For the past few months, Virginia’s top legislators have sniped at each other regarding the restoration of voting rights to felons who have served their terms. In April, Democratic Gov. Terry McAuliffe announced that he was using his executive power to restore the voting rights of some 206,000 convicted felons. Geoffrey Skelley, a political analyst with UVA’s Center for Politics, concurs. “It’s definitely overblown,” Skelley says. But that doesn’t mean that McAuliffe’s efforts to restore felon voter rights are without a political element.
A new CNN/ORC poll released Wednesday shows Donald Trump opening leads over Hillary Clinton in the key battleground states of Florida and Ohio. After these latest numbers, Talking Points Memo predicts Florida will break for the GOP this fall. But as Geoffrey Skelley from UVA’s Center for Politics points out: "The race has vacillated between larger and smaller Clinton leads. Is this a Clinton valley, a new normal, or [the] start of a Trump breakthrough?"
Pamela M. Sutton-Wallace, CEO of UVA Medical Center, began her keynote speech at the Owens & Minor Healthcare Supplier Diversity Symposium on Tuesday by outlining the challenges health care providers face. The symposium is meant to provide minority- and women-owned health care supply businesses the chance to network with providers and help them succeed in the industry.
Wednesday the ad hoc committee created by UVA’s Board of Visitors in August met to look at ways they can spend a controversial Strategic Investment Fund. The committee created a five-step plan.
A new Snapchat geofilter by Hillary Clinton's campaign in Virginia, "Love Trumps Hate," will be available on Norfolk State University's campus starting Thursday and Friday. The geofilter – one that is pegged to a physical location – will also be available on the campuses of Virginia Commonwealth University, University of Virginia and Virginia Tech.
Turning back another potential point of contention about its new $2.2 billion Strategic Investment Fund, UVA’s Board of Visitors said Wednesday that students also can submit proposals for spending the money. Vice Rector Frank Conner, chairman of an ad hoc committee reviewing parameters for the fund, responded to a letter of concern from the Student Council.
Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton’s poll numbers dropped dramatically in the Democratic stronghold of Washington, D.C., according to a Google Consumer Surveys poll published Thursday. The District of Columbia is ranked “safe Democrat” by UVA’s Center for Politics and the statistics site 538, but recent poll numbers could change that determination.
UVA’s College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences received a $40 million gift from Thompson Dean, a private-equity executive and 1979 graduate. The funds will support a range of curricular initiatives.
The U.S. Open ended just three days ago, but UVA graduate Danielle Collins already knows she’ll back in Flushing Meadows next year. Collins won the American Collegiate Invitational, earning her entry in the 2017 U.S. Open.
The UVA Board of Visitors is reviewing the procedures and guidelines governing the University's Strategic Investment Fund. The more-than-$2 billion fund is intended to support investments in scholarship, research, health care, student access and student life without relying on tuition or tax dollars.
UVA is hosting a four-day celebration for the 50th anniversary of the National Endowment for the Humanities. There will be panels, discussions and movies to show the importance of humanities and art in today's society.
Originally a novelist [with an M.F.A. From UVA’s Creative Writing Program], Avery Chenoweth had a major heart attack that left him too fatigued to write. He had to look elsewhere to pay the bills. … A year later, a friend, Philippe Sommer, told him about an incubator at UVA’s Darden School of Business. Known as i.Lab, it began by offering mentorship and courses to support students starting businesses.
Everything about “The Star-Spangled Banner” — its lyrics, its author, and the path it took to becoming the national anthem — is inextricably bound up with America’s gruesome history of racism. Among the academic experts with this perspective is Alan Taylor, a UVA professor and one of the foremost contemporary scholars of early U.S. history. Two of Taylor’s books have won the Pulitzer Prize; one of these, “The Internal Enemy,” addresses “The Star-Spangled Banner’s” third stanza, calling it “Key’s dig at the British fo...
Democrats are hoping that Donald Trump’s behavior on the campaign trail may be able to help them with military voters in Virginia. Geoff Skelley of UVA’s Center for Politics says veterans tend to be more white and more male than the population in general, which means they’re more Republican.
"[Kaine’s] approach was very centrist. He tried to support trade agreements that helped the state's economy, he tried to support equal opportunity and things that enhance economic opportunity for individuals," said Bill Shobe, director of the Center for Economic and Policy Studies and a UVA professor of public policy. "His approach was very much in the political mainstream, and I think we can expect that from his as vice president."
Two major college rankings – MONEY‘s and U.S. News & World Report‘s – agree that Princeton University is the nation’s best college in 2016. But because the two rankings value different things, they rank many other universities very differently. One major difference can be seen among public universities. The University of Michigan, UC Berkeley, and the University of Virginia, for example, all score higher in MONEY’s rankings.
UVA’s College at Wise has earned a worthwhile distinction: It is ranked first nationally in public liberal arts colleges for graduating students with low debt (based on the latest U.S. News & World-Report annual college guide data).
Dominion Virginia Power says it wants to develop offshore wind power, but the high cost of installation would make it far more expensive than electricity produced by burning fossil fuels or operating a nuclear plant. The utility also wonders how well offshore turbines would fare during a hurricane. Now, engineers at the University of Virginia have come up with a design that could solve both of those problems.
UVA’s Miller Center on Tuesday released two new papers by prominent higher education researchers that seek to make states’ higher education dollars go farther and to improve degree completion rates. They are two of six new papers prepared for the National Commission on Financing 21st Century Higher Education.
The episode underscores the perils of the "inclination towards secrecy" that has colored Clinton's campaign, says Kyle Kondik, managing editor of UVA’s political newsletter, Sabato's Crystal Ball.