Thursday, April 16, 2015 was officially National High Five Day. The organization, known as National High Five, began this friendly tradition in 2002 when college-age students handed out free lemonade and, of course, high-fives at the University of Virginia. Now, it’s a national holiday celebrated by giving out high-fives to anyone and everyone every year on the third Thursday in April. This year participants were able to document their epic gestures through the trending Twitter #NH5D.
UVa Culpeper Hospital recently named Dr. Thomas Reynolds its new chief medical officer, replacing Dr. Morton Chiles after five years in the position. Reynolds, a 34-year family medicine provider with UVa Primary Care Culpeper Family Practice, said he "believes his years of hands-on medical experience give him unique insight into patients’ perspectives," which will guide him in his new endeavor as part of the hospital’s leadership team.
Members of the University of Virginia community rallied Thursday night to take a stand against sexual violence. Hundreds of people joined together at the university for a march and vigil held by the Take Back the Night group.
As part of the Tom Tom Founders Festival, nine companies pitched their ideas to the crowd, who then voted on those ideas. There were more than 500 votes cast Thursday night, and the winner was Wildrock, a 28-acre property in Crozet looking to become a place for families and groups to get back to nature. Founder Carolyn Schuyler received a coveted spot in the iLab program at the Batten Institute at the University of Virginia.
Students, faculty and members of the Jewish community gathered at the University of Virginia for a vigil to honor the victims and survivors of the Holocaust. The UVA Brody Jewish Center hosted the event as part of National Holocaust Remembrance Day.
From supporting the preparation of the next generation of professors and school leaders to providing a platform for collaborative research at micro and nano scales, the Jefferson Trust, an initiative of the University of Virginia Alumni Association, will formally award 14 grants totaling more than $600,000 to various University entities Friday in a 4:30 p.m. ceremony in the lower garden of Pavilion III.
Two years ago, when U.Va. Ph.D. student Thomas Talhelm was a Fulbright scholar in Beijing, he built his own air purifier after growing concerned about the city’s notorious pollution. To test his handiwork, he spent about $260 for a portable device that counts tiny particles in the air. “I always had the intuition that indoor air was cleaner than outdoor air, and that’s borne out in the data very clearly,” he said. Mr. Talhelm, who used a device made by a California company called Dylos, also noticed that cooking could cause indoor pollution to spike.
Douglas Laycock, a leading scholar of religious liberty, has staked out a middle ground position in the looming confrontation between gay rights and religious rights. He calls his approach “liberty and justice for all.” “Same-sex civil marriage is a great advance for human liberty. But failure to attend to the religious-liberty implications will create a whole new set of problems for the liberties of those religious organizations and believers who cannot conscientiously recognize or facilitate such marriages,” writes Mr. Laycock, a professor at the University of Virgini...
“The immigrant story is going to resonate more than ever now, and particularly with the Latino roots of his immigrant story, because that’s the next group to be rising to the fore,” says Barbara Perry, the director of the Miller Center’s Institute for Presidential Studies at the University of Virginia. “He can speak to the issue about being of immigrant stock as a part of public policy.”
A review of killings here so far this year shows about 80% involved firearms. "The presence of a gun can make a big difference in whether an incident is an argument vs. a homicide, whereas other weapons do not have such an impact," according to Dewey Cornell, a clinical psychologist and professor of education at the University of Virginia. "When carrying guns becomes commonplace in a community, the potential to settle disputes with guns will rise."
The general consensus among analysts in that no one other than John Kasich, Jeb Bush, Scott Walker and Chris Christie can win the general election and Republican voters will eventually see the wisdom on not choosing an unelectable candidate. “The conservatives like Cruz and Paul will certainly do well in the Iowa caucuses and the early South Carolina primary, but as the primaries get into March and April, it is going to become more and more difficult for them in more moderate states,” says Kyle Kondik, managing editor of Sabato's Crystal Ball, a nonpartisan political newsl...
The White House, by grudgingly yielding to Congress' right to weigh in on a nuclear deal with Iran, has managed to dodge—for now—a domestic policy fight that could have potentially scuttled the Obama administration's delicate negotiations. "The White House secured some changes to the bill that made it more palatable, so the president has agreed to sign and he's ducked for now an unpleasant fight he might well have lost," said Larry Sabato, a politics professor and director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics. "When a president is fighting hi...
Joan Cheever said police infringed her religious freedom when they fined her $2,000 for feeding the homeless in San Antonio. Doug Laycock, a professor at the University of Virginia School of Law and an expert on religious freedom laws, said there have been several court cases involving religious freedom and homeless feeding operations over the years, resulting in victories for both sides. Laycock said Cheever's case could come down to whether the permitting process is overly burdensome.
A Savannah poet has won a major national literary award. Sjohnna McCray is the 2015 recipient of the Walt Whitman Award, the most valuable first-book prize for poetry in the nation, for his manuscript, “Rapture.” A graduate of Ohio University, McCray received his MFA from the University of Virginia, where he was a Henry Hoyns Fellow.
A Savannah poet has won a major national literary award. Sjohnna McCray is the 2015 recipient of the Walt Whitman Award, the most valuable first-book prize for poetry in the nation, for his manuscript, “Rapture.” A graduate of Ohio University, McCray received his MFA from the University of Virginia, where he was a Henry Hoyns Fellow.
A group of Virginia-based researchers funded by the Defense Department found that it is relatively easy to remotely hack into a driverless car’s control system, but said hardening against such an attack can be inexpensive. Two Charlottesville-based companies teamed up with the University of Virginia and the Defense Department to find a solution to combat cyber attacks on critical functions such as braking and accelerating in driverless cars.
The top 10 public names: University of Texas system ($36.7 billion), University of California ($28.6 billion), University of Michigan ($11.5 billion), State University System of Florida ($9.7 billion), University of Virginia ($8.1 billion), Pennsylvania State University ($6.7 billion), California State University ($5.7 billion), Texas A&M University system ($5.0 billion), University of Washington ($4.9 billion) and Ohio State University ($4.8 billion).
An independent review says a proposed regional firearms facility for Charlottesville, Albemarle and University of Virginia law enforcement will not hurt the environment. The environmental assessment report from ECS Mid-Atlantic, LLC says that the facility would have no major impact on the surrounding area. The proposed firearms training facility will be located at Milton Field, just east of Charlottesville, on property owned by UVA.
If a debtor is struggling with the burden of loan repayment, I would recommend looking into the Pay as You Earn (PAYE) loan repayment plan, said University of Virginia professor Margaret Montague. Under PAYE, a debtor will either pay 10% of his/her discretionary income or what he/she would have paid under the Standard Repayment Plan. After 20 years of on-time payments, the remaining balance on the loan is forgiven. The amount forgiven is considered taxable income.
Changes proposed for Louisiana's religious freedom bill address a few key criticisms of the legislation, but have not calmed fears that it could lead to discrimination against same-sex couples. "So clearly [the bill] is designed to override any existing or future law that might prevent people from acting on their moral conviction that marriage is confined to one man and one woman," wrote Doug Laycock, a religious liberty expert and law school professor at the University of Virginia.