UVA’s College at Wise: The budget earmarks $46.44 million in 2018-19, an increase of about $2.53 million compared to the current-year budget, and $47.95 million in 2019-20. Education and general program funds go up in the second year by almost $1.69 million; that reflects a roughly $2 million increase for instruction and a $200,000-plus decrease in plant operation and maintenance.
School district leaders in Aurora are proposing to spend almost half a million dollars next school year to train more principals in leadership skills that have helped some of the district’s low-performing schools improve. After a $1.6 million experiment with three leadership programs – of which more than half was covered by grant money – district administrators have recommended one, the University of Virginia’s School Turnaround Program.
"You’ve got a possible basis for constitutional protection, but there’s some uncertainty about it," said Douglas Laycock, a UVA law professor and expert on religious liberty who won a Supreme Court case in 2015 establishing Muslim prisoner's right to grow a beard. "It does not create a simple across-the-board right to conscientious objection."
Doug Harnsberger first saw the sketch in 2012 while searching through Thomas Jefferson’s papers: a thumbnail drawing of a circle with spokes radiating outwards. For 200 years, the sketch was mislabeled as a skylight at UVA’s Rotunda. But the sketch was the first plans for the Rotunda’s dome, he realized, setting off a years-long effort to recreate Jefferson’s original vision.
(Commentary) Our central finding is that top colleges are more affordable than many people realize – not only for poor students, but also for those from the middle class. Here is the full breakdown of costs, for each of six representative families, at each of the 32 colleges – including UVA – that participate in the MyIntuition online calculator.
Gregory B. Fairchild, the Isidore Horween Research Associate Professor of Business Administration in the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia, was given the added duties as the inaugural director of Northern Virginia operations for the university.
A UVA School of Medicine professor will continue working in Gov. Ralph Northam’s Cabinet as the state’s chief health czar. Dr. M. Norman Oliver had been serving as acting state health commissioner since April.
With President Donald Trump’s approval ratings below 50 percent and control of the U.S. House at stake, Republicans are being forced to spend money and time trying to hold two Ohio seats they normally would not have to worry about. “If the Democrats netted a seat in Ohio, it probably is suggestive they are winning the House,” said Kyle Kondik, managing editor of a major political website at UVA’s Center for Politics.
Today two experiments at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN announced a discovery that finally links the two heaviest known particles: the top quark and the Higgs boson. “We looked at many different decay modes of Higgs bosons,” says Chris Neu, a UVA physicist who worked on the CMS analysis. “This process is so rare that we needed to combine results from different Higgs signatures to maximize our sensitivity and establish the top-Higgs signal.”
In an initiative led by the Fralin Museum of Art at UVA, the Charlottesville Office of Human Rights and the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center, local artists will design posters and billboards to educate citizens about the history of slavery and ongoing racism in the city, and also hold public art-making sessions and conversations.
Moving to a new town or even a new neighborhood is stressful at any age, but a new study shows that frequent relocations in childhood are related to poorer well-being in adulthood, especially among people who are more introverted or neurotic. The researchers tested the relation between the number of childhood moves and well-being in a sample of 7,108 American adults who were followed for 10 years. “We know that children who move frequently are more likely to perform poorly in school and have more behavioral problems,” said the study’s lead author, Shigehiro Oishi of the University of Virginia....
The U.S. Farm Bill of 2014 allowed state departments of agriculture and colleges to cultivate hemp for research purposes. UVA, Virginia Tech, Virginia State University and James Madison University all have research in progress.
Alderman, the university’s main library, opened in 1938 when it only had to serve 3,000 students, and is in dire need of repair. The first phase of the $160 million project, set to begin in 2020, would demolish the Old and New Stacks, replacing them in 2023 with compact shelves that meet fire code. Safe stacks are necessary, staff, students and faculty agree. But the question is how to ensure that the library’s books remain readily available.
The National Institutes of Health invests nearly $37.3 billion annually in medical research. More than 80 percent of the funding is awarded through nearly 50,000 competitive grants to more than 300,000 researchers at more than 2,500 universities, medical schools and other research institutions in every U.S. state and around the world. At No. 46, UVA received $66,907,817 toward 155 awards.
Mount Vernon recently planted an industrial cultivar of hemp to expand its interpretation of George Washington’s role as an enterprising farmer. Under the 2015 Industrial Hemp Law enacted by the Virginia General Assembly and working with the Dr. Michael Timko with UVA’s industrial hemp research program, Dean Norton planted industrial hemp seeds across a 1,000-square-foot area.
A large European study recently published in the journal Lancet says the heart-healthy benefits from moderate drinking are slight, while the risk of stroke and other fatal heart conditions are significant. Dr. Christopher Holstege, chief of UVA’s Division of Medical Toxicology, applauds the study’s scale, saying, “It gives us a lot to look at and discuss.”
Two and half years ago, Bradford and Bryan Manning had separated while shopping at Bloomingdale’s in New York City, only to meet back up having bought the same exact shirt. Like so many blind people, they’d let their fingers do the shopping and had picked out the softest, most comfy long-sleeve crewnecks they could put their hands on. They left with a brilliant idea: They’d create casualwear clothing driven by a sense of touch rather than sight and use the profits to fight blindness. That’s what they’ve done with Two Blind Brothers. Bradford and Bryan grew up in Charlottesville and went to the...
Sen. Bill Stanley, R-Franklin, joined the scramble to replace Rep. Tom Garrett, R-Buckingham, as the Republican nominee for the 5th District on Thursday night. Stanley enters the race as a possible front-runner, Larry J. Sabato, a political analyst and director of UVA’s Center for Politics, said on Twitter. “Could be a formidable nominee. Already vetted. Best-known candidate in contest yet.”
Far more emphasis is needed on prevention rather than preparation for violence, said Dewey G. Cornell, a forensic clinical psychologist at UVA. “Even an ordinary drill is likely to elicit distress from students as well as parents and staff,” Cornell said.
Robert Berry, a former middle school teacher who was twice named Teacher of the Year in Virginia, began his term at the end of the Council’s April 2018 Annual Meeting and Exposition in Washington, D.C. Berry currently teaches mathematics methods courses in the teacher education program at the University of Virginia.