Sandra Smith has her trainees' needs at the top of her mind. As an HR professional, Sandra Smith always has been interested in developing professional talent. But it wasn't until she took on a project to help employees make better decisions about their insurance that she really discovered the joy of helping others through instruction. As a manager in the facilities management department at the University of Virginia, Smith now devotes her time to designing and delivering professional development programs. Eschewing lectures in favor of more creative and active learning, she says that e...
Controversy over Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email account while serving as secretary of state has sent fresh waves of alarm through the Democratic Party, with activists saying they need a “plan B” if Mrs. Clinton’s candidacy runs aground. “For Democrats, it’s Hillary or chaos. She knows it, and the party knows it,” said Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia Centre for Politics.
Four members of the second-ranked Virginia basketball team, the ACC’s regular-season champion, were named to the all-conference team Sunday, and senior forward Darion Atkins became the first U.Va. player to be chosen as the league’s defensive player of the year.For the second consecutive year, the Cavaliers’ Tony Bennett was named the ACC’s coach of the year.
(By Aniko Bodroghkozy, a professor of Media Studies at the University of Virginia) The most shocking moment in the Selma campaign was a television phenomenon: news coverage of the beating and gassing of hundreds of peaceful marchers on the Edmund Pettus Bridge who'd planned a defiant walk to the Alabama state capitol in protest of the disenfranchisement of black voters.On the 50th anniversary of "Bloody Sunday," as the nation revisits and reflects on this transformative moment in history, the review of these gruesome images give us opportunity to take a closer look at the signifi...
(By Lawton R. Burns and Jeff Goldsmith, president of Health Futures and an associate professor of public health sciences at the University of Virginia) For the past four decades, there has been one dominant theme in healthcare delivery-system reform: Hospitals and physicians must transform themselves into comprehensive-care enterprises to be paid a population-based global budget. In the vision of pioneering health policy researchers Paul Ellwood Jr. and Alain Enthoven, consumers should choose among multiple Kaiser-like entities competing based on premium (e.g., total cost of care).
(By Sarah Milov, an assistant professor of history at the University of Virginia) In 2014, the Oxford English Dictionary's word of the year was "vape." The FDA should take a hint from the OED and write its own definition of e-cigarettes - a definition that will treat them as a tobacco product. In short, the FDA was made to regulate products just like e-cigarettes. E-cigarettes have created a market that abounds in unproven health claims; a market in which more than 16 million children can legally by e-cigs and administer unspecified amounts of nicotine to themselves; a market in ...
The University of Virginia opened an office in Shanghai as the school seeks to raise its profile in China. The Charlottesville-based university officially launched the office on March 6 with The Year of U.Va. Opening in China at Shanghai's Waldorf Astoria Club. Following a conference on the challenges posed by China's rapid growth, a reception was attended by senior leadership from the university, Chinese government officials, alumni, parents of students and friends.
Many local schools have been stepping up to help out soon-to-be displaced Sweet Briar College students. Ever since Sweet Briar announced Tuesday that it will be shutting down at the end of this academic year, colleges and universities throughout the region have decided to open up their doors and extend their transfer deadlines for Sweet Briar students interested in enrolling in the fall of 2015. Among them is the University of Virginia. UVa President Teresa Sullivan sent out a tweet that has been retweeted 76 times and favorited 104 times, which goes to show how the university commun...
On successive days following the release of Rolling Stone’s shattered exposé, federal officials demanded University of Virginia documents related to sexual attacks described in the story and announced plans to review two years of sexual misconduct files. Three large bankers boxes and one small box filled with formal complaints awaited officials from the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights, a UVa official said in an email.
Wednesday marked the third and final town meeting on safety at the University of Virginia. Members of the University community spoke about the school's culture surrounding sexual violence. Some said victims of sexual assault often feel that the culture on Grounds doesn't support or believe their stories.
U.S. Rep. John Lewis is among the 2015 winners of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation Medals. Besides Lewis, the other recipients are Herman Hertzberger, an acclaimed Dutch architect; and Joan E. Donoghue, the current American representative judge serving on the International Court of Justice.
Twenty-five years ago, the doughnut theory of urban studies went like this: Cities were poor (the doughnut hole) and suburbs were rich (the doughnut). But the model has shifted over the past quarter century, to the point where wealthy cities are now surrounded by poorer inner suburbs (populated by people who can no longer afford the city), which in turn are surrounded by wealthier outer suburbs.A new study from the University of Virginia quantifies this concept by plotting various demographic characteristics against the distance from the center of a city. In D.C.'s case, as in many cities ...
As part of the one-year pilot agreement between Foothills Forum and Rappahannock Media, Foothills Forum plans to develop “editorial matter” — which, initially, in partnership with the University of Virginia’s Center for Survey Research, will include a comprehensive mail-out survey of Rappahannock’s 3,000-plus households.
Educated 20-somethings and the wealthy are flocking to cities, creating a new model for what an American city typically looks like, according to a report released by the University of Virginia’s Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service. In the 1990s, U.S. cities were made up of a ring of thriving suburbs surrounding a decaying center. This “donut” model had wealthy and educated residents in the outer ring, while the center was filled with poor, minority-dominated residents. Today, cities resemble a new donut pattern with a resurgence of downtown and historic centers, often dri...
Luke Juday at the University of Virginia’s Demographics Research Group pulled together data that would show the shape of the modern American city. It used to be hollowed out, with the suburban ring growing. Its data, displayed graphically for more than 70 metro areas, usually show three rings: an urban core, a dying suburban ring, followed by a growing outer ring. We suggest you click on Seattle, Detroit and Las Vegas to find fascinating comparisons.
The stereotype of the quiet, introspective mountain loner and the beach-going partier may have truth to it: These different personalities are drawn to different physical terrains, according to new research.Don’t think, however, you can change your personality just by moving to a different city. It’s not that mountains are creating introverts, but more likely the opposite: People who are already introverted simply gravitate to mountainous regions, lead researcher Shige Oishi, from the University of Virginia, says.
Larry J. Sabato, a university professor of politics and director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics, said Tuesday that his accuracy on initial ratings for U.S. Senate races for the last five cycles (2006-2014) has been correct 89-percent of the time. That’s an important statistic, especially given his prediction for 2016 that Democrats stand a very good chance of retaking control of the Upper Chamber, and could do even better if their presidential candidate can blow the GOP ticket out of the water, as it now seems likely if Hillary Clinton mops the floor against a Republic...
The University of Virginia is now stepping up to help students affected by the closure of Sweet Briar College. UVA has extended its March 1 transfer deadline to March 25. The extension applies only to Sweet Briar students, and all other transfer policies remain in place.
Recent research out of the University of Virginia shows that contemporary kindergarten teachers spend much more time teaching academic skills—skills that are often tested—than they did 15 years ago. And they spend significantly less time on dramatic play and art. A look inside Molly Mansel’s classroom at Sylvanie Williams Elementary School offers a view of what these changes actually look like on the ground.
The MP3 format can reduce the file size of a song as much as 10-fold, but in the process something has to be filtered out. Which sounds get filtered out of a song to make the file smaller was determined in 1993 by a group of European sound engineers who using songs like Tracy Chapman's "Fast Car," and Vega's "Tom's Diner." But what happened to those filtered out sounds?Ryan MaGuire, a a Ph.D. student in Composition and Computer Technologies at the University of Virginia Center for Computer Music, created a project called "moDernisT" to find out.