Experts unaffiliated with the new research welcomed the new report. “I think this is a very important study since the effects weren’t just in children at a lower economic level,” said Patrick Tolan, a professor in the Curry School of Education and director of the Youth-Nex Center at the University of Virginia. “Just as important, though, is the implication that the boost in skills may very much depend on having high quality staff and using programs that have been empirically tested.”
(Press release) Enviance, Inc., in partnership with GreenBiz Group and Qualtrics, today announced the “Environmental Eight,” the eight colleges and universities out of the previously announced “Sustainable 16” that will be moving on to the next round of the Second Annual Environmental March Madness tournament. U.Va. is among the final eight, along with Colorado State University, George Mason University, Michigan State University, Middlebury College, Ohio State University, University of California Santa Barbara and the University of Washington.
At the other end of the spectrum, in terms of rhetoric but not policy, was professor Douglas Laycock of the University of Virginia School of Law. In a friend-of-the-court brief on behalf of the American Jewish Committee, Laycock and two others laid out a methodical case for both granting the freedom to marry others of the same gender and not forcing religious groups to recognize them.
University of Virginia President Teresa Sullivan and her staff have developed a four-year financial plan that would increase tuition and invest in faculty, technology and new programs as the public flagship confronts economic challenges and relies less on state funding.
Piedmont Virginia Community College student Anastasiya Hvaleva is the top community college student in Virginia. Hvaleva has been named the 2013 New Century Scholar for Virginia, part of the All-USA Academic Team program sponsored by USA Today, the American Association of Community Colleges and Phi Theta Kappa, the national honor society for two-year colleges. She will graduate in May and plans to attend the University of Virginia McIntire School of Commerce in the fall.
Making a false statement is not a rare phenomena. Especially when the accused are denied lawyers. Brandon Garrett, a distinguished professor at the University of Virginia Law School, examined 250 cases of people convicted of crimes that DNA later proved they did not commit. No fewer than forty of these exonerated individuals had given a false confession to crimes they did not commit.
Scientists in the U.S. are developing a new device to deliver therapeutic spinal cord stimulation in a more targeted way. Each year, more than 35,000 patients in the US are implanted with spinal cord stimulators to treat chronic pain, with up to half of recipients receiving very limited relief. The new device, developed by scientists at the University of Virginia and University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, aims to reach nerve fibres deep within the spinal cord.
It's clear Mr. Bloomberg won't travel an easy road. "Any longtime observer of American politics is going to put his money on the NRA," says Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. But then again, Mr. Sabato says, don't count the former media mogul out. "He has enough money to be a real counterweight," he says. "Bloomberg combines almost unlimited cash with a successful politician's understanding of voters and issues, so there's no question that he tops any other NRA opponent, even longtime ...
In order to take back the Senate in 2014, strategists say Republicans have to win GOP strongholds like South Dakota and West Virginia at a minimum. "Republicans need to put these away first and if they do, they may be able to win the Senate," says Kyle Kondik, a congressional expert at the University of Virginia. "If they don't, it says really bad things about the national folks' ability to run these races and the Republican brand."
(Analysis) Analyst Kyle Kondik, of the University of Virginia's Center for Politics, told Secrets that if Bloomberg keeps the focus on background checks and not an assault weapons ban, it may not hurt Democrats. "I think the true danger that Bloomberg poses to Democrats is if he intervenes in some red district primaries and knocks off one of the few remaining House blue dogs, effectively handing the seat to a conservative Republican," he said.
The University of Virginia is running a research study at the Virginia DMV Customer Service Centers in Charlottesville and Fairfax/Westfields. The goal of the research is to review the effectiveness of a Virtual Reality Driving Simulator to see if this type of technology accurately and consistently compares to real on-road driving testing.
The Hospice of the Piedmont Journeys Program helps children and teens deal with their loss in their own unique way. The next fundraiser is a live entertainment event sponsored by the University of Virginia Children's Hospital featuring nationally renowned storyteller Jim Weiss.
(Editorial) Forty-eight percent of first births in America are to unmarried women. We did a double-take when we first saw the figure. Turns out that it’s just one of the startling numbers in a new report sponsored by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, the Relate Institute and the National Marriage Project at the University of Virginia.
University of Virginia political analyst Larry Sabato said, “Within the Republican Party, a majority still opposes same-sex marriage. It is a real dilemma for Republicans. It is a loser for them, and they know it. They cannot endorse it, because of the social conservatives. They cannot oppose it, because of their need for a broader constituency, to reach out to voters before they become a permanent minority party.”
Equality Virginia, the commonwealth's chief nonprofit LGBT-rights organization, will recognize seven honorees who have advanced LGBT equality. at its 10th annual Commonwealth Dinner on April 6. Among them is Charlotte J. Patterson, a researcher for the University of Virginia whose research on the emotional health of children has helped dispel myths about LGBT parents and has been cited in amicus briefs for the two cases being heard by the Supreme Court.
The University of Virginia’s Biomedical Innovation Fund has awarded $200,000 to four university research projects. Each project was awarded $50,000. Created in 2008 by the Ivy Foundation, the fund has awarded about $1 million to university research collaborations that have the potential to produce diagnostic solutions and treatments for medical problems.
Some fascinating facts, graphs and insights from Knot Yet: The Benefits and Costs of Delayed Marriage in America, a new report from the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, the National Marriage Project at the University of Virginia, and the RELATE Institute.
Research by economists refutes the prevailing tales of woe. “The claim that student borrowing is ‘too high’ across the board can — with the possible exception of for-profit colleges — clearly be rejected,” wrote Christopher Avery, a professor of public policy at Harvard, and Sarah Turner, an economist and education professor at the University of Virginia, in a survey of the topic in the Winter 2012 issue of the Journal of Economic Perspectives.
Even before politicians and elite cultural critics decried the boob tube as a “vast wasteland,” they were attacking other forms of popular entertainment – novels, movies, comic books, and more – as simultaneously soporific and dangerous, either lulling the masses into quietism or sparking bad behaviors. But Paul Cantor, a professor of English University of Virginia, argues that such criticisms get everything wrong.
The same-sex marriage cases the court will hear this week are a little different -- when you’re talking money. “I think that most of the law firms who are involved are not charging their full rate,” says Dan Ortiz from the University of Virginia School of Law. They aren’t writing those big invoices, in part because they believe in the cause. But also, taking part in hot ticket cases, Ortiz says, “makes you a real player in the profession and raises your profile for future cases.”