For the first time since the 2004 launch of AccessUVA, the much-lauded financial aid program, the University of Virginia is requiring lower-income students to take out loans as part of their aid packages. The decision to end the debt-free support initiative, held up as a key part of a model program and copied by institutions around the country, is a reversal that’s drawing scrutiny far beyond the Commonwealth.
“Energy companies see a threat to their bottom line and they are taking action,” political analyst Kyle Kondik of the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics told the Center for Public Integrity. “Whatever way they can influence the process, that’s what they’re going to do.”
Catherine Anderson, senior program director at the University of Virginia’s School of Continuing and Professional Studies, agrees that Gen X students generally are more comfortable with such online systems than previous generations of students. But many of them still require additional support and training, especially if they’re taking an online class for the first time.
School systems across Virginia are getting threat assessment training as part of a mandate passed by this year's General Assembly. The Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services has tapped UVA Education professor Dewey Cornell to train these assessment teams, and Charles Fishburne talked with him about how to make schools safer in Virginia.
(Commentary by U.Va. alumni Paul Wiley and John Spilman Jr.) When the University of Virginia created its AccessUVa program in 2004, it ran a series of broadcast ads proclaiming, “If you’ve got the brains, but not the bucks, the door’s open.” Now the university’s Board of Visitors has dramatically narrowed that door by requiring extremely low-income AccessUVa enrollees to take on almost $30,000 of student loans. The new message? If you’ve got the brains, but not the bucks, tough luck.
Swarthmore College, in Pennsylvania, is the best institute of higher education in the United States for financial aid, according to a Princeton Review survey, and is followed in the top five by Princeton University; the University of Virginia; Pomona College; and Rice University.
Rock critic Rob Sheffield has profiled dozens – probably hundreds – of bands for Rolling Stone. He's followed around Aerosmith and gone out for Thai food with the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and ventured backstage at Rocklahoma. But he's the first to admit his books tend to return to the same themes over and over again.
(By Erika Hayes James, associate dean for executive education and professor of business at the University of Virginia Darden School of Business) With the completion of the 100th Tour de France, memories resurface about the doping controversy surrounding the famed race and the most famous cyclist of all, Lance Armstrong. The innocent bystander in all of this is Livestrong, the cyclist’s foundation. The nonprofit group’s goal is to improve the lives of people with cancer. Fulfilling this mission has been a struggle as Livestrong battles its own malignancy following Armstrong’s ...
(Commentary) The new policy creates a level playing field for all UVa students. Most people accept the principle that poor students require more student aid than students from families of greater means. But I find it extraordinary that poor students were getting a full ride while middle-class students were saddled with loans. Talk about social engineering! It is ridiculous to assert that the new policy “hurts” Virginia’s diversity just because poor kids have to take out loans like middle-class kids.
In 1955, days after officials introduced the "new, wonder vaccine" against polio to Roanoke, Virginia, local news station WSLS-TV asked some parents in the street about it. Of the four adults they interviewed, three said they planned to get their children vaccinated. "I do think it's a worthwhile project and I hope it's going to be a success," one woman said. That old footage is now available online, thanks to a new project by the University of Virginia Library.
“I’m very skeptical about this program,” said David Martin, a law professor at the University of Virginia who has served as general counsel to the Immigration and Naturalization Service and as a deputy counselor to the Department of Homeland Security, in the Clinton and Obama administrations. “It’s doubtful how much these visas have contributed to jobs and the overall economy. And has it been worth all of the effort and complications?”
Tennessee Health Commissioner John J. Dreyzehner, of Nashville, formerly of Southwest Virginia, has been named a TMA Quarterly Public Health Champion for 2013. The honor recognizes TMA member physicians for their outstanding public health contributions across the state of Tennessee. Dr. Dreyzehner serves as an adjunct faculty member at East Tennessee State University’s College of Public Health, visiting assistant professor in Public Health Sciences for the University of Virginia, and is founding faculty for the Healthy Appalachia Institute at University of Virginia‐Wise.
Liz Lagerfeld of McLean is one of seven University of Virginia students – six recent graduates and an alumnus from 2009 – who have received Fulbright Scholarships to study abroad. Lagerfeld, who graduated with degrees in economics and Spanish, will use her scholarship to participate in an English-teaching assistantship in Mexico.
Last Monday, our staff got an email from Joe Stinnett telling us he was leaving his post as managing editor of The News & Advance to become editor of The Roanoke Times. The thing is, Joe was perfect for Lynchburg. He grew up in Amherst County and graduated from the University of Virginia, which gave him some insight into two different strains of Virginians. Moreover, to show that he was above mindless prejudice, he married a Virginia Tech graduate. What emerged from this alchemy was an editor with a certain level of UVa sophistication, coupled with a laidback Amherst County attitude.
Families will get the chance to view the stars through telescopes and learn more about the solar system at a “star party” next Saturday at Albemarle Cider Works at North Garden. The University of Virginia and the Charlottesville Astronomical Society is scheduled to host party from 6 to 10 p.m. Aug. 17 as part of their “Dark Skies, Bright Kids." Professional and amateur astronomers will be on hand to help operate telescopes and talk to guests.
Not much needs to be said when recalling the life of the late Chris Sanderson and the impact that it had, and will continue to have. The former Team Canada goalie who also played and coached in the National Lacrosse League passed away last June after a lengthy battle with brain cancer. This video produced by fellow University of Virginia alum Jay Jalbert offers a very touching and emotional look back at the life that was Chris Sanderson.
It’s been a roller-coaster year for Doris Chen, but a year with more ups than downs. The 20-year-old native of Chinese Taipei helped Southern Cal win the NCAA women’s golf championship, made it to the final of the U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links, made the cut in the U.S. Women’s Open and now is headed to the semifinals of the U.S. Women’s Amateur. Chen scored a 4 and 3 quarterfinal victory Friday over incoming U.Va. first-year student Lauren Diaz-Yi and exacted a small amount of revenge for what happened in the final of Public Links championship. In June Diaz-Yi...
Although overconfidence can make us seem influential and knowledgeable, it can also backfire. In one set of experiments, by psychologists Elizabeth Tenney and Barbara Spellman at the University of Virginia, people compared two applicants for a job in day care. One of them claimed to be extremely patient and alert whereas the other was more circumspect. Initially the recruiters preferred the highly confident applicant—until they learned from a personality test that this person had overstated her abilities. Then the more cautious candidate came out ahead.
Tocqueville’s incisive observations seem nearly miraculous, especially from someone new to the country. As Guy Aiken, a graduate student at the University of Virginia, details in an article published in the current issue of The Tocqueville Review, Tocqueville’s insight into American life was in fact nurtured by a local—Jared Sparks, a prominent 19th-century historian who went on to become president of Harvard University.
(Slideshow) While on vacation, William Howard Taft could usually be found on the golf course, and, according to the University of Virginia's Miller Center, his love for the game even led to a golfing boom across the country.