(Commentary) Here’s a personal observation with a political thrust: if I were single, I don’t think I could handle dating a graduate student in the humanities or the social sciences. Or someone with a PhD but not a tenure-track job. Or perhaps even a junior professor working for tenure. When I close my eyes and think of friends who’re sweating their way up that greasy poll to find steady work as a professional scholar, the images I come up with are of people at wits’ end, often hardly capable of healthy relationships at all.
The University of Virginia is rolling out a new health care plan for its employees, and it has some of them upset. They're angry because the new rules can force covered spouses out of the plan – like it or not.
Larry Sabato, director of Center for Politics at the University of Virginia, said political candidates around the world were using social media as a tool for voter engagement. ‘‘It's like the old superpower missile race,’’ he said. ‘‘One side gets a missile, the other side's got to have it. I view it as a tool both for voter expression and motivation.’’
”My guess is that Cruz imagines himself appealing to Hispanics as well as the Tea Party, and maybe generating a large turnout of conservatives, as his ticket to the White House. Doubtful,” says Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia. “Texas is not America, and America is not Texas.”
"This is a very good poll for Terry McAuliffe," said Kyle Kondik of the University of Virginia's Center for Politics. "This was a more realistic look at the electorate than we've previously gotten in a public poll, and it was a good poll for Terry McAuliffe.
The University of Virginia is making some major changes to its health care plan that will require employees to pay higher premiums and will drop coverage for some employee's spouses.
“There are several moments when people talk about America ‘losing its innocence.’ Watergate was one of those moments,” Ken Hughes, a researcher with the Presidential Recordings Program at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center, told ABC News. "Nixon had just won the second biggest presidential landslide ever and his approval rating had dropped 14 points since the beginning of the year and it looked like it was going to continue to go down.” The mood of the country, he added, was "stunned, shocked, disbelieving.”
The calls are significant because they show the pressure Nixon was under and how desperate he was for validation as the crisis wore on, said Ken Hughes, a research specialist for the University of Virginia's Miller Center. "It was one of the worst nights of his life and even two people as famously upbeat as Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush were unable to cheer him up," said Hughes, who studies and reviews Nixon tapes. "He saw the writing on the wall," he said.
Even as Watergate slips further in the rearview mirror, a legacy of distrust and cynicism endures, passed from one generation to the next in dinner-table conversation and digital clips on YouTube. That's not all bad, scholars argue. People watch more closely, demand more accountability. "We should be skeptical about our governments," says historian Ken Hughes of the University of Virginia's Miller Center presidential recordings program. "We should demand that our government prove itself to us."
The calls are significant because they show the pressure Nixon was under and how desperate he was for validation as the crisis wore on, said Ken Hughes, a research specialist for the University of Virginia’s Miller Center.
Amid a national debate about how the federal financial aid system could be improved, a new study shows that an increased amount of need-based aid with no strings attached can have positive, long-term effects for low-income students. For their study, “Looking Beyond Enrollment: College Access, Persistence, and Graduation,” the researchers Benjamin Castleman and Bridget Terry Long investigated how the Florida Student Access Grant, a need-based state aid program, affected Florida students who graduated from high school in 2001.
The University of Virginia announced Wednesday that it plans to offer 11 massive open online courses, MOOCs, this academic year. Anyone can enroll in these online courses, which are taught by UVa faculty and offered at the online education site Coursera.
The University of Virginia also announced that they would no longer offer coverage to spouses who have access to their own employer-based health plans, and also cited Obamacare as a cause. “Ironically, by providing generous benefits,” UVA’s human resources VP Susan Carkeek said, “the University becomes exposed to a federal excise tax known as the ‘Cadillac tax.’” The ACA will add $7.3 million in other costs to UVA’s budget, even after avoiding the Cadillac tax and coverage for spouses.
Want to learn more about the Kennedys? Maybe you’re a fan of University of Virginia political analyst Larry Sabato? Or just want to study up on some recent history? Here’s something you might be interested in then: Enrollment is now open for Prof. Larry J. Sabato’s free online course about President John F. Kennedy’s life, administration and legacy.
If there’s going to be a MOOC equivalent to a Hollywood blockbuster, it may well be Larry J. Sabato’s course this fall called “The Kennedy Half Century” – a course that will have as media companions an hourlong PBS documentary starring Mr. Sabato and his latest book, “The Kennedy Half Century: The Presidency, Assassination, and Lasting Legacy of John F. Kennedy.”
The effort is also designed to boost Obama ahead of economic fights with Congress in the fall on government spending and the debt ceiling. “I assume the White House is cognizant of the problems they have with younger voters and are working to address that,” says University of Virginia political analyst Kyle Kondik. “The target for the message is right. Kids are going back to school, it’s the end of summertime, and the president’s going to try to position himself to be the reasonable person.”
The University of Virginia will no longer provide insurance coverage to the working spouses of its employees, a move university officials hope will save "millions of dollars." Starting Jan. 1, employee spouses who have health insurance coverage under their employers cannot get coverage under UVa’s plan. If the spouse is covered under a plan defined by the Affordable Care Act as “minimum value” and “affordable,” they will no longer be eligible.
Republican lawmakers are raising new concerns about ObamaCare after several large employers announced they are dropping health coverage to some employee spouses due to rising costs under the new law. Both the University of Virginia and UPS told their employees recently they are no longer offering spousal coverage to those able to obtain insurance elsewhere; meaning thousands of Americans will no longer be able to choose the benefits they prefer.
(Commentary) Larry Sabato, a University of Virginia political scientist, acknowledged voters aren't very keen at seeing when politicians say crap to get votes and then 10 seconds later do the complete opposite of what they say they will. "I think they're pretty set on him," Sabato said. "They like him. They're going to forgive a lot because they believe that deep down in his core he's with them. They also understand he's got to do some things to patch up the rift with McConnell and the mainstream, establishment Republicans."