UVA’s Miller Center, said. “My guess is that Donald Trump as a businessperson did plenty of things that he wasn’t particularly eager to do. However, in business, there is a pretty clear criteria – it’s called the bottom line.”
“No one outside the process can be 100 percent certain, but it sure does look like Christie was singled out,’’ said Larry Sabato, head of UVA’s Center for Politics.
The majority of experts interviewed for this story said that, in theory, the idea could work. The reason it hasn’t, says UVA economist Jennifer Doleac, is because the government isn’t incentivized to study gun violence the same way think tanks and academics such as herself are.
(By Larry J. Sabato, Kyle Kondik, and Geoffrey Skelley of UVA’s Center for Politics) Bite-sized observations on a wild election. Now that we’ve had a week to digest the results of the 2016 election, here are some observations about what happened and what the results might tell us about the future.
Children who lived in food deserts without easy access to fresh fruits and vegetables appeared to have higher rates of asthma than children who lived closer to sources of healthy foods, according to a study by Dr. DeVon Preston of the UVA Health System and colleagues.
"These risk factors related to heart disease and stroke appear to worsen rapidly in the years leading up to menopause, and during the postmenopausal period they progress less rapidly," said Dr. Mark DeBoer, the study's senior author and a UVA associate professor of pediatric endocrinology.
Given the option of spending time on a beach or in the mountains, which would you choose? Researchers have determined that your preference is related to how outgoing you are. In a series of five experiments, UVA psychologists found that introverts generally prefer mountainous areas, whereas extroverts opt for beaches.
“A Trump presidency will likely lead to a more heated relationship with China,” suggests Aynne Kokas, a UVA professor of media studies. “His rhetoric could generate anti-Americanism that could affect box office sales, new theme-park investments, and even the quota for film imports.”
Democratic Gov. Terry McAuliffe hoped to balance the books with new federal money that would have come with expanding Medicaid. But now, says Geoff Skelley at UVA’s Center for Politics, that seems out of reach. “To some degree you have to figure this is just providing more ammunition for Republicans who have opposed efforts to expand Medicaid. They’ll argue that, well, it’s proven to be more costly."
Members of the University of Virginia ROTC held a vigil to honor prisoners of war and those missing in action. The vigil was held for 24 hours at the McIntire Amphitheater on Grounds, where 96 cadets marched.
An installation inside the University of Virginia's newly renovated Rotunda is helping out people with hearing loss. Hearing loops are now in place in eight rooms in the Rotunda. They allow for sound to be transmitted through a cable which is then picked up by a hearing aid or cochlear implant.
UVA political scientist Larry Sabato said he doubts there is any new momentum to abolish the Electoral College by the party soon to be in charge of the White House and both chambers of Congress.
Maybe the best counter to the false belief that low scoring equals poor play can be found at the University of Virginia, coached by Tony Bennett. Over the past three years, the team has gone 89-19 despite ranking consistently in the bottom third in scoring in the Atlantic Coast Conference.
UVA’s Rotunda is a sight to behold as it nears the end of a $50.6 million renovation. One key addition to the Rotunda, though, isn’t easily seen, but some students and visitors attending lectures and meetings in the building will be able to hear it, loud and clear.
President-elect Donald Trump's decision to empower his running mate Mike Pence to steer the presidential transition gives the soon-to-be vice president a powerful hand in shaping the incoming government and could foreshadow that he will play an outsized role in the White House. "Trump has learned to trust Pence and Pence has years of experience in Congress," said Larry Sabato, head of UVA’s Center for Politics. "I think it's dawning on Trump that he's now got enormous responsibilities and needs.”
“Typically, the president’s party loses ground in the House and Senate during that person’s time in office. This is particularly true in midterms, where the president’s party usually does poorly,” said Kyle Kondik, managing editor of Sabato’s Crystal Ball, the political prognosticators at UVA.
“They are not proposing to build any new renewable facilities with this rider. Not one. Not a single kilowatt of new energy,” said Cale Jaffe, director of UVA’s Environmental and Regulatory Law Clinic. “(They’re) just going to shuffle some papers and repackage those as a renewable tariff. ... A rider that inhibits competition and inhibits free market choices for renewable energy, that’s a step backward.”
I read about a fascinating study by Saras Sarasvathy, a professor at UVA’s Darden School of Business, who wanted to dig deeper into what made successful entrepreneurs so different. Through rigorous interviews and research, she concluded that successful entrepreneurs rely on what she calls “effectual reasoning.”
After more than 11 years as president and CEO of the University of Virginia Alumni Association, Tom Faulders has announced plans to retire in June.