The University of Virginia will experience a number of firsts this graduation weekend. Among them: the drama department will recognize its first graduating minor in dance, and the first undergraduate degrees in statistics will be awarded. Laura Catherine Moore will be getting both.
The honors program in politics at the University of Virginia is so highly selective that only five or six students are admitted each year. The final set of written and oral examinations isn't even evaluated by UVa professors, but by a team of experts from other universities. In the last 27 years, there have only been six students who graduated from the program with highest honors. Today, Daniel Young is one of them.
Four years? For many college students across the United States, it will be. For others, it may be five or six years. In fact, nationally, the standard for tracking graduation is not four years, but six. ...Nationally, it is one of the best comparing favorably to the University of Virginia (considered among the very best public universities in the nation by U.S. News & World Report), where students graduate in 4.1 years, the universities of North Carolina and Michigan, where they graduate in 4.2 years, and the University of Illinois, where they graduate in 4.3 years, the same average as UConn.
The James River Green Building Council awarded a $10,000 building grant and seven awards to projects in central Virginia that support principles of sustainability. ...Winners of the Second Virginia Go Green Competition in the unbuilt category were: The Learning Barge, a research barge on the Elizabeth River, by the University of Virginia School of Architecture ...In the built category, the following projects were honored: The Seam House in Charlottesville by the University of Virginia School of Architecture -- honor award.
In the wake of the Virginia Tech massacre, the University of Virginia is working with a company to institute an emergency alert system using text messages. The text alerts would consist of brief messages sent during an emergency to all cellular phones and other wireless devices registered with the university. The messages would provide basic information about an incident, and direct students and staff to the university's Web site for further information.
As Alan Finder reported in The Times recently, several universities, including Notre Dame, the University of Virginia and Hendrix College, have been hard at work building memorial walls. The technical name is a columbarium, where the ashes of alumni and professors can spend eternity on the collegiate grounds where they once found happiness.
Novelist John Grisham reminded students and guests at the University of Virginia's commencement yesterday that when he graduated from college in 1977, everyone in his class "knew someone . . . who went to Vietnam and came home in a box -- 58,000 boxes."
Maybe, just maybe, the claim that college is the "best four years of your life" isn't totally legitimate. The mood was light as the University of Virginia's Class of 2007 gathered Saturday on the Lawn for Valedictory Exercises, a pre-graduation ceremony featuring speeches and awards. Attendees chatted and took in the surroundings, some for the second-to-last time as students. The culmination of decades of formal schooling and what lies in the years beyond were major themes.
The University of Virginia's Class of 2007 found a tangible way to show its school spirit. Its trustees handed President John Casteen a check that exceeds $3,400,000. That's the largest class gift in UVA history.
Planning is overrated, author John Grisham told nearly 6,000 University of Virginia students Sunday as he offered a commencement speech he hoped would depart from the norm and actually offer some good advice. "You cannot plan the rest of your life,'' the Albemarle County resident and 1977 Mississippi State University graduate said in a 29-minute speech.
Growing Challenge to 'U.S. News'
Inside Higher Ed / May 18
15 more colleges will stay out of controversial survey; black colleges could be new force in campaign against rankings.
http://insidehighered.com/news/2007/05/18/usnews
Cents and Sustainability
Inside Higher Ed / May 18
As the green campus movement continues to sprout, it's not just administrators who are pledging to spend bucks on energy-efficient buildings and renewable resources. Students at a growing number of colleges are voting to increase their own fees to start environmental sustainability funds.
http://insidehighered.com/n...
Jamshid "Jim" Bakhtiar
U.Va. linebacker in 1950's called the "Iron Iranian" who set several Cavalier records that still remain, later introduced modern psychiatry to his native Iran
From 'Plunging Persian' to Psychiatric Trailblazer
Charleston Daily Mail (WV) / May 17
http://tinyurl.com/yswnlj
Leigh B. Middleditch Jr.
A graduate of the College and School of Law
Colleges Offering Campuses as Final Resting Places
New York Times / May 18
http://tinyurl.com/29n3wn
John W. Snow
A 1965 economics Ph.D. graduate of the College
In Deal for Chrysler, Snow's Role Extends a Trend
New York Times / Ma...
Nicholas Douris
Graduate student in biology
Internal clock tied to gaining weight? / U.Va. research on gene in mice, humans suggests possible role
Richmond Times-Dispatch / May 18
http://www.inrich.com/cva/ric/search.apx.-content-articles-RTD-2007-05-18-0125.html
Rebecca Green
A third-year student in the School of Nursing
Green read her winning essay in the school's Creative Writing Competition on NPR's Morning Edition
Pondering Again and The Road Less Taken
WVTF Public Radio / May 18
(Not online)
Ray Hernandez
Darden student and study team member
New ideas for mall merchants / Darden st...
Julie Bargmann
Associate professor of landscape architecture
A Stitch in Time / Landscaping
Metropolis Magazine / May 2007
(Not online)
David Breneman
Outgoing dean of Curry School of Education
4BETTER OR WORSE / The week in review
The Hook / May 17
http://www.readthehook.com/stories/2007/05/17/4BETTER-0620-A.rtf.aspx
James Coan
Psychology professor
The benefits of social contact
American Association for the Advancement of Science / EurekAlert / May 17
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-05/afps-tbo051707.php
Dewey Cornell
A Curry School of Education forensic clinical psychologist...
U.Va.'s Jonathan Haidt Discusses the Origins of Morality
Sofa Shuffle Set for Saturday
Parking Information for Graduation Weekend
http://www.virginia.edu/uvatoday/