In The News

Committee forming to replace Ayers BOV approves new arts center concept BOV looks at U.Va. academic future U.Va. may offer free music services

A Knight (Commission) Roundtable Inside Higher Ed / January 23 In a year that saw college football's first $4 million-a-year coach, an ugly brawl involving two Division I teams and a Congressional inquiry into college sports' tax-exempt status, it's no surprise that a leading college athletics reform group cast a wide net for discussion during a meeting on Monday. http://insidehighered.com/news/2007/01/23/knight Experts Urge Knight Commission to Try to Cap Coaches' Salaries and Curtail Recruiting The Chronicle of Higher Education / January 23 [...] Concern about the escalation in coaches' sa...

Distractions in the Wireless Classroom / Getting your students' attention may be as simple as requiring them to turn off the technology The Chronicle of Higher Education / January 23 [...] Cynthia M. Frisby, associate professor of strategic communication at the University of Missouri, has noticed students on MySpace and eBay during her lectures. She has also noticed more failing grades...Now she bans laptops in large lecture courses and has a clause in her syllabus about the inappropriate use of technology. The result? "Huge increases in attention and better performance on exams," she says. ...

In an effort to absorb Virginia's growing college-age population, state legislators are considering a bill that would give students who start out at community colleges a financial bonus after they transfer to a public four-year institution. The grant program, proposed by two leading lawmakers, would allow qualifying transfer students to pay the same tuition and fees at public four-year institutions that they paid at a community college. Each student who transfers to an in-state private college after graduating from a community college would initially receive a voucher worth about $2,150 a year...

Gordon Sammis Student in the College of Arts and Sciences Shoveling and Scraping WVIR NBC-29 / January 22 http://www.charlottesvillenewsplex.tv/news/headlines/5290076.html Steve Saunders Graduate student in French who won a regional title of 2006 girl's soccer "Coach of the Year" Former CHS Soccer Coach Receives "Coach of The Year" Honor WVIR NBC-29 / January 19 http://www.nbc29.com/Global/story.asp?s=5961453

Jane Ailes Graduate of the College with a degree in biology 'Oprah's Roots' Debuts on PBS / Area Genealogist Assists with Research for Book, Program Winchester (Va.) Star /January 23 http://www.winchesterstar.com/TheWinchesterStar/070123/Life_roots.asp Dr. Jason Call U.Va. graduate Cardiologist Jason Call to Speak on Heart Issues and How to Deal with Them Shenandoah.com (Va.) / January 23 http://www.shenandoah.com/stories/?headlineID=11395&sourceID=14 John T. W. Hawkins U.Va. graduate Heidrick & Struggles Names John T. W. Hawkins Regional Managing Partner, Americas PRNewswire-FirstCall / J...

Ed Ayers [Dean of the College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences] recalls joining Executive Vice-President Leonard Sandridge for a conversation with leading figures from the University of North Carolina. Ayers says his hosts wanted to know why UVA is on a list of 20 schools with the best student graduation rates and UNC is not.

Ed Ayers Dean of the College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences UVA's departing Dean was quizzed recently by UNC WINA 1070 AM / January 23 http://www.wina.com/page.php?category_id=355 Don Brown Chair and professor of Systems and Information Engineering Software Spots Crime Early WVIR NBC-29 / January 17 http://www.nbc29.com/Global/story.asp?s=5952574 John T. Casteen III University of Virginia president UVa Plans Increase for Housing Prices Daily Progress / January 23 http://tinyurl.com/2mr2gb John Kattwinkel Professor of pediatrics Solving SIDS / New Clues Reveal Sudden Infant Death ...

Our region's largest employer will have construction zones well into the next decade, and room rates will become more expensive by this fall. The Board of Visitors at the University of Virginia spent much of Monday focusing on construction and renovation projects. UVA hopes to modernize academic structures such as Ruffner Hall, the home of the Curry School of Education, and Gilmer Hall...President John Casteen has also showcased UVA's revised plans for a so-called Gateway to the Arts. He's hoping that will start to take shape in 2009.

Law enforcement officers across the Commonwealth can now make your streets a little safer. Thanks to a new software tool developed by the University of Virginia, it is now easier for officers to spot crime and hopefully stop it from even happening. WeBCAT allows officers to spot both high crime areas and trends in crime -- something many smaller police departments have previously been unable to do because they don't have the staff.

The antiviral drugs oseltamivir and zanamivir help reduce the spread of seasonal flu within families, a new study suggests. Researchers from Seattle's Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, the University of Michigan and the University of Virginia also suggested that oseltamivir may reduce the infectiousness of flu patients, but further research is needed to confirm this. The findings were published in the current issue of theAmerican Journal of Epidemiology.

A new report from the University of Virginia shows Fluvanna remains one of the Commonwealth's fastest growing counties. The University's Weldon Cooper Center says Fluvanna grew by 28% between the 2000 census and July of last year. That's not close to the growth rates posted by Loudoun or Prince William Counties, but it's much larger than the figures for other local counties.

When it comes to raising money at Virginia colleges and universities, size doesn't always matter. The National Association of College and University Business Officers yesterday released a study of endowments across the U.S., and some of Virginia's smaller schools found themselves keeping company with some of the nation's largest. ...The University of Virginia, with an endowment of $3.6 billion at the end of the 2006 fiscal year, checked in at No. 20 on the list, and the University of Richmond was No. 43 with nearly $1.4 billion.

[...] Perhaps the health issues of flying aren't the first things on your mind. It's quite safe to fly; the industry says so. … A recent study at the University of Virginia showed that a majority of elderly mice subjected to the equivalent of a Washington-to-Paris flight once a week for eight weeks died --triple the rate of a control group. Younger mice seemed to rebound more quickly and were not immediately harmed by the jet lag.

[...] "There is no alumni network on earth that is as tightly knit and well-integrated into the school as ours," says Bryan Simms, a senior vice-president at Lehman Brothers and chairman of the Darden Alumni Board and a trustee. "The message to first-years is that when you come to Darden, you're not signing up for a two-year program, you've signed up for a 40- to 50-year relationship with the institution."

Student housing costs at the University of Virginia will increase by nearly 10 percent for the 2007-2008 school year, to an average of $4,015, under a plan adopted by a Board of Visitors committee Monday. The increase of $376 for the nine-month academic year amounts to a 9.6 percent increase over the current year, and includes a new $200 fee designed to boost reserve funds in anticipation of major renovations and new construction of student dormitories in the next several years.

Monday at 7:00pm - WMRA 103.5FM (Harrisonburg) It's almost impossible to imagine modern life without the zipper. Yet for thirty years after its invention, it was so mechanically awkward that it had no real advantage over hooks and buttons. Robert Friedel, author of "Zipper: An Exploration in Novelty," examines how new things become part of and actually shape our daily lives. Friedel and Professor of Business Administration Alexander Horniman--both with the Batten Institute at the University of Virginia's Darden Graduate School of Business--show how the zipper illustrates the limitations and e...

OAAA honors first black grad Profs. help reduced tuition bill avoid subcommittee defeat Honor debates additions to by-laws IFC reports rise in rush participation

U.Va.'s Xiaowei Lu Examines the Precise Nature of Hearing Exhibit by New Media Artist Lydia Moyer Opens on Wednesday Virginia Quarterly Review Announces Winners of 2006 Writing Awards

Several U.Va. football team players received awards for their individual performance during the 2006 season: defensive end Chris Long, tailback Jason Snelling, cornerback Marcus Hamilton, inside linebacker Jon Copper, defensive end Jeffrey Fitzgerald, and Josh Zidenberg on special teams.