Emily Hubbard had never encountered the theory of implicit bias before moving into Dillard Hall, a dormitory selected to pilot UVA’s implicit bias module. Participating in the module opened up good conversations about bias, stereotypes and discrimination, Hubbard said, and helped her to understand her new classmates better.
Though the exact location of its original capstone remains a mystery, the University of Virginia celebrated the early milestone with speeches, “The Good Ol’ Song” and a new marble time capsule Friday.
The University’s kickoff to a two-year bicentennial celebratio, reinterpreted history through music, dance and cutting-edge projection mapping.
Northam also has a fundraising advantage. “The favorable environment is keeping the Democrat slightly ahead, but given the tendency in Virginia to vote against the sitting presidential party in gubernatorial elections and Trump’s poor approval rating, Northam should probably be ahead by a little more,” said Geoffrey Skelley, who keeps tabs on the state’s politics at UVA’s Center for Politics.
Even though it seems intuitive to imagine economic downturns lead to poor health, Christopher Ruhm, a UVA economics and public policy professor, has found that is historically not the case. Typically during recessions, Ruhm found that people generally have healthier behavior during recessions, including drinking less and not using other substances that may put additional strain on tight budgets.
A new Washington Post/Schar School poll says Democratic Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam leads Republican challenger Ed Gillespie 53 to 40 percent in next month’s Virginia gubernatorial election among likely voters. “If that’s what actually held and Northam won by 13 points, it would be a pretty smashing victory for him,” Kyle Kondik, managing editor of Sabato’s Crystal Ball at UVA, said Thursday. “Most of the other polls in this race – and I think the opinions of the two campaigns probably – don’t see the lead in the race as that big of a lead for Northam.”
The outcome of Virginia’s race for governor, the country’s marquee statewide election this year, will have widespread significance for the state’s roughly 1.29 million schoolchildren, political observers and education experts say. “The governor’s race matters a whole lot for what public education will look like in Virginia in the days ahead,” said Sally Hudson, a UVA assistant professor of public policy, education and economics.
On the other hand, political prognosticators at UVA’s Center for Politics offered Democrats a ray of hope, shifting their assessment of the 18th from “safe Republican” to “likely Republican.” “This is a very tough district for Democrats in a region that, outside of Allegheny County, has been trending away from them for two decades,” said Kyle Kondik, the managing editor of the center’s newsletter. “However, the Republicans have had some close calls in special elections this year in House districts that are very Republican on paper.”
But some are not convinced that the Confederate statues can be considered war memorials. Jalane Schmidt, a UVA religious studies professor and historian, says McIntire originally described his donation as “works of art.”
Why are the elderly getting into protein shakes and powders? "Older Americans -- they're a population group that is losing muscle and yet they often don't have much of an appetite," said Carole Havrila, a dietitian and certified oncology specialist at the UVA Health System. "It's easier for them to drink their calories and protein."
It's not in the formal job description, but presidents, at least in the modern era, are expected to be consolers-in-chief. Perhaps it's the sheer size of the nation that creates a need for a reassuring and unifying voice during a time of crisis or tragedy. And perhaps it's been accelerated by what UVA presidential scholar Barbara Perry calls the "Oprah-ization of our culture." But when a natural disaster, terrorist attack or act of domestic violence occurs, the American public, divided on so many issues, tends to look to the occupant of the Oval Office to share the pain and find a way forward.
(Commentary By Kyle Kondik, political analyst at UVA’s Center for Politics) The U.S. Senate is a curious, unique legislative body for a lot of reasons.
More than 22,000 people are expected attend UVA’s kickoff celebration for its bicentennial on Friday night. Several performers are lined up, including Leslie Odom Jr., Andra Day and the Goo Goo Dolls, alongside hundreds of UVA faculty and student performers.
Who is the least effective Democrat in the U.S. Senate? Sen. Joe Donnelly, according to the Center for Effective Lawmaking, who said the Democrat from Indiana was the worst in his party at advancing agenda items toward becoming law during the last Congress. The nonpartisan center, run jointly by UVA and Vanderbilt University, creates effectiveness scores for each lawmaker in Congress based on 15 metrics, including how many bills a legislator sponsored and how far bills progressed toward becoming law.
Sen. Heitkamp has been named one of the most effective senators by the Center for Effective Lawmaking, a joint initiative between the University of Virginia and Vanderbilt University.
UVA’s Center for Politics and the Community Idea Stations next week will host the local premiere of a new documentary, “This is the House that Jack Built,” which is based on UVA research on John F. Kennedy.
A new UVA-led study finds that simplifying and streamlining health information for parents helps families in childhood obesity programs, regardless of the parents' ability to understand health information.
The ability to retain and recall information is central to improving memory, knowledge and learning. But do students know what works, and are they using the best strategies? In 2013, researchers from from four universities, including UVA, published a review of hundreds of studies to explore which strategies are most likely to lead to long-term learning.
As Kim Forde-Mazrui, a UVA law professor who specializes on race, told the Los Angeles Times in August, the Trump administration’s feigned interest in protecting Asian Americans is politically opportunistic. “This is primarily about conservative leaders protecting the privilege of access to society’s resources and opportunities for certain white constituents,” Forde-Mazrui said, noting that white conservatives don’t care about anti-Asian discrimination in other spaces.
The horrors of slavery can’t be scrubbed from America’s past, said Douglas Blackmon, a historian and senior fellow at UVA’s Miller Center, but it can be fully factored into the remembrances of figures like Columbus. And if doing so brings enough dishonor, Blackmon said, it’s OK to stop celebrating them.