The UVA Police Department is finding new ways to protect the community. The upcoming Community Cares Event is one of the first steps. “We talked about community and it’s not just in the realm of public safety or law enforcement, but trying to fulfill what other needs are that are out there to be to serve the community,” Sgt. Ben Rexrode said. The department already holds tutoring sessions with Greer Elementary School, but some officers wanted to take another step to continue to reach out. This time, they chose to focus on personal care items.
People working at the University of Virginia now have more time to get their COVID-19 shot. The University moved the deadline from Dec. 8 to Jan. 4. This new deadline aligns with one set by President Joe Biden’s administration.
(Commentary by Kyle Kondik, managing editor of Sabato’s Crystal Ball at UVA’s Center for Politics) The election results from last week reconfirmed a basic reality about American politics: For either party, holding the White House comes with significant power, but in off-year elections, it is often a burden. Unfortunately for Democrats, political gravity is also likely to act against them in 2022 – and they face real limits on what they can do about it.
Tangier is mostly white and working class, and its economy since the 1880s has centered on fishing, crabbing and oystering, said Jonna Yarrington, a UVA anthropologist who lived on the island for about a year, wrote a dissertation about Tangier and is working on a book about it. In recent decades, job opportunities have declined and the population has dwindled, Yarrington said.
Alumni Spotlight is pleased to announce The Top 100 University of Virginia Alumni in Technology of 2021. UVA remains an example for other universities with its commitments to equality and diversity and vision of “discovery, innovation, and development of the full potential of talented students from all walks of life.”
University of Virginia basketball fans waited for 612 days between chances to catch their Hoos live and in-person at John Paul Jones Arena. The COVID-19 pandemic left the stands virtually empty for almost two years. But Tuesday, Cav fans were back. More than two hours before the opening tipoff of UVA’s season opener against Navy, a father and daughter were busy setting up a tailgate in the parking lot with a UVA table ready to hold the food and beverages of the special occasion.
David Hondula [who received a Ph.D. from UVA in environmental sciences] recently got a job he never dreamed of – maybe because it never existed before. He’s the director of Phoenix’s Office of Heat Response & Mitigation, which is touted as the first publicly funded municipal office of its kind.
Pumoli Malapati has always been interested in the sustainability of health care. Malapati, a University of Virginia graduate, is especially focused on the importance of implementing green operating rooms, which is why she helped create Charlottesville-based startup PeriOp Green. PeriOp Green, co-founded earlier this year by Malapati, Nafisa Alamgir, Tyler Chafitz and Dr. Matthew Meyer, is a software-as-a-service product that helps minimize perioperative waste using advanced analytics.
(Co-written by Abdullah “Arby” Abood, Ph.D. candidate, bioinformatician, and data scientist in the School of Medicine) Last year, after a casual conversation with Spanish-speaking early career scientists about the struggle of communicating their work in Spanish, Jessica Vélez was inspired to create the Multilingual Seminar Series. This series offers an opportunity for multilingual and non-English speaking scientists and science enthusiasts to talk about science in languages other than English, while also providing a space to discuss strategies for expanding science communication efforts to inc...
(Commentary by Caroline Osborn, a third-year student studying economics and anthropology with a minor in Latin American studies) In a large lecture hall last spring, my professor began talking about their work with Mayan communities in Central America. A student in the front row hesitantly raised their hand, asking, “Aren’t the Mayans dead?” My professor did not laugh at — or even look surprised by — the comment. Instead, they responded: “I get this question every year.” When we think of countries south of the U.S. border, it is easy to imagine Spanish-speaking communities and people. And maki...
Founding Student Name: Marc-Anthony Larco. Brief Description of Solution: Technology for Underprivileged Students foundation was created with the goal of providing educational resources for impoverished students in Haiti. We thought the best way to accomplish this goal would be to build computer labs in already existing Haitian schools.
As University of Virginia religious studies professor Erik Braun explained in a 2014 Tricycle article, the widespread popularity of mindfulness as a seated and still activity in a climate controlled setting might in fact be due to the British invasion of Burma in 1885, and the last ditch efforts of Ledi Sayadaw and others to preserve Buddhism by spreading the practice to the laity. Prior to that moment, Braun wrote, meditation was considered appropriate “for a rare few living in the isolation of jungles or mountain caves.”
One law professor interviewed for the story did say there was a risk Garland’s effort to weed out harassment and intimidation could be applied too broadly. Three others noted Garland specifically mentioned that spirited debate is protected and found nothing in the memo that signals he’ll seek overly broad enforcement. “If the Justice Department tried to stretch intimidation to cover any hostile speech, they should lose, and almost certainly would lose” in a court of law, law professor Douglas Laycock at the University of Virginia School of Law told PolitiFact National. Laycock voiced no opinio...
Republican Gov. Chris Sununu’s decision to forgo a Senate bid against Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.) gave Democrats some much needed optimism in the midst of President Biden’s sinking poll numbers, a major electoral defeat, and a still-uncertain social-spending package that has to make it through a divided Congress. After the news broke, the University of Virginia Center for Politics changed its rating of the gubernatorial race in New Hampshire from “lean” Republican to “safe” Republican and kept the rating for the Senate race at “lean” Democratic.
David Ramadan, a resident scholar at UVA’s Center for Politics, told the Washington Examiner in the wake of Virginia’s gubernatorial losses a rethink was overdue. “It’s simple — if Democrats do reckon with this, if they take this and understand the issues that came across here, they will have a chance of holding the political gains they had over the last few years,” he said. “If they do not, they will lose continuously.”
“I never called Virginia blue,” said Larry Sabato, the director of the Center for Politics. “I have said consistently that it is blue-ish purple or purple-ish blue, because when you look at Virginia’s electorate, you realize instantly it’s no California.”
The recent gubernatorial election in Virginia should capture the attention of Michigan policymakers. A surprising victory by the Republican candidate was “powered by parents,” according to University of Virginia professor Brad Wilcox and American Enterprise Institute researcher Max Eden. Parents here are hoping for someone to champion their cause.
(Transcript) Kyle Kondik, director of communications at UVA’s Center for Politics, discusses the Virginia gubernatorial election.
(Commentary) A senior House Democratic House aide echoed that sentiment. “The bill gives parents the flexibility to choose a provider that best fits their needs ― including faith-based providers ― and it ensures faith-based providers can receive grant funding to build their capacity.” That’s not just spin. Micah Schwartzman, a University of Virginia law professor specializing in religion and First Amendment issues, reviewed the legislation at HuffPost’s request and thought the eligibility of faith-based centers was clear. “This is, in effect, a federally funded voucher program to be administer...
Fred Schauer, a University of Virginia law professor, said the message likely constituted a criminal threat under federal law by threatening gun violence at specific individuals. “There’s certainly an intent to put people in fear,” Schauer said.