Age happens, if nothing gets in its way, and Gordon Walker has helped make aging in this particular place a rewarding experience. Walker, 65, has led the Jefferson Area Board for Aging for 30 years, taking the helm of the nonprofit organization that advocates for the aging and aged in 1982. He also is an adjunct professor in the School of Nursing at the University of Virginia.
Lawmakers seeking to oust Rector Helen E. Dragas from the University of Virginia's Board of Visitors face a difficult fight, a leading Senate opponent of hers said Thursday.
Helen Dragas has some prominent allies in her fight to remain on the University of Virginia's Board of Visitors. Chief among them is U.S. Sen. Mark Warner, a Democrat who has spoken on Dragas' behalf with several state legislators who have a say in her fate.
"The Federal Trade Commission had an opportunity in this case to make sure there would be plenty of room for the emergence of the next Google … and instead it has decided to let the incumbent run wild," said Siva Vaidhyanathan, professor of media studies and law at the University of Virginia and author of "The Googlization of Everything — and Why We Should Worry."
Gweneth West, professor and head of costume design at the University of Virginia and curator of the school's collection of historic dress, will give a talk related to "Downtown Abbey" and its costuming as part of a season premiere event being held Sunday at Charltotesville's Paramount Theater. The event is co-sponsored by the U.Va. Health System.
The University of Virginia’s University Singers will perform this evening at University Baptist Church with some special guests. The Cornell University Glee Club is on its Southeast Concert Tour, and tonight’s Charlottesville performance with the University Singers is one of the stops.
It’s a classic exercise at the start of a new year: We reflect back on just how much we have changed. We are more mature, more patient, less impulsive, we may tell ourselves. But when it comes to projecting forward, to imagining our future selves, most of us find it hard to believe we will change much. We’ll always have the same personality traits, values, best friends, and favorite things. Not so, according to a study by psychologists at Harvard and the University of Virginia.
If all else fails, remember one of the key facts about your B-school experience: You already paid for it. “The outright expenses and opportunity costs are enormous,” says Jack Oakes, assistant dean for career development at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business, in an e-mail. “One simple cure for senioritis is making sure that investment can be repaid handsomely by putting forth consistent and disciplined effort to participate in all aspects of an MBA program.”
A Charlottesville man who criticized the City Council for declining to request a special election for treasurer is taking his cause a step further by running for the office. John L. Pfaltz, a retired professor who taught computer science at the University of Virginia for decades, plans to officially announce his candidacy Friday morning at a caboose he restored off Red Hill Depot Road in North Garden.
Proponents of immigration reform can count on “strong bipartisan support for new visa programs for STEM" — that is, science, technology, engineering, and mathematics — said Teresa Sullivan, president of the University of Virginia, home of the Miller Center, which sponsored the 2012 Mortimer Caplin Conference on the World Economy. The Dec. 7 event, “High-Skilled Immigration: Politics, Economics, and Law,” was held at the National Press Club in Washington.
Among the guests slated to discuss mental health reform on Monday's program is Richard J. Bonnie, chair of the Virginia Commission on Mental Health Law Reform. Harrison Foundation Professor of Medicine and Law, and Professor of Psychiatric Medicine at the University of Virginia, as well as director of U.Va.'s Institute of Law, Psychiatry and Public Policy.
Daniel Willingham, a psychology professor at the University of Virginia, doesn’t allow his children — 5 and 7 — any at-home screen time. Willingham says that as a result, his children play well together and are quick to entertain themselves. That said, Willingham, a cognitive neuroscientist, is not sounding any alarm bells. He notes that his family’s stance on screen time was not inspired by research.
Over the years, studies have shown that psychiatrists’ accuracy in identifying patients who would become violent was slightly better than chance — “obviously not good enough, given what’s at stake for public safety as well as for civil liberties,” said John Monahan, a University of Virginia psychologist who helped direct the MacArthur study.
Virginia coach Mike London’s new hires for his football staff definitely have a down home flavor. Adding major college coaching experience and aggressiveness to the operation, London brought in some familiar faces and a new one in hopes of building UVa’s program into a consistent winner. Virginia finished 4-8 in 2011, prompting the replacement of four assistant coaches and some staff reshuffling.
Arqball’s genesis began with 3D graphics, including 360-degree visualizations for iPad books. Jason Lawrence, co-founder of Arqball and a professor at the University of Virginia, knew there must be more applications for this technology; online commerce became his target.
Brennan Sigel, a modern global studies and International Baccalaureate (IB) psychology teacher at Atlee High School, recently received a special surprise at the Atlee/Lee-Davis football game as she was presented with a car to use during her reign as the Hanover County Public Schools 2013 Teacher of thte Year. Sigel received her bachelor’s degree and her master’s degree from the University of Virginia.
A recent study from the University of Virginia’s National Marriage Project suggests generosity in marriage is a key factor to happiness. The study of 2,870 men and women identified generosity as “the virtue of giving good things to one’s spouse freely and abundantly,” and found men and women with the highest scores of generosity to report they were “very happy” in their marriages.
Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia's Center for Politics, is pessimistic, viewing the fiscal cliff showdown as unnecessary and anticipating future collisions. "This whole thing is trumped up," Sabato said. "We've known about the fiscal cliff for 17 months. There's no excuse for what's happened. It's pitiful, and it's going to happen again."
"They're going to have to still deal with them in a couple months from now," Geoff Skelley with the University of Virginia Center for Politics said. "Perhaps that explains why most members of the Virginia delegation felt like this deal didn't actually accomplish anything that will make things safer, you might say, for people here in Virginia."
State lawmakers will return to Richmond one week from Wednesday for what promises to be a busy 2013 General Assembly session. One issue expected to get a lot of attention is focused around last summer's leadership debacle at the University of Virginia. Delegate Steve Landes (R) 25th District, along with democrats David Toscano (D) 57th District and Creigh Deeds (D) 25th District, are ready to tackle problems raised at UVA.