The University is hoping to leave more than just an academic mark on the City of Charlottesville this spring, as three faculty members run for City Council positions.
Elizabeth Fortune (R), associate dean of the School of Architecture, announced her candidacy last week. Computer Science Prof. John Pfaltz (R) and Assistant Architecture Prof. Maurice Cox (D) - who now holds a City Council position - announced their candidacies in the past month. Three positions in the five-member Council are up for election May 2.
Fortune said having three candidates who are affiliated with the University speaks highly of the relationship between the city and the University. "I really think it demonstrates that the University is very much involved in the surrounding community," she said.
Cox said the candidates demonstrate how much the faculty care about the city because they are "willing to commit themselves and sometimes their students to civic involvement."
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Cox, who has served on Council for the past four years, said being involved with both the University and the city offers him a unique opportunity. It allows him to see both the University and its students as a resource for the community, he said.
Such close interaction allows both the city and the University to accomplish their goals more easily, Pfaltz said. He said several links exist between the two, noting research endeavors as one such area. The city should work with the research community because both areas fuel each other, he added.
If elected, Fortune and Pfaltz would be the first Republican Council members in more than a decade. Democrats selected Cox, Kevin Lynch and Meredith Richards to receive the party's nominations at Saturday's Charlottesville Democratic Convention. But both Fortune and Pfaltz said a Republican presence on the now all-Democratic Council is important.
"It takes two parents to raise a child, just as you need two parties to run a city," Pfaltz said.
Fortune only joined the Republican party last week; she had previously considered herself an Independent.
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