At a time when salaries are flat, expense are rising and furloughs are looming, here’s a piece of financial good news for U.Va. faculty and staff: Your son or daughter is eligible to apply for a Faculty/Staff Scholarship.
Start now — the deadline is March 31! You can download a PDF of the application by clicking here.
Check out the new episode of the UVA Today Radio Show, a weekly five minute segment on WTJU radio. Look for new editions of the show every Wednesday at 11:55 a.m. on WTJU. Afterward, all of the segments will be posted on iTunesU.
Read more about the stories featured in this week’s program:
• Fundraiser on March 12 Will Help U.Va. Students Complete Clean Water Project in Africa
• University Composting Program to Expand to Two More Dining Halls
• Tickets On Sale Now for Special Events at 16th Annual Book Festival
•Air Date: 3/10/2010
To download mp3, click here.
The controversy over whether Thomas Jefferson fathered children by his slave, Sally Hemings, has raged for the better part of two centuries. Now, publicity materials for a new book declare that it “definitively destroys the cultural myth that Jefferson had any relationship with Ms. Hemings.”
The book, “In Defense Of Thomas Jefferson” by William G. Hyland Jr., purports to prove “not only that the evidence against Jefferson is lacking, but that in fact he is entirely innocent of the charge of having sexual relations with Hemings.”
Interestingly, the release notes that the book was nominated for a “2009 Virginia Literacy (sic) Award.” The winner of the Library of Virginia’s Virginia Literary Award in the nonfiction category for 2009 (as well as the Pulitzer Prize for history)? “The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family,” by Annette Gordon-Reed, a leading proponent of the Hemings-Jefferson link whose first book, “Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings: An American Controversy” (1998), touched of the latest round of historical debate.
Given that both Hyland and Gordon-Reed are lawyers by training, I think a mock trial might be in order here. How ’bout it, Law School?
The polls don’t appear to be out yet, but by the end of the day U.Va. could have three spring sports ranked No. 1 in the country, after a pretty impressive weekend.
The headliner game was the No. 2-ranked Cavalier men’s lacrosse team’s 11-10 victory over top-ranked Syracuse on a glorious Sunday afternoon in Klockner Stadium. (Plus a nice piece from Jeff White here.) As you can see from Matt Riley’s photo above, there was a mammoth crowd in attendance, even with most students gone on spring break.
Given rising tuition and flat salaries, it can be hard for U.Va. faculty and staff members to figure out how to send their kids to the school where they work.
There is help available, however, in the form of the Faculty and Staff Scholarships, available for sons and daughters of U.Va. faculty and staff — either currently enrolled or incoming — who will be attending U.Va. in the 2010-11 academic year. Preference will be given to those with financial need.
The deadline is March 31. To apply, download the application here. You must also have completed the dreaded FAFSA form and the University’s own aid application.
Questions? E-mail faid@virginia.edu.
Thanks to the General Assembly for passing along the footage of U.Va. President John T. Casteen III receiving a commendation yesterday:
Good news from our friends at the Virginia Quarterly Review:
The Virginia Quarterly Review was honored today with a nomination for the National Magazine Awards for Digital Media, presented by the American Society of Magazine Editors, honoring the best magazine journalism in the United States.
Jason Motlagh’s series on the Mumbai, India terror attacks, “Sixty Hours of Terror,” published exclusively on VQR’s blog, was named a finalist in the “News Reporting” category, along with work from Bloomberg, Businessweek, Mother Jones, Slate and Time.
Last fall, the American Society of Magazine Editors announced an expansion of the National Magazine Awards (known as the “Ellies”) to encompass the burgeoning world of online journalism. VQR was one of just 37 print and online-only publications nationwide named a finalist.
This makes 16 nominations for VQR in six years, with a chance for more when the finalists for the print Ellies are announced later in March.
The full list of the categories and finalists for the Digital Ellies are at ASME’s Web site.
This seems to be a day for uplifting U.Va. sports stories.
On the heels of an earlier ESPN.com article about U.Va. men’s lacrosse coach Dom Starsia comes another inspiring story, this one from U.Va. Athletic Media Relations.
It seems that U.Va. student Mary Willetts and her father heard about the plight of Katie Carr, a 13-year-old rower from Jacksonville, Fla., who is battling sarcoma, a form of cancer that may lead to the amputation of her arm — only the latest misfortune in a young life that seems to have been packed with them.
The Willetts sent e-mails to 40 college crew coaches, suggesting that they send notes of encouragement or other mementos to Carr.
U.Va. sent its whole team.
Once again, you just need to read the story.
Check out the new episode of the UVA Today Radio Show, a weekly five minute segment on WTJU radio. Look for new editions of the show every Wednesday at 11:55 a.m. on WTJU. Afterward, all of the segments will be posted on iTunesU.
Read more about the stories featured in this week’s program:
• Mindfulness Expert Jon Kabat-Zinn to Present Four Programs at U.Va. (Dorrie Fontaine)
• Lack of Black Doctors Traced Primarily To Pre-College Factors, Study Finds (Steven Stern)
• U.Va. Historian and Civil Rights Activist Paul Gaston (Paul Gaston)
•Air Date: 3/3/2010
To download mp3, click here.
ESPN.com published a great profile of U.Va. men’s lacrosse Dom Starsia yesterday. Starsia recently won his 200th game at U.Va. He’s the only lacrosse coach ever to have won 100 games at one Division I school (Brown University) and then 200 at another. The milestone came after a difficult 18 months. I could go on, but … just read the story.
That’s what happened to third-year law student Doug Bouton, whose father, Daniel Bouton, a longtime prosecutor and judge in Virginia, joined the U.Va. Law faculty this spring. The younger Bouton recently wrote a column for the student-run Virginia Law Weekly describing his experience.
I was informed that Diesel Dan would be teaching at UVA Law not from Diesel himself, but from another law student. I scoffed at the ignoramus who inquired whether my dad was teaching at the Law School— “Ha. Definitely not,” I boldly asserted, looking down on him from my pedestal. When I later told Diesel Dan about this preposterous question, I was surprised to discover that I, in fact, was the ignoramus—he would be teaching at the Law School beginning in the spring of 2010. I guess I stupidly assumed that his son, who was still attending UVA Law, would be privy to that information before anyone else.
Last month, I wrote about the “Hokies vs. Hoos Food Fight,” an annual Richmond-area contest between U.Va. and Virginia Tech grads to support the Central Virginia Food Bank. At the time, the Cavalier faithful were losing.
I am happy to report that the Cavs turned in a strong stretch run and thoroughly whipped their Hokie rivals. Final score: Virginia Tech 9,273 points, U.Va. 42,717 — the most lopsided victory in the series to date.
Virginia’s second straight win (and third in the past four years) tied the series at three wins apiece.
Of course, the food bank was the real winner. The schools’ supporters combined to contribute a record $10,335 and 9,020 cans of food, enough to provide 63,811 meals.
Sorry it’s been a couple of days since the last post. I covered the Board of Visitors meeting Thursday and Friday, and that tends to eat up all available time. (You can read the story here.)
I didn’t want to file my notes from those two days of meetings, though, before recounting George Gelnovatch’s inspiring appearance before the Student Affairs and Athletics Committee.
Gelnovatch is the head coach of the U.Va. men’s soccer team, which won the NCAA championship back in December. Often, championship coaches and players are invited to make an appearance before the board, and usually these are feel-good, dog-and-pony-style shows. Smile, say a few words, get a nice round of applause.
Gelnovatch’s appearance on Friday, however, was more than that.
The Washington Post’s College Inc. blog has an item today about colleges’ efforts to get their students to take part in the 2010 census. Past counts have apparently missed a lot of students, who apparently (an erroneously) believe they will be counted through their parents, leading to a special on-campus outreach effort.
U.Va. has its own census information page, which includes information about why it is important to participate — and how to land a job as a census taker.
The spring issue of University of Virginia Magazine is out, and there’s a great feature on the University Grounds, then and now.
It comes with a five-minute video (below) featuring Coy Barefoot that has lots of interesting tidbits. Did you know that the first building on The Corner was a Temperance Hall? Or that Mad Bowl was the result of excavations for dirt to support the ill-fated Rotunda Annex?
