Children as young as 11 months of age show a natural affinity for animals and this attraction includes animals that are widely feared by adults, including snakes and spiders. These are the conclusions of a study published online in the British Journal of Developmental Psychology. It was conducted by Vanessa LoBue from Rutgers University and Megan Bloom Pickard, Kathleen Sherman, Chrystal Axford and Judy S. DeLoache from the University of Virginia.
PayScale, an online salary, benefits and compensation information company, just released its 2012 ROI Rankings, a comparison of the average return on investment for over 1,200 American colleges and universities. Comparing tuition cost to salary return, four public schools take top honors with a yearly return on investment of 11.4 percent or more, including the University of Virginia.
Yoke San Reynolds, vice president and chief financial officer at the University of Virginia, will retire at the end of the year. Reynolds, 68, spent more than a decade helping to manage the university\'s finances. "She has been relentless in squeezing costs out," said university President Teresa A. Sullivan in a news release. "When you squeeze a dollar out from the operational side, that\'s a dollar you can use on the academic side."
The 78,000-square foot building of which the University of Virginia's College at Wise's Chancellor David Prior was so proud now bears his name. The David J. Prior Convocation Center was dedicated Wednesday on the college's campus in Wise, Va. Prior died Feb. 2 and soon after his death, students, faculty and college officials called for the naming of the arena in his memory.
Lebanon has not won an Olympic medal since 1980. But Lebanese-American swimmer Katya Bachrouche (College '11) hopes to change that at this year's London Games in July, where, as a dual citizen, she plans to compete for her ancestral homeland. [Bachrouche was captain of the women's swim team.]
Andrew Greene
Sustainability planner in the Office of the Architect
Sustainability innovations shared on local food, buildings, and autos
Charlottesville Tomorrow / April 26
Alex Johnson
Law professor
Rights to coveted Wales Alley debated in Virginia Supreme Court; Alexandria City Hall, Virtue at odds with Old Dominion Boat Club
Alexandria (Va.) Times / April 25
Kristen Jameson
Research associate in the Center for the Advanced Study of Teaching and Learning
Bullying in girls can be subtle, but still requires response
Charlottesville Daily Progress / April 25
Kyle Kondik
Communications dire...
Their business plan called PureMadi aims to improve human health and local economy in a rural South African province. Their business helps the province build water filters out of materials that are available in their community.
On Thursday morning, Larry Sabato's Crystal Ball team at the University of Virginia\'s Center for Politics will reveal a map that gives Obama 247 Electoral Votes and Romney 206. Some 270 are needed for victory.
David Germano, Professor of Tibetan Buddhist Studies visited the Newsplex to talk about plans for the Contemplative Sciences Center.
Keith Field (Architecture '79) was a builder who owned some of the most historic properties in downtown Mount Dora [Fla.]. … "He explained all the problems with maintaining them, all the extra work in keeping them historic," said former Mayor Melissa DeMarco. "I asked him why did he do it? He said, 'They're the only ones like it, and that makes them special.'" Field died April 15.
Thomas E. Barden (College '68, '75) curated a collection of letters John Steinbeck wrote from Vietnam. Barden, a Vietnam veteran, is an English professor and dean of the Honors College at the University of Toledo. "Steinbeck In Vietnam: Dispatches from the War" was published by the University of Virginia Press.
Features Amanda Kucik (College '02, religious studies) who has become associate rector at Holy Comforter Episcopal Church in Charlotte, N.C.
The University of Virginia welcomes back one of its own on May 20. ABC News correspondent Katie Couric, who graduated from the university in 1979, will be giving a commencement speech there this year.
Student teams in professor Julia Devlin's classes detailed their research in the UVA Global Development Market Hub under the rotunda dome room. This is a competition for the best global development project proposal prepared by economics students.
Larry Sabato
Politics professor and director of the Center for Politics
GOP's McDonnell airs sunny ad touting Va.
Associated Press via Washington Post / April 24
and
Change Could Happen: 5 Things That Could Derail Obama's Re-Election Bid
CBS-DC / April 24
Brad Wilcox
Associate professor of sociology and director of the National Marriage Project
Sometimes we cheat on our partners about money, survey shows
MSNBC.com (blog) / April 24
Some good news regarding higher education funding. That's according to University of Virginia President Teresa Sullivan, who says the just-passed state budget keeps higher ed funding intact.
National Physics Day isn't new; revelers have celebrated physics on or around April 24th for the past 18 years, starting in 1995 at the University of Virginia. One year later, the National Science Foundation incorporated National Physics Day into their now defunct Science and Technology Week. Despite that program's end, National Physics Day has endured.
The students from Old Dominion, Radford and Virginia State universities, the University of Virginia, and two community colleges are expected to share their views at Wednesday's panel discussion hosted by the State Council of Higher Education.
According to Peter Norton, an assistant professor at the University of Virginia and the author of "Fighting Traffic: The Dawn of the Motor Age in the American City," the change is no accident (so to speak). He has done extensive research into how our view of streets was systematically and deliberately shifted by the automobile industry, as was the law itself.
The study, published last month in the Journal of Geophysical Research, looked at the impact of the 1982 eruption of El Chichón in Mexico and the 1991 eruption of Pinatubo in the Philippines. In the year following each eruption, both the frequency and intensity of hurricanes were reduced by about half, compared to the year prior, said study author Amato Evan, a climate researcher at the University of Virginia.