(Editorial) Rex Bowman and Carlos Santos lend new meaning to the “three R’s.” The former reporters for The Times-Dispatch have written “Rot, Riot, and Rebellion,” which tells the story of “Mr. Jefferson’s Struggle to Save the University That Changed America.” The University of Virginia’s birth and survival proved more difficult than many would assume. A school founded by the most famous Virginian not named George Washington did not have an easy start. Its success was not ordained. Difficulties with the school reduced Jefferson to tears.
“Neither side has a real clue about how the deep divide on the budget is going to be resolved this fall,” said Larry Sabato, a University of Virginia political scientist. “Congressional Republicans are in much greater peril than President Obama on the budget issues. A shutdown or deadlock will, as usual, hurt the GOP more,” he added. “But on Obamacare, its namesake owns it, top to bottom. There is no way for the president to wriggle out of responsibility for the pieces that fail, or appear to fail.”
A University of Virginia professor is working with police departments across the commonwealth to make sure they are using proper procedures for identifying suspects. Professor Brandon Garrett, who specializes in wrongful convictions, says most of the police departments in Virginia are using outdated eyewitness ID procedures.
The U.S. faces difficult options, said Ryan Crocker, who served as U.S. ambassador to Syria from 1998 to 2001. Crocker, a top diplomat under four presidents, also has served as ambassador to Lebanon, Kuwait, Pakistan, Iraq and Afghanistan. He is now the James R. Schlesinger Distinguished Professor at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center. Given that the U.S. will not get U.N. Security Council authorization for military action, the president will want to have as broad a coalition as possible, he said. Crocker said the administration is taking such steps, “so that it does not lo...
According to the lead author of a report from the National Association of Scholars entitled “Beach Books: What Do Colleges and Universities Want Students to Read Outside Class?,” “US colleges increasingly view anything published before 1990 as ‘inaccessible’ for students.” (U.Va.’s Engineering School was cited as one of eight schools assigning pre-1990 reading, “To Engineer is Human: The Role of Failure in Successful Design” by Henry Petroski.)
Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics, said the numbers are meaningless. He pointed to arguments by the manager for the campaign of former GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney who contended until the end that the large crowds their candidate drew was a sign of victory. “I learned decades ago not to judge campaigns by crowd turnouts,” he said. “There are a thousand things more important than that. It’s very, very misleading.”
New research suggests that courtroom experts’ evaluations may be influenced by whether their paycheck comes from the defense or the prosecution. The research is published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. “We were surprised by how easy it was to find this ‘allegiance effect,’” says psychological scientist Daniel Murrie of the University of Virginia. “The justice system relies often on expert witnesses, and most expert witnesses believe they perform their job objectively — these findings suggest this may n...
In Charlottesville, members of the University of Virginia community plan commemorate the anniversary as well. At 2 p.m. in the Rotunda Dome Room, students will read parts of Dr. King's speech and reflect on what his dream means for UVA today. Immediately following, there will be a ringing of the chapel bells at 3 p.m. - the exact time King gave his speech. The ringing is just one of many occurring at that time across the country. At a 4 p.m., the Carter G. Woodson Institute will host discussions on ways to revitalize the purpose of King's "I Have a Dream" speech and its empha...
A 2013 study called “Improving Students’ Learning With Effective Learning Techniques” and published in “Psychological Science in the Public Interest,” a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, evaluated the 10 most commonly used learning techniques and concluded the following about effectiveness. … The report, published earlier this year, was written by John Dunlosky and Katherine A. Rawson of Kent State University, Elizabeth J. Marsh of Duke University, Mitchell J. Nathan of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Daniel T. Willingham of the...
(Commentary) In the spring of 1963, when I was a student at the U.S. Army's Judge Advocate General Corps School in Charlottesville, Va., the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. came to town to speak to the student body of the University of Virginia. At the time, my brother, Henry Floyd Johnson, was studying at UVA while also serving as the pastor of a church in Charlottesville. He had known King for some time, and took me to meet him on the evening that he was scheduled to speak.
“In terms of the party identification, I think some of it is increasingly in polls, and we really started to see it in 2012 is that, a lot of people who identify themselves as independent, are actually, essentially, Republican,” said Geoff Skelley, political analyst for the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics.
One of eight winners of the 2013 R+D Awards that were presented by ARCHITECT magazine, the ecoMOD Project is an effort of project teams at the University of Virginia (UVa) to work with affordable housing organization in the creation of low-impact, energy-efficient housing units. Project teams are made up of UVa faculty and students of various disciplines that have collaborated on the design, build, and evaluation of twelve housing units that are located on eight sites.
Science proves that being generous, whether with kisses, appreciation, or compliments, makes couples feel "very happy" together, according to a recent study from University of Virginia's National Marriage Project.
The map, created by Dustin Cable at University of Virginia’s Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service, is stunningly comprehensive. Drawing on data from the 2010 U.S. Census, it shows one dot per person, color-coded by race. That’s 308,745,538 dots in all–around 7 GB of visual data. It isn’t the first map to show the country’s ethnic distribution, nor is it the first to show every single citizen, but it is the first to do both, making it the most comprehensive map of race in America ever created.
The University of Virginia’s Center for Politics rates Paul as one of three top tier 2016 Republican presidential contenders, along with New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker. But Paul said he won’t decide for many more months if he will enter the race.
(Commentary) The President’s proposals indicate a wholehearted embrace of a consumerist point of view regarding education. In his recently released book, “Why Teach?: In Defense of a Real Education,” Prof. Mark Edmundson of the University of Virginia decries this trend in his opening essay, “Liberal Arts and Lite Entertainment,” first published in 1997. Edmundson, I believe correctly, identifies the greatest danger of a consumerist mindset when it comes to education, namely, when we are consumers, we expect the product we are purchasing – be it a big screen ...