Scholars and intellectuals from across the nation will be gathering on Grounds for the next four days to examine and discuss slavery in America and Thomas Jefferson's complex relationship with slavery and race. The University Center for University Programs is holding its tenth annual Jefferson Symposium today through Sunday.
The late literature and art collector Paul Mellon bequeathed over 400 American historical artifacts to Alderman's Special Collections library in his will.
A female student reported that a man indecently exposed himself outside Ruffner Hall the morning of June 16. A second possible indecent exposure was reported outside Newcomb Hall at 5:30 p.m.
The 2000-2001 budget, approved by the Board of Visitors last Thursday, will include a 30-percent increase in endowment income for programs connected to the University's endowment. The Board approved the unusually high increase, which usually rises 4 percent each year, because of the fund's especially good performance this year. The fund began the year in June with a balance of $1.25 billion and finished May with $1.67 billion. "We were very, very fortunate to have invested in venture capital and private equity," University Treasurer Alice W.
Facilities management workers have spent the past week building a plywood wall around Thomas Jefferson's crowning architectural achievement. The temporary fence marks the beginning of renovations that will include a new ramp to provide handicap access to the Rotunda from the Lawn side and repairs to leaks in the roof over offices in the portico. Project Manager Mashal Afredi said the project has been a long time coming. "Actual people who are in wheel chairs always comment" on the poor handicapped access to the Rotunda, Afredi said. Afredi said she and others working on the project have taken care to ensure that the construction will not compromise the Rotunda's architectural and historical integrity. "We probably would have had handicapped access years earlier if not for so many meetings" about preserving the building's original structure, she said. Special steps aimed at retaining the building's historical value include matching materials to the Rotunda and demanding care in the work, Engineering and Design Manager John Davis said. "[University Curator and Architect J.
A Charlottesville District Court judge acquitted rising fourth-year College students Gonzalo Carrion and Joaquin Bueno of misdemeanor assault and battery charges. Carrion and Bueno were found not guilty on April 28 of assaulting University graduate Shahnawaz Khan at a March party at La Casa Bolivar, the Spanish House. "We were very happy," Carrion said of the verdict. Police arrested Carrion and Bueno after they fought with Khan when he tried to enter a Spanish House party that had reached maximum capacity. According to Carrion, the judge said in his verdict that because Khan had trespassed, and forcibly entered the house, Carrion and Bueno were acting in self-defense. Carrion said another factor in the acquittal was the fact that when Khan was on the stand, he told a different account of the fight than the one he told the University Judiciary Committee earlier in the semester.
College and Darden alumnus U. Bertram Ellis, Jr. and his wife Deborah donated $10 million to the University during Reunions Weekend.
The mother who received national attention last year for her lawsuit against the University Medical Center for the switch of her daughter at birth has filed a new set of charges against the hospital. Paula K.
After a four-month search a committee of students and administrators has selected Stephanie Goodell of Millersville University to fill Dean Michelle Samuels's position as Assistant Dean of Students. Goodell will leave her position as Coordinator of Student Programs at Millersville and begin work at the University Aug.
Cornelius L. Bynum was selected on June 2 as director of the Luther P. Jackson Cultural Center. Office of African-American Affairs Dean M.
The scuffle that broke out at a Model United Nations conference in Newcomb Hall March 25 has been resolved without any convictions. Charges of assault and battery against rising fourth-year College student Arun Jesudian for assaulting rising fourth-year College student Richard "Ricky" Kim on March 25 were dropped by Albemarle General District Court Judge Steven Helvin on May 31, according to Jesudian. Jesudian, president of the International Relations Organization, quarreled with fellow IRO member Kim when he tried to get Kim to leave the Virginia International Conference Simulation. Kim was arrested for punching Jesudian in the jaw after Jesudian intervened in an argument Kim was having with VICS Secretary-General Allison Snider. Snider had asked Kim to help other IRO members take out the trash, and he refused.
The General Council of Phi Delta Theta Fraternity suspended the University chapter's charter May 2 for violating its risk management policies. The General Council is a five-member board that governs the national actions of the Phi Delta Theta Fraternity. According to Bob Biggs, Phi Delta Theta executive vice president, the action "officially closes" Phi Delta Theta on Grounds. The risk management policy is a set of guidelines governing actions and behavior of all chapters.
A federal judge dismissed seven of the 10 complaints in a $1.5 million lawsuit filed by suspended University student Harrison Kerr Tigrett against the University October 22 1999.
In an effort to make its program comply with NCAA scholarship rules and reinstate two Virginia athletes previously suspended, the Jefferson Scholars Foundation has restructured its scholarship into institutional aid under the guidance of the University Financial Aid Office, paving the way for future Jefferson Scholars who wish to compete in intercollegiate athletics. In late January, the University Athletic Department declared rower Jen Blomberg and wrestler Jason Bernd, both rising fourth-years, ineligible to compete after the department discovered that the Jefferson Scholarship violated an NCAA rule prohibiting aid from independent foundations under specific circumstances.
Things got off to a wild start for the Class of 2000 in their first semester when Hurricane Fran stormed through Grounds, causing classes to be cancelled for only the fourth time in University history.
The University soon will have a more international flavor when a new International Residential College opens in the fall of 2001. The residential college, which joins the Mosaic House, Brown and Hereford Residential Colleges as the fourth such complex at the University, will house both American and international students. "We want vibrant, very bright students who have an interest in international studies and foreign languages," said Barbara Nolan, vice provost and chairwoman of the committee that created the final proposal for the college. The new college will be housed in the Munford, Gwathmey and Lewis residence halls on Sprigg Lane.
With its construction deadline rapidly approaching, the expansion of Scott Stadium at the Carl Smith Center is set to open before the Cavs kick off against the Brigham Young Cougars at the first home football game Sept.
After Clark Hall consistently was ranked as one of the buildings on Grounds in most disrepair, the building will undergo major renovations and gain a new four-story wing as part of a three-year construction project scheduled to start this summer. The new space will be used primarily for research facilities for the environmental sciences department.
University President John T. Casteen III is calling for increased funding to bring the University up to par with its peer institutions. At his annual State of the University address in Old Cabell Hall May 3, Casteen said many of the University's peer institutions receive more state funding to spend on in-state students. For example, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill receives $23,089 per in-state student while the University gets only $11,149 per in-state student. Casteen said the University has suffered since the General Assembly withdrew 10 percent of the University's operating budget in 1990.
Before Newcomb Hall Director Eddie Daniels took his position in 1995, the University's student center lacked an outdoor plaza and its dining hall dated to the 1950s. In 1997, the University completed a massive overhaul of the building, and Daniels worked to reestablish Newcomb as a vibrant center of student life -- a task he names as one of his best professional experiences. As Daniels prepares to leave his post this summer and take a position as director of campus activities at the University of Connecticut, he remembers fondly the work he has done in the last five years. "I have had a really good experience at U.Va.," he said.
