"YEAH, IT was cool, but it's not something I'd want to devote my life to." So went my initial assessment of The Cavalier Daily as I shared with my dad the events of my first day as a staff writer in the (somewhat creepy and intimidating) Newcomb basement.
University student Brett Gosnell passed away last Thursday at his home in Hickory, N.C. after a three-year battle with cancer. A diligent student and passionate football fan, Gosnell graduated as his class valedictorian at Hickory High School in 2004 after being diagnosed with a rare form of childhood cancer known as rhabdomysarcoma during his junior year, his father, Mark Gosnell said. After attending classes at Lenoir-Rhyne College and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Gosnell was finally able to live out his dream of attending the University last year, Gosnell's father said. "He went to UNC and he really liked Carolina, but he asked me to drive him up to U.Va.
Former Vice President for Administration Okey Udumaga, who is running for his old position in elections beginning tomorrow, offered his resignation from his position last week under pressure from fellow members of the executive board of Student Council, according to Council President Jequeatta Upton. Udumaga, who is running again for VPA in the upcoming elections, maintained he was not asked to leave his position as VPA but instead personally decided to resign upon realizing he was overcommitted. Upton said members of Council's executive board met with Udumaga last fall after he failed to complete a task in a timely manner and told him that he had a history of similar performance issues.
Student Financial Services announced changes, effective immediately, that will be made to their Satisfactory Academic Progress Standards, which determines a student's eligibility for financial aid.
Presidents of public colleges and universities generally receive relatively lower salaries than their peers at private institutions, but many are seeing increases in their compensation packages as the number of presidents earning over $500,000 is continually increasing, according to an annual survey performed by The Chronicle of Higher Education. The survey data, which was compiled from the responses of 139 public research institutions and public-college systems, found that 23 of the 139 leaders were expected to make over $500,000 this year, compared to 17 last year. The median payment received by public-institution presidents was $360,000, a $31,600 increase over last year, according to a Chronicle report; however, the data are not perfectly comparable because this year's survey included eight new institutions, and several schools had not yet determined their presidents' compensation, the Chronicle reported. Jeffrey Selingo, editor of business and politics at the Chronicle, said the increase in presidential compensation is part of a general trend which has been going on over the past few years. He explained that this increase in compensation likely can be attributed to the fact that there is a short supply of qualified candidates for college presidencies, while the demand for them is increasing. The survey found University President John T.
The "Papers of George Washington" research project at the University was awarded a 2005 National Humanities medal for its contributions to the field of humanities. Theodore J.
Thanks to the addition of a writing component to the SAT I, college admission officers now can compare a student's own, candid writing ability with their college application essays to gauge the level of outside help a student may have received during the application process. Kaplan, a test preparation company, performs an annual survey of college admissions officers across the country, and the focus of this year's survey was on the new writing component, which became an official part of the SAT I for the high school class of 2006, said Jon Zeitlin, general manager of SAT and ACT programs at Kaplan. Kaplan wanted to determine if admissions officers would give the writing score the same weight as the traditional math and reading portions and if admissions officers would look at the actual essays or just the final score, Zeitlin said. According to the survey, 47 percent of the colleges are adopting a "wait and see" approach, meaning they will not give the writing component scores any weight until more information about the exam is available. Survey results show that the University, along with colleges like Harvard and Duke, falls into the group of schools that will give the writing component equal weight with the math and critical reading sections. While not all colleges will give the actual writing score any weight in the admissions process, Zeitlin said 58 percent of colleges said they would reference a student's SAT essay when there were discrepancies with his or her application essays. Dean of Admissions John Blackburn said University admissions officers will review the SAT essays if there is a question about test scores or the application essays. "If we see something that looks like it could be published in 'The New Yorker,' we would expect good SAT reading and writing scores," Blackburn said.
College students across the country faced more than $31 billion in unmet financial need for the 2003-2004 school year, according to an analysis by a non-profit organization called Postsecondary Education OPPORTUNITY. The organization, which based its findings on a survey performed by the Department of Education, studied the reported financial situations of both dependent and independent students who attended institutions of higher-education.
This fall, over 1,700 students -- the largest class on record -- began their first year at the nation's 125 accredited medical schools, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges. The AAMC said in a press release that this class size represents a 2.1 percent increase from the class that entered in 2004. "For the last several years, enrollment has hovered at around 1,600, so this is the first time it broke 1,700," AAMC Public Relations Director Retha Sherrod said. In addition to the increase in class size, the AAMC also said medical schools experienced a 4.6 percent increase in the number of applications they received from 35,735 last year to 37,364. Mirroring this national trend, the University's Medical School has seen a slight increase in its class size as well as in its number of applicants, Medical School Admissions Director Beth Bailey said. Sherrod said the AAMC was concerned earlier this year that there could be a potential future shortage in the nation's number of physicians, due in part to a high number of "baby boom" physicians who will retire soon.
The U.S. Census Bureau has officially accepted the City of Charlottesville's challenge to its 2004 Census population estimate and increased the City's estimated population, according to city officials. Officials stated that the City's Department of Neighborhood Development Services had filed the challenge in September after the Bureau's population estimate showed a 3,494-person drop in Charlottesville's population between 2000 and 2004. As a result of the challenge, the Bureau has increased the estimate of the City's population from 36,605 to 40,745, which results in a population increase of 1.6 percent since the formal 2000 U.S.
