In The News

Gene D. Block Vice President and Provost Circadian rhythm nation / UVA science departments get their groove back C-Ville Weekly / May 1 http://tinyurl.com/25fpxt Robert Bruner Dean of the Darden School of Business How Can Public Compete with Private? Business Week / April 30 http://tinyurl.com/22suqk James W. Ceaser A professor of politics James Ceaser of The University of Virginia to speak on Growing Anti-Americanism The Berkshires Online (MA) / May 1 http://www.iberkshires.com/story.php?story_id=23102 Kevin Everson Associate professor of art who has shown his movies five times at Sundan...

Research at the University of Virginia has demonstrated that others seeing someone else doing a good deed, experience a sense of "elevation." This feeling makes people feel more open and loving toward others, and more likely to do helpful and positive things themselves.

The NCAA Tournament tennis pairings are out. As for the men, a record 10 teams from the ACC made the field of 64. The #3 ranked Wahoos will be the 4-seed and will host first and second round matches. ...The 'Hoos will host a four-team regional. Virginia will take on Hampton a week from Friday. If they win, the Cavaliers will play the winner of ODU and Virginia Tech the following day.

[…] An energetic, white-haired man with a white slash of mustache, Mr. Kelso wears a khaki hat that makes him look like he is on safari. The story of how he and his team found the long-lost fort has been retold many times in the news media buildup to the quadricentennial. Mr. Kelso's own account, Jamestown: The Buried Truth (University of Virginia Press, 2006), has become a best seller for the publisher, with more than 30,000 copies sold to date.

Extensive preparations are being made for Queen Elizabeth's Thursday visit to Richmond. Our Commonwealth's capital city is the first stop on the Monarch's visit to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Jamestown. ... She also visited the University of Virginia on July 10, 1976.

"We're expecting to get into Sundance soon," Romulo "Rom" Alejandro says. The 22-year-old UVA senior has recently been talking to the head of Sony Pictures Classics and exchanging e-mails with David Gordon Green, the indie-star-turned-Hollywood-player who may be adapting John Grisham's latest book. Alejandro tells me over coffee on the Corner about how he and other members of the student-run Filmmakers Society (FMS) have helped change the course of UVA film.

"Both nationally and at UVA we are faced with high-volume, high-risk, and very serious illnesses," Dr. Russ Federman said of campus counseling centers at a recent Senate committee hearing on campus safety. Following the Virginia Tech massacre, Federman has the ear of federal legislators under pressure to find fixes to prevent mentally ill students from becoming violent.

The National Academy of Sciences today announced the election of 72 new members and 18 foreign associates from 12 countries in recognition of their distinguished and continuing achievements in original research. ...Newly elected members … Plog, Stephen; Commonwealth Professor, department of anthropology, University of Virginia

Outgoing University of Virginia Vice President and Provost Gene D. Block emphasized the importance of science faculty recruitment in an April 12 presentation to the Board of Visitors' Special Commission on Planning. ...Block's suggestions reiterate the aims of a $126 million BOV initiative intended to improve the University's science and technology research programs. The hiring of new senior scientists is expected to have the largest progressive impact of any possible action.

...The problem is there aren't enough engineers to go around and with the impending retirement of the baby boomer and traditionalist generation, recruiting is going to get harder for area companies. ...In an effort to close the gap here in Lynchburg, companies, such as M/A Com, AREVA NP and BWX Technologies, recently announced a partnership with Central Virginia Community College and the University of Virginia to set up a transitional engineering program that would allow companies to pay for the education of a prospective employee.

...I had been communicating with [Dr. Russ] Federman for a few weeks before the Virginia Tech incident about the difficult work of providing mental health services to the college set. As Federman would tell the Senate committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs in an April 23 hearing, 'The college years represent a complex period of development… This is a transitional time where core values and mores, emotional states, day-to-day functioning and the broad spectrum of interpersonal relationships undergo considerable change.'

Help, by the Book New York Times Editorial / May 1 Colleges and universities will need to embrace creative solutions in order to drive down the cost of textbooks. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/01/opinion/01tue3.html Stacking the Deck? Inside Higher Ed / May 1 In the latest move in its multifaceted effort to remake higher education accreditation, and higher education in general, the Bush administration has appointed to the Education Department's panel that reviews accrediting agencies a critic who has advocated more or less junking the current federal system of academic quality review. htt...

Mark Butterman Race director of the Tour of Virginia 477-mile bicycle race Tour of Virginia: Zapata cruises to victory Charlottesville Daily Progress / April 30 http://tinyurl.com/2ekzj3 David Lereah Who received his Ph.D. in economics David Lereah, NAR Chief Economist, Joins Move Inc. RISMedia.com / May 1 http://tinyurl.com/ys7muk Stephen Tober Graduate of the School of Law Stephen Tober Joins ThinkEquity Partners as a Managing Director in the Banking Group PRNewswire / April 30 http://www.kwes.com/Global/story.asp?S=6445426&nav=menu505_7 Lisa Williams Who received her master of fine art...

Dustin J. LaPradd Student who organized the push to wear orange and maroon after the April 16 shootings at Virginia Tech The Aftermath / A Rival Lends a Hand Chronicle of Higher Education / May 1 http://tinyurl.com/2hbrg3

Three people escaped without injury Saturday after an elevator plunged four stories at the University of Virginia. The incident happened shortly before 8 p.m. Saturday at Old Cabell Hall, as a jazz ensemble concert sponsored by UVa's music department was about to begin.

Tim Beatley Teresa Heinz Professor of Sustainable Communities in the Department of Urban and Environmental Planning NPR's On Point with Tom Ashbrook / April 25 Big Apple Going Green? http://www.onpointradio.org/shows/2007/04/20070425_a_main.asp David W. Breneman Dean of the Curry School of Education Carnegie Foundation's President Announces Plans to Retire Next Year Chronicle of Higher Education / May 1 http://tinyurl.com/2tw2zp John T. Casteen III President of the University The Aftermath / A Rival Lends a Hand Chronicle of Higher Education / May 1 http://tinyurl.com/...

[…]But it turns out that UVa students, and not their nemeses to the southwest, are the ones who decorated the bridge, writing "Hoos for Hokies" in big block letters. A group of Hoos, as University of Virginia students are known, had converged on the bridge shortly after they learned about the April 16 shootings at Virginia Tech. That was one of several gestures of solidarity in the week that followed.

Ryan, Ehnbom Next Academic Deans for Semester at Sea Undergrad Research Symposium Set for Tomorrow Music Department to Present Jazz on the Lawn http://www.virginia.edu/uvatoday/

...Land grant universities like Virginia Tech have a special responsibility to remain true to their egalitarian roots and foster learning within an environment of openness and free human interaction. ...In their sorrow, students at Virginia Tech demonstrated the power of the bond they share as collegians. No less a Virginian than Thomas Jefferson understood better than anyone the importance of such symbolism. In the early 1800s, his most profound gesture for the design of the University of Virginia was a great lawn bordered on three sides by buildings, but with the fourth side open to the Blue...

...This spring, for the first time, Virginia Western Community College, in Roanoke, is busing its students to four-year schools for group tours. So far they have been to Tech and Radford University, and there is talk of going to James Madison University, the University of Virginia and other in-state schools, including private ones. ... there is a statewide push to dramatically increase the number of community college students moving on to four-year schools. ... The University of Virginia has a 3.4 GPA threshold for automatic admission to its College of Arts and Sciences.