WHEN I THINK back on the girl that wandered into Tuttle with her arms full of belongings nearly four years ago, I cannot help but feel a mix of protectiveness, pride and thankfulness. Protectiveness because that girl had no idea what she would encounter over her next four years at this school -- how much she would grow.
Astronomy Prof. Trinh Thuan recently identified the youngest galaxy ever discovered in the universe. Thuan and Yuri Izotov, an astronomer at the Kiev Observatory in Ukraine, were able to determine the age of the I Zwicky 18 galaxy after requesting that the Hubble space telescope be directed at the galaxy. They identified the galaxy as only 500 million years old, compared to, for example, the Milky Way galaxy, which is 12 billion years old. The galaxy "sat around as a cloud of gas for 13 billion years," Thuan said.
A University student and alumnus were awarded Rhodes Scholarships Saturday evening, marking the first time in University history that two representatives from the University were awarded the scholarship in the same year.
The Albemarle County Board of Zoning Appeals last night voted 4-0 to allow Planned Parenthood of the Blue Ridge, located on Hydraulic Road, to remain open.
University employees will follow in students' footsteps next semester with the establishment of a Sustained Dialogue group specifically designed to open lines of communication among diverse groups of faculty and staff. Instructional Technology Manager John Alexander established the group along with Rachel Saury, director of the Center for Instructional Technology, and Daisy Rodriguez, assistant dean for Asian/Asian Pacific American students.
In a letter sent to University President John T. Casteen, III and other administrators last Monday, the Graduate Labor Union requested that certain graduate fees be decreased, according to former GLU treasurer Bill Craighead, an Economics graduate student. The letter also calls for a commitment from the University to discontinue the practice of increasing the graduate fees proportionally to undergraduate tuition and fee increases.
The University debuted a public service announcement for its new financial aid initiative, "Access U.Va.," before 60,000 fans at the football game against Clemson last Thursday night.
Ann Lee Brown, widow of Engineering School alumni Charles L. Brown, gave $10.5 million to the University Saturday. Five million dollars will go to the Engineering School, $500,000 will endow an engineering scholarship and $5 million will be used to create an endowment for the Engineering library in Clark Hall.
More than half of all students at the University come from families who earn more than $100,000 a year, according to USA Today.
Discussions may be in the works to bring filmmaker Michael Moore to the University as part of his "Slacker Uprising Tour," according to Alex Thurber, University Programs Council speakers committee chair. Thurber said one of Moore's agents contacted her last week with the date that the filmmaker was available to come to Charlottesville -- Oct.
