http://uvamagazine.org/ Keeping you up to date with the goings on around U.Va. en uvamag-web@virginia.edu Copyright 2013 2013-02-28T21:07:19+00:00 http://uvamagazine.org/top_university_news/article/virginia_tops_no._1_seed_ucla_4_3_to_claim_first_national_championship http://uvamagazine.org/top_university_news/article/virginia_tops_no._1_seed_ucla_4_3_to_claim_first_national_championship#When:00:50:39Z Sports, Men's Tennis, 2013-05-22T00:50:39+00:00 http://uvamagazine.org/top_university_news/article/inclement_weather_leads_to_unique_distinction_for_class_of_2013 http://uvamagazine.org/top_university_news/article/inclement_weather_leads_to_unique_distinction_for_class_of_2013#When:15:22:56Z Architecture, Grounds & Buildings, Students, U.Va. Tradition, University News, 2013-05-21T15:22:56+00:00 http://uvamagazine.org/top_university_news/article/the_21st_century_skill_most_students_lack http://uvamagazine.org/top_university_news/article/the_21st_century_skill_most_students_lack#When:15:19:56Z Education and Learning, Research, Students, 2013-05-21T15:19:56+00:00 http://uvamagazine.org/top_university_news/article/u.va._board_of_visitors_approves_3.8_percent_tuition_and_fee_increase_for_i http://uvamagazine.org/top_university_news/article/u.va._board_of_visitors_approves_3.8_percent_tuition_and_fee_increase_for_i#When:15:12:38Z Administration, Admissions, Education and Learning, Schools & Departments, Students, University News, Budget, 2013-05-21T15:12:38+00:00 http://uvamagazine.org/top_university_news/article/forum_examines_lower_numbers_of_black_students_at_u.va http://uvamagazine.org/top_university_news/article/forum_examines_lower_numbers_of_black_students_at_u.va#When:15:09:09Z Administration, Admissions, Schools & Departments, Students, University News, 2013-05-21T15:09:09+00:00 http://uvamagazine.org/top_university_news/article/u.va._mooc_finds_high_attrition_high_satsifaction http://uvamagazine.org/top_university_news/article/u.va._mooc_finds_high_attrition_high_satsifaction#When:15:06:45Z Education and Learning, Faculty, Schools & Departments, Students, University News, 2013-05-21T15:06:45+00:00 http://uvamagazine.org/only_online/article/ed_roseberrys_charlottesville http://uvamagazine.org/only_online/article/ed_roseberrys_charlottesville#When:17:53:59Z Well known as photographer of student life, Ed "Flash" Roseberry (Com '49) provided a low-tech version of Facebook for the University more than a half century ago. After big weekends, Roseberry would post pictures of the proceedings in the windows of Eljo's on the Corner, where students would crowd around to see photographs of their hijinks from the past several days. But Roseberry's camera recorded much more than just life at U.Va. For decades, Roseberry was a ubiquitous presence around Charlottesville, documenting the people and the changing landscape of a growing city. From favorite watering holes to the opening of Barracks Road, Roseberry and his camera saw it all. What follows are just a few of the thousands of photographs he took of Charlottesville, along with recent commentary from Roseberry, now 88. {article_images_1} {article_images_2} {article_images_3} A History Through Pictures with "Flash" Historian Coy Barefoot interviews photographer and alumnus Ed Roseberry. {article_images_4} {article_images_5} {article_images_6} {article_images_7} {article_images_8} {article_images_9} {article_images_10} {article_images_11} {article_images_12} {article_images_13} {article_images_14} {article_images_15} {article_images_16} {article_images_17} {article_images_18} {article_images_19} {article_images_20} {article_images_21} {article_images_22} {article_images_23} {article_images_24} Arts & Entertainment, Charlottesville, Grounds & Buildings, History, 2013-05-20T17:53:59+00:00 http://uvamagazine.org/only_online/article/holsingers_charlottesville http://uvamagazine.org/only_online/article/holsingers_charlottesville#When:17:34:21Z Rufus W. Holsinger moved to Charlottesville from Pennsylvania in the late 1880s and spent the next 40 years as the area’s photographer of record, chronicling the area and its people. He covered everything from the fire that destroyed the Rotunda to celebrations marking the end of World War I. His nearly 10,000 surviving photographs are stored in the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library at U.Va., which has made the collection among its first contributions to the Digital Public Library of America, an effort to link the nation’s libraries, archives and museums into one digital hub. After Holsinger’s death in 1930, his son Ralph took charge of the studio and ran it until his retirement nearly 40 years later. Below is a sampling of some of Rufus Holsinger’s photographs of Charlottesville and U.Va. Photo captions come from the book, Holsinger’s Charlottesville: A Collection of Photographs by Rufus W. Holsinger, by Cecile Wendover Clover and F.T. Heblich Jr. {article_images_1} {article_images_2} {article_images_3} {article_images_4} {article_images_5} {article_images_6} {article_images_7} {article_images_8} {article_images_9} {article_images_10} {article_images_11} {article_images_12} Photos courtesy of the University of Virginia Library. View the collection. Charlottesville, Grounds & Buildings, History, 2013-05-20T17:34:21+00:00 http://uvamagazine.org/only_online/article/charlottesville_then_now http://uvamagazine.org/only_online/article/charlottesville_then_now#When:16:41:00Z Filler. Grounds & Buildings, History, 2013-05-15T16:41:00+00:00 http://uvamagazine.org/in_your_words/article/the_black_alumni_brood http://uvamagazine.org/in_your_words/article/the_black_alumni_brood#When:14:26:13Z The following was originally published on the McSweeney's website as part of the author's yearlong column, Big Mom on Campus: Raising Two Kids in a Dorm. Every two years the buzz begins online. A new Facebook page pops up, tweets with similar hashtags burrow deep into our frontal lobes, awakening a sense of urgency. The message is singular and clear: Don’t miss out. No one can ever predict how many will come—and whether they come in search of old friends, a new mate … or just a good burger. Then it happens. The temperature in central Virginia reaches the high sixties, and Black people around the country pack bags with nice shoes. Some take to the air. Others get in their cars. With uncanny syncopation, they set their GPS to Charlottesville and begin the drive, as though nature—or God—were orchestrating their every move. One night, the University of Virginia looks like a predominantly White institution: sundresses, cowboy boots, grown men in pastel shorts. The next day, if seen from a balcony overlooking the barbecue, it looks like Howard University. {article_images_1} They don’t all have bulging eyes, and thank the Lawd they won’t stick around for six weeks, but they may crash your wedding if it’s at a local vineyard. This brood is special. It’s the Black Alumni Brood, which emerges on odd-numbered years, often numbering in the tens of hundreds. And it’s bound to make some noise. I graduated in 2005, which means I’ve had four chances to attend U.Va.’s Black Alumni Weekend. This year was the first time I felt ready. The first time I wasn’t completely intimidated and annoyed by this imagined scene: a veritable who’s who of the modern Talented Tenth—doctors and bankers in stilettos or Louboutins—swirling their drinks, wondering how a younger woman like me snagged the popular Dr. Paul Christopher Harris. Not saying I was some slouch, but let’s be real: attractive, well-educated Black men who don’t spit like camels when they talk are hard to find. All that knowledge goes straight to the salivary gland. {article_images_2}Hot educated sisters seem much easier to locate, and most are cool. But every now and then, you get one who ignores your face right after smiling in your husband’s, and you tell yourself: That’s why her canines look like molars. By the time you’ve been married for eight years, most of these ladies have given up, realizing they should have snagged your man when he was a scrawny first year with an “even steven.” I thought I avoided Black Alumni Weekend because of one, maybe two of these women. That’d be like never flying again because you were on one lousy plane that made an emergency landing. Oh, wait, that happened.* But when I moved past the cattiness, I was left with me. Especially during my mid-to-late twenties, I didn’t need any help feeling awkward or unsuccessful. The University of Virginia, I told myself, was the last place I dripped with potential. My family lined a small section of the Lawn on graduation day, and I ran over to them, shouting some line I’d crafted a second before: “And they said I wouldn’t make it!” Actually, no one had ever said that. Everyone had said the opposite. I was supposed to be there. Supposed to be great. And we were all just waiting … to see what I would do. I never lived up to those expectations—not my own, not those I perceived my professors had of me. I wasn’t sure where I took the wrong turn and at what point I started racing against the clock to achieve success. But I know it happened after I stepped off that Lawn. So silly women or not, I wasn’t coming back to the place that lured me into measuring failure. Into comparing my old self to my current self and desperately asking for a “do over.” It’s sad that, in my mind, U.Va. became haunted. When Paul and I moved to Charlottesville for his job, I avoided Grounds for a while. I needed distance from the current undergrads, the smart ones studying government or business and securing internships for the summer. The ones still full of potential. I looked young, but I felt “past due.” My children served as the safest way to separate myself from students and also the surest reminder that I would never be important in the boardroom sort of way. My kids were my career. This year, I needed Black Alumni Weekend. I needed to remember what U.Va. meant to me. That visiting central Grounds is not the same as visiting a gravesite. Sure, I absolutely stressed over the reunion. I overpaid for a blazer and leather flats, returned a bright scarf that screamed, “I’m trying!” I wondered if my hair would cooperate and exactly how wide (really or super) my hips would appear in jeans. I jealously reminded Paul that men have it easy. He could wear a Fruit of the Loom tank and some jean shorts if he wanted. But when we pulled up with the double stroller to the grass lot of the amphitheater and began greeting people we’d passed every day on the way to class, I settled. I stopped obsessing over my blush. This felt right. {article_images_3} The community of Black alumni gathered at the cookout that Saturday told a simple narrative to anyone who listened: Once, we were alone. And then we were not. Several of the smartest folks I’ve ever met had grown up as either “the only” or one of a few in their honors programs or magnet schools. Then we came to U.Va., and for four years, we were spoiled. Not by the institution or its legacy of segregation, but by a rich community of engaged students who weren’t surprised to see one another excel. It’s as though we shared a secret: We have always been able. And there were enough of us that we didn’t have to be like-minded or automatic best friends. We had choices. Some of the people I respected the most I rarely hung out with on the weekends. That’s how it was with Kim. A scholar of scholars with nothing to prove, she used words like “anachronistic” and “jank” in the same conversation. She’s the kind who could be a diplomat and a chemist and an actress—all while bottle-feeding premature kittens. I’d probably seen Kim once since graduation, but when I spotted her walking down the stairs of the amphitheater, I realized I’d missed her. I’d missed her and knowing that I could run into her at any moment. I’d missed having Kims in my life. Kim and Amey and Erva and Daisy—they reminded me of that feeling I took for granted years ago. That we were doing something. That we didn’t deserve to be here more than our grandparents or the folks who laid the first bricks, but if God was going to pour out His grace on us, we sure weren’t going to waste it. It’s taken me five years to realize that I’m still part of that group. I didn’t waste it. After Paul and I moved back to Charlottesville in 2011, someone asked me if the “fish had gotten bigger” since undergrad. In other words, had I inflated U.Va.’s value over the years in my mind? Had I returned as an adult to find a campus just like any other, awakened to find the magic belonged to a dream? I stumbled through the answer then, not sure how to measure memories against reality and my past reality against my current one. What if the sweet parts of my past were really that sweet? Kim, the one who could be a best-selling novelist or brain surgeon or alligator wrestler, helped me answer that question for myself. She marked the Black Alumni Brood’s disappearance at the end of the weekend in the same way others had marked its emergence—with a Facebook status: It’s a rude transition—to go from a weekend connecting with hundreds of dynamic people of color to a workweek in which I’ll potentially meet with ... two colleagues of color. UVA [Black Alumni Weekend], I miss you ... deeply. Two years can’t come soon enough. As folks packed up their cars and checked out of hotels, Paul and I stayed here, feeling the slow leak out of Charlottesville. The hardest part is not waiting two years to feel the rush again. The hardest part, the one that threatens to lace my thoughts with bitterness, is that a greater leak remains: fewer and fewer Black students are coming to U.Va. In 1991, African Americans made up 12% of the undergraduate body. This year, that percentage is 6.5. I’m sure the answer combines politics and economics and statistical regressions far above my pay grade. I’m sure there will be forums and Facebook pages and tweets and petitions to change this. Someone whom someone else has voted for or hired to resemble authority will say something. Someone will have to answer, maybe even make a promise. My hope is that in twenty years, when I arrive at Black Alumni Weekend with the ever-handsome Paul Harris, we will find more than a fragile shell of what once was. *The year was 1999, and the crew was fantastic. They even blew up the neon orange slides, free of charge. Alumni, Alumnae, 2013-05-13T14:26:13+00:00 http://uvamagazine.org/in_your_words/article/qa_lets_get_physical_author_pete_williams_col_91 http://uvamagazine.org/in_your_words/article/qa_lets_get_physical_author_pete_williams_col_91#When:19:36:59Z Read an excerpt of Obstacle Fit. U.Va. Mag: Were you always physically active, even as a kid? PW: I played organized baseball and basketball, but I don’t think those of us who grew up in the late ’70s and ’80s ever considered what it meant to be “active.” You simply got home after school, rushed through homework, and headed out on your bike to somebody’s house to play basketball, kickball, street football, or just bike all over the place. Today most parents want their kids in sight or under adult supervision 24/7. Nothing against organized sports—and kids today do plenty of that—but it’s sad we no longer have “disorganized” sports. U.Va. Mag: Did you play sports at U.Va.? PW: I played a lot of intramurals, but spent most of my time covering sports for the Cavalier Daily and WUVA radio. U.Va. Mag: What U.Va. gyms did you work out in? PW: Slaughter Rec and Mem Gym. I remember the wonderful realization the first week of college that taking 15 hours meant you only had go to class 15 hours, as opposed to six-hour high school days. I lived at the gym (and the Cavalier Daily). Some of my training partners put on 20-plus pounds of muscle. I struggled to put on any weight, but I’m thankful for that physique and metabolism now. I’m also envious, especially as the father of two year-round swimmers, of the U.Va. Aquatics & Fitness Center, which opened five years after I graduated. What an incredible facility. U.Va. Mag: What led you away from sportswriting to focus on endurance sports and obstacle-race training? PW: I always enjoyed talking to athletes like Karl Malone and Rickey Henderson about their workout routines. People tend to think pro athletes are just physically gifted and skilled at their sports, but many are relentless in terms of their conditioning. After a decade of covering sports, I met a trainer my age named Mark Verstegen. Together we’ve written five “Core Performance” books and that’s helped me transform more into a fitness writer, specifically endurance sports. Along the way, I became an avid triathlete and stand-up paddleboarder but really found my calling with obstacle racing. I’ve been a runner since high school and got into strength training at U.Va. That jack-of-all-trades fitness background turned out to be great preparation for obstacle racing. U.Va. Mag: What’s the hardest physical/fitness challenge you’ve taken on? PW: I haven’t done an Ironman triathlon or even a marathon. I prefer to work on speed and shorter events and see how many different races I can do in one day or a weekend. Last summer I did two sprint triathlons in a day—one held at a venue an hour south of my home in the morning and the other an hour north in the early evening. I’ve done two obstacle races in one day and I recently did a triathlon, obstacle race, and stand-up paddleboard race in a span of 27 hours. I live in the Tampa Bay area, which is probably the only place where that could be attempted, at least in mid-April. I’m not saying that’s the most grueling physical challenge, but it’s one of the more unique—and certainly one of the most fun. Alumni, Sports, 2013-05-01T19:36:59+00:00 http://uvamagazine.org/in_your_words/article/lets_get_physical http://uvamagazine.org/in_your_words/article/lets_get_physical#When:18:36:45Z The following is an excerpt from the new book Obstacle Fit: Your Complete Training Program to Run Fast, Conquer Challenges, and Discover Your Inner Spartan, Mudder, or Warrior by Pete Williams. Read a Q&A with the author. Come with me now for an obstacle race workout. Let’s assume we’ve done a five-minute core warm-up routine. Now, let’s run out my driveway and turn left. Instead of running on that concrete sidewalk and pounding our joints, we’re going to run on the narrow grassy strip between the sidewalk and the road. It’s only a quarter-mile to a waterfront park, where my obstacle race course already is laid out. It’s not an official course, but that’s okay. Nobody else knows about it. As we enter the park, let’s stay off the roads and run on the grass along the water. It’s low tide and I suppose we could leap over the barrier wall and into the ankle-deep water to run in the muck, but let’s save that for another day. Even though we’re in Florida, this park has some hills. We’re actually dealing with a slight incline now. See that park bench at the top? Wait for me when you get there. {article_images_1}But don’t sit down! The bench is part of the course. It’s time to do a dozen incline pushups. Since you’re new to this, place your hands on the top of the bench, where you might rest your back were you using the bench for its intended purpose. Otherwise grab the front of the bench; the lower angle makes the pushups more challenging. When you’re finished, flip yourself around and do a dozen dips off the front of the bench. All done? Let’s run some more. I love the park bench routine and we’re going to repeat it every time we see a bench. Up ahead is one of the park’s many shelters, those covered pavilions used for picnics and other events. They’re basically concrete slabs with a roof and picnic tables. It’s a weekday so nobody is using them. The first thing we’re going to do is climb over the picnic tables. Yes, all 10 of them. Obstacle races are full of similar modest obstacles, sometimes many in a row, so this is a perfect simulation. Warmed up yet? I know I am. The pavilion roof has exposed beams and that one going across is a perfect pull-up bar. Let’s jump up and see how many we can do. I’m going to aim for a set of 10, but however many you can do is okay for now. Had enough of this pavilion? Let’s run some more. I love this park with all of its wildlife, its killer views of the water, and the kids’ playgrounds it has scattered throughout. In fact, here’s one of my favorites right now, a rock park. See those faux boulders placed about three feet apart? They’re right out of an obstacle race. Let’s climb across those a few times. How about those ropes strung tightly between two big rocks? We could walk across them with our hands, our feet hanging, but for now let’s do 10 dips. Those are tough enough on a stable surface, but this is going to challenge our stability even more since there’s some give to the ropes. Nice job. Don’t stop, though. See that four-inch-wide railing around the rock park that keeps all the shredded rubber mulch from spreading beyond the playground? It’s a perfect balance beam! I’m pretty sure the designers of this rock park didn’t have this in mind, but it will serve our purpose. Ugh. I slipped off already. I’m going to do ten Burpees as punishment. If this were the Spartan Race, I’d have to do thirty and get back on the course. Here I’ll get back on the beam and if I fall off again, yep, ten more Burpees. {article_images_2} Okay, enough of that. It’s funny how your balance improves with the threat of Burpees looming. We can’t leave the playground without taking on that rock wall. This isn’t one with pegs and footholds, but rather a big hunk of faux rock with grooves and indentations. That’s tougher, but much more like an obstacle race. Yes, I know. Those young mothers over there have been giving us some dirty looks. It’s a shame they’ve forgotten what it’s like to play like a kid. Let’s hope they put their smart phones down long enough to let their children indulge. All right, let’s run some more before the moms call the park ranger. See that hill up ahead? You might wonder what it’s doing in Florida. It’s actually an ancient Indian mound. The county parks department was nice enough to pave an asphalt trail up it, but I’d rather sprint up the grass. You ready? Go! Whew. That took about 10 seconds but we’ll spend about 20 walking down. Let’s go again. We’ll complete this work-rest interval five times for a total of six repetitions. That’s 10 seconds work and 20 seconds rest for a total of just three minutes. I don’t know about you, but that’s one tough three minutes. Let’s recover by running along the water some more. The key with obstacle racing is to keep moving. We never want to be one of those people who complete a challenge and then walk to the next one. This is a race, after all. Okay, it’s time for something completely different: volleyball. Yes, there are only two of us and we don’t have a ball. But that sand court over there is available. Let’s stand in front of the net with our hands up. Now take three steps laterally to our right and jump as if blocking at the net. Three more steps and jump again. Repeat and turn to the other side of the net. I call this routine “Middle Blockers” and it’s tough on a hard surface, let alone sand. Let’s do two sets of Middle Blockers and get back to running. My heart is pounding, but isn’t it interesting how quickly we recover? That’s the idea; we always want to keep moving in an obstacle race. What’s that up ahead? Yes, that’s definitely a park bench. It’s time for more push-ups and dips. Who knew a park bench could be such a versatile piece of training equipment? We haven’t run continually for any great length of time yet, but that’s about to change. Follow that trail heading into the woods. I love trail running since it’s easier on the joints and forces you to stay engaged. Otherwise you might trip on something or run into a branch. There are turns and dips, the occasional hole and mud, and even the occasional small critter to dodge. Now we’re coming to a clearing. This is where the park service dumps mulch for anyone who wants to claim it. Apparently the program isn’t too popular because those piles have gotten pretty high, forming a perfect obstacle. I’ve yet to do an obstacle race involving mountains of mulch, but every race has dirt, sand or other small hills to navigate. So the mulch is good preparation. What’s that? You have mulch in your shoes? Hey, at least they’re not wet and caked with mud. C’mon. Let’s head over to that softball field. No, we’re not going to run around the diamond. But look what they have on either side. Benches! I know, those aren’t park benches, but let’s do another set of push-ups and dips. We’re winding down now. The great thing about obstacle race training is that it’s non-stop, so you’re packing a lot of work into a relatively short period of time. We never want to just go on a long, steady state run or be one of those people in the gym who rests for three minutes between sets. I’d much rather hang out at the playground – literally. See that playground up ahead? We must tackle those monkey bars, which appear in every obstacle race. It’s funny that people rarely train for monkey bars, even though it’s possible at any playground. Let’s go across twice. Yes, I know, these bars are meant for shorter people. Just pull your feet back. When you get to the last bar, do a couple of pull-ups for good measure. Ready to head home? It’s about a half mile out of the park and then another quarter-mile back to my house. We could stop at one of those shelters and do that routine again, but let’s keep moving. Now that we’re out of the park, we need a break. We’re not going to stop, but we need an obstacle. Look, a bus stop with a park bench! This park bench has advertising on it. Don’t mind that real estate agent staring at us. I know this looks a little ridiculous, which is why the cars are honking. Just remember, some of those folks are headed to the gym for another boring workout. All we have left is a quarter-mile sprint home and we’re done. Here are a few key ground rules of Obstacle Fit: WARM YOUR CORE: An active warm-up is important before an obstacle race or training session since you’re using your entire body, often in ways you don’t expect. Front and side planks, glute bridges, walking lunges, and lateral lunges not only prime you for movement they’ll boost performance and help prevent injury. PLAY LIKE A KID: In an obstacle race you’ll be called upon to navigate monkey bars, balance on beams, climb walls, and traverse ropes. Chances are you can find all of those things at your local playground. This is a great excuse to play more with your kids. Don’t have kids? Borrow some nieces or nephews. No kids available? Use the playground in off hours. RUN INTERVALS: Long, slow distance runs have a place in some training programs. Interval training builds speed and is especially important in obstacle race training, which combine intervals of running and obstacles. After a warm-up run, alternate between intervals of work and rest, i.e. three minutes of running at 80 percent followed by 3 minutes of walking or light running. RUN HILLS: Unlike the steady, paved inclines of road races or the run portion of triathlons, obstacle races feature short, steep, off-road climbs. Here, too, your local park can be a perfect training ground. Sprint uphill and take twice the time to walk down. Repeat several times. Be sure to keep your stride compact to prevent hamstring pulls. MIX IT TOGETHER: Obstacle race training is not just about running, of course. Simulate the rhythms and challenges of a race by stopping every half a mile to do a dozen pushups, pull-ups, or burpees. You can perform 30 mountain climbers or body-weight squats. Or do a combination of two or three exercises after each half a mile. The key is to make it continuous, mimicking a non-stop obstacle race. BE A KID AGAIN: Children are natural obstacle races. They instinctively climb or leap to touch anything in their paths. They attack playground “obstacles,” in a non-stop flurry of running. Instead of working out in a gym, play outside to train. You might find you enjoy it just as much as the muddy obstacle race itself. Read a Q&A with the author. Alumni, Sports, 2013-04-29T18:36:45+00:00 http://uvamagazine.org/polls/article/rotunda_roof http://uvamagazine.org/polls/article/rotunda_roof#When:15:05:10Z Grounds & Buildings, 2013-04-25T15:05:10+00:00 http://uvamagazine.org/in_your_words/article/the_ice_cream_lady http://uvamagazine.org/in_your_words/article/the_ice_cream_lady#When:15:59:17Z Everyone knows that certain jingle you sometimes hear out in the front yard during the summer, the unmistakable sound of an ice cream truck rolling by. Soon, there’s a frantic hunt for loose change and spare dollar bills, as children and adults alike can be heard crying out, “The ice cream man is coming! The ice cream man is coming!” I remember calling out the same thing when I was young, and as far back as I can remember I dreamed that one day I would sell ice cream and sweets just like him, to own a place that created such excitement in people, especially children. As I got older, I became interested in fitness too, and wanting very much to be around children and have a meaningful influence in their lives, I decided to combine two of my passions and become an elementary physical education teacher. I’ve loved every moment of it. Still, every now and then, I’d hear that ice cream truck jingle sounding in the back of my mind. {article_images_1}So two years ago, at the age of 46, I saw 50 coming up on the horizon and decided if I ever wanted to live out my childhood dream, to have all my passions realized, I had better do what I tell my students all the time: Get moving. I realized that having a fixed candy or ice cream store to mind while teaching would have been tough, but having a way to bring sweets to people on my own schedule would give me a lot more flexibility. That jingling noise got a lot louder. I took an equity line out on my house, bought a truck, stuffed it with ice cream and sweets, and took to the streets. Now I am not just the P.E. teacher at Hollymead Elementary in Charlottesville, but the P.E. teacher who happens to also be the ice cream lady. My name is getting out there, people see me at the beaches and parks, and I get asked to do all sort of events, birthday parties, horse shows, even weddings. People ask me how I can be both the person who helps make kids fit at school while selling ice cream and candy to them after the dismissal bell rings. The answer is simple: I love sweets and I love to exercise and be fit, too. I teach my customers and students about moderation and having treats once in a while, as well as limiting the size of your treat. These are lifelong skills that should be instilled early in children. My favorite customers are, of course, the kids I teach. They are always excited to see their teacher in a setting outside of school—especially in one where ice cream or candy is involved. In many ways, it has brought me closer to them. I get to see them playing with friends in their front yards or at ball games with their parents. I learn about them and their lives in ways that I would never be able to in a 30-minute P.E. class. There’s a more personal connection. That’s been one gift of the ice cream truck. I try to leverage that gift and talk to the students about more than just taking care of their bodies. I talk about how they should follow their dreams and how working hard in school can help them do that. The ice cream truck allows that lesson to resonate more than it otherwise might. Now I get to hear the same sounds I did as a child when I heard that jingle from my front yard. But it’s nice that instead of yelling “the ice cream truck is coming,” I hear something a bit more meaningful to me, something that speaks to the deeper relationships I’ve been able to build with these kids: “Ms. Rosen is coming! Ms. Rosen is coming!” Alumni, Business, Education and Learning, Food, 2013-04-19T15:59:17+00:00 http://uvamagazine.org/only_online/article/top_5_lists http://uvamagazine.org/only_online/article/top_5_lists#When:13:55:27Z {article_images_1}Looking back at Cavalier legends and alumni trailblazers in the world of sports 5 Leading Scorers, Men's Sports 5 Leading Scorers, Women's Sports 5 Influential Alumni in Sports What are the best secret spots, customs and oddities on Grounds? 5 Quirks Around Grounds 5 Vanished Traditions 5 Overlooked Gems What are students eating, buying and studying? Top 5 Dining Hall Foods Top 5 Bookstore Purchases Top 5 Majors Grounds & Buildings, Sports, Students, U.Va. Tradition, 2013-04-17T13:55:27+00:00 http://uvamagazine.org/top_university_news/article/university_students_faculty_dean_safe_at_boston_marathon http://uvamagazine.org/top_university_news/article/university_students_faculty_dean_safe_at_boston_marathon#When:17:08:15Z Administration, Alumni, Sports, Students, University News, 2013-04-16T17:08:15+00:00 http://uvamagazine.org/thelist/article/five_quirks http://uvamagazine.org/thelist/article/five_quirks#When:20:56:23Z 1. The Rotunda’s bulletproof clock face Replaced after the 1895 fire, the face was designed to be bulletproof because students had used the original clock face for target practice. {article_images_1} 2. Brooks Hall The building’s plans were not intended for Princeton or any other school, as the myth goes. Instead, funding for the sore thumb on Grounds was given as a gift by a New York textile magnate who had no affiliation with U.Va. He also provided the building plans, which are thought to have been inspired by university buildings commonly found in the North. {article_images_2} 3. The Dell The remains of the teahouses that once stood on this property on Emmet Street can still be found around the duck pond next to Lambeth House. They were built by William A. Lambeth, a former superintendent of buildings and professor, who placed the teahouses overlooking ornamental gardens he had planted on the property. Later the Dell held a six-hole golf course, picnic area and pond large enough to support fishing and boating. The pond’s stream sources were dammed and piped underground when Emmet Street was widened in the 1930s, and much of the land became a swamp. The University reopened the pond’s source in a plan first introduced in 1999. 4. Hume Fountain The Whispering Wall, as it is called, amplifies sound so that even whispers carry from one part of the curved wall to the other. {article_images_3} 5. Varsity Hall Constructed in 1858 at a cost of $7,500, Varsity Hall is believed to be the country’s first infirmary built specifically to serve a college. Opened after a typhoid outbreak killed 19 and shut down the University for a month, the building was repurposed when the U.Va. hospital was built in the early 1900s. Since then, it has been home to a fraternity, nursing student dorm rooms, the Air Force ROTC and the Batten School. In 2005, Varsity Hall was spared the wrecking ball and was moved 185 feet to make room for the Rouss Hall expansion. The move of this 600-ton building was featured on the program Mega Moves on the Discovery Channel and TLC. {article_images_4} Architecture, Grounds & Buildings, History, U.Va. Tradition, 2013-04-15T20:56:23+00:00 http://uvamagazine.org/thelist/article/five_overlooked_gems http://uvamagazine.org/thelist/article/five_overlooked_gems#When:20:03:59Z {article_images_3}Music Library With a collection of over 135,000 books, scores and sound recordings, and extensive online collections, including access to over 500,000 tracks of music, the Music Library has one of the most significant music collections in the southeastern United States and is a physical hub for music research in the digital age.     Morea Gardens This small arboretum at the end of Sprigg Lane exhibits a collection of hollies and many native plants. The Kentucky coffee trees and Osage orange trees flourished for many years before the arboretum was created around them. A champion linden stands to the east of a house on the property.   {article_images_1}Morven Located on the back side of Carter Mountain, this nearly 3,000-acre property includes 43 buildings that were left by John Kluge to U.Va. as part of a larger donation of land. Those facilities include renowned formal gardens, a Japanese garden and teahouse constructed in the mid-1990s. The property hosts various meetings and events.      Anheuser Busch Coastal Research Center Providing laboratory and housing facilities to researchers, faculty and students, the 42-acre ABCRC is located at the harbor of Oyster, Va. Buildings include 9,000 square feet of dry and wet labs, and there are several boats for researchers. The center is located within the larger Virginia Coast Reserve of the Nature Conservancy, which spans 35,000 acres and includes 14 barrier islands, lagoons, mudflats, tidal marshes and mainland watersheds extending 70 miles along the seaward margin of the Delmarva Peninsula.   {article_images_2}Mountain Lake Biological Research Center A full-service residential field station located nearly 4,000 feet up on a remote but easily accessible mountaintop in the southern Appalachians of southwest Virginia. Established in 1929 as a summer facility for teaching and research, the center is surrounded by sharp ecological gradients and fine-scale changes in habitat—ideal conditions for the studies of ecology and evolution. Grounds & Buildings, 2013-04-15T20:03:59+00:00 http://uvamagazine.org/thelist/article/top_5_vanished_traditions http://uvamagazine.org/thelist/article/top_5_vanished_traditions#When:17:26:27Z {article_images_1}First Year Hats Unlike the beanies seen on other university campuses throughout much of the 20th century, first years at Virginia were encouraged to wear stylish felt or straw hats. As new students, many of whom were veterans, returned to the University following World War II, the custom was put to rest.   The Ugly Club Members of this 1860s-era club would meet in the spring to award boots to the man voted ugliest, slippers for the most conceited man, a hat to the prettiest and occasionally an auger to the greatest bore.   Calathumps Prior to the Civil War, masked students would conduct late night raids of sorts, known as calathumps, up and down the Lawn, firing off guns, breaking windows and otherwise raising heck. It was during a calathump that a professor was shot and killed by a student, leading to today’s Honor Code. But the Code didn’t end the rowdy parades. They continued another two decades.   {article_images_2}Boxing Team Boxing became an official varsity sport in 1927 and matches were held in the new Memorial Gymnasium, where as many as 5,000 fans would crowd into the gym to watch the bouts. The Cavaliers went undefeated from 1932 through 1937, winning a string of Southern Conference Championships. But major collegiate boxing succumbed to growing criticism in the 1950s that it was too dangerous, and U.Va. eliminated boxing as a varsity sport in 1955. The NCAA refused to sanction the sport after 1960.   Easters A series of dances, concerts, fraternity balls and even afternoon teas that probably began in the late 1800s and evolved into a University-wide block party by the 1970s. Thousands of students would attend, but by 1983, University officials found Easters impossible to tame and banned the party from campus. {article_images_3} Alumni, Grounds & Buildings, History, Students, U.Va. Tradition, 2013-04-15T17:26:27+00:00 http://uvamagazine.org/thelist/article/influential_alumni_in_sports http://uvamagazine.org/thelist/article/influential_alumni_in_sports#When:15:25:41Z {article_images_1}1. Val Ackerman (Col ’81) A three-time captain and two-time Academic All-American basketball player at U.Va., Ackerman was the president of the WNBA from 1996-2005. She became the first female president of USA Basketball in 2005 and was inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in 2011. {article_images_2}2. Tim Finchem (Law ’73) Finchem has been the commissioner of the PGA tour since 1994. Before his involvement with professional golf, he served as deputy advisor to the President Jimmy Carter in the Office of Economic Affairs in 1978 and 1979. {article_images_3}3. Bill Hofheimer (Col ’94) Hofheimer has been a senior director of communications at ESPN since 2005. He works on Monday Night Football, soccer coverage, Around the Horn and Pardon the Interruption. {article_images_4}4. Jonathan Mariner (Com ’76) Mariner is executive vice president and chief financial officer of Major League Baseball. Previously, he served as executive vice president and chief financial officer for the Florida Marlins baseball team and vice president and CFO for the Florida Panthers hockey team. {article_images_5}5. DeMaurice Smith (Law ’89) Smith is the executive director of the NFL Players Association, a position he has held since 2009. Smith was a central player in negotiating the collective bargaining agreement that ended the 2011 NFL lockout. Historical Bonus: Bowie Kuhn (Law ’50) Kuhn was the commissioner of Major League Baseball from 1969 to 1984. Alumni, Sports, Baseball, Football, Golf, Women's Basketball, 2013-04-15T15:25:41+00:00 http://uvamagazine.org/thelist/article/leading_scorers_womens_sports http://uvamagazine.org/thelist/article/leading_scorers_womens_sports#When:15:12:45Z {article_images_1}Basketball; Monica Wright (2006-10) 2,540 points. Wright broke the scoring record held by Dawn Staley (1989-92), who will be inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame this year. Field Hockey; Paige Selenski (2008-12) 238 points. Selenski was a four-time All-American is the all-time leader in career points (238) for both the University and for the ACC. She ranks eighth on the NCAA career list for points scored. Lacrosse; Amy Appelt (2001-05) 373 points (258 goals). Appelt won the 2004 Tewaaraton Trophy, awarded to the nation’s best player. Soccer; Angela Hucles (1996-99) 138 points. Also Virginia’s leader in career goals (59), Hucles was a member of the US Olympic teams that won gold in 2004 and 2008. Softball; Heather Field (2001-04) 178 runs. While Field leads the Cavalier in career runs, Meg Young (1997-2001) is the career leader in hits with 285. Sports, Field Hockey, Lacrosse, Women's Basketball, Women's Soccer, Women's Softball, 2013-04-15T15:12:45+00:00 http://uvamagazine.org/thelist/article/leading_scorers_mens_sports http://uvamagazine.org/thelist/article/leading_scorers_mens_sports#When:19:04:07Z {article_images_1}Basketball; Bryant Stith (1989-92) 2,516 points. Stith broke the record held by Jeff Lamp (1978-81), who scored roughly 200 fewer 2,317 points during his career. Football; Connor Hughes (2002-05) 332 points. While placekicker Connor Hughes holds the career record for points scored, running back Wali Lundy (2002-2005) scored the most career touchdowns (52). Lacrosse; Steele Stanwick (2009-2012) 269 career points (126 goals and 143 assists). Stanwick won the 2011 Tewaaraton Trophy as the nation's best college lacrosse player, becoming  the third U.Va. men’s player to receive the award. Doug Knight (1994-97) is the Cavaliers’ career leader in goals scored (165). Soccer; Mike Fisher (1993-96) 167 points. Fisher also holds the career record for assists (55); Jeff Gaffney (1982-85) is the top career goal scorer (69). Baseball; Bobby Rivell (1987-90) 199 runs. Bill Narleski (1984-87) is the Cavaliers’ all-time hits leader (281) Sports, Baseball, Football, Lacrosse, Men's Basketball, Men's Soccer, 2013-04-12T19:04:07+00:00 http://uvamagazine.org/top_university_news/article/students_honored_for_work_on_national_debt http://uvamagazine.org/top_university_news/article/students_honored_for_work_on_national_debt#When:15:49:00Z Students, University News, 2013-04-12T15:49:00+00:00 http://uvamagazine.org/thelist/article/top_5_u.va._bookstore_purchases http://uvamagazine.org/thelist/article/top_5_u.va._bookstore_purchases#When:15:45:59Z According to Wayne Terwilliger, assistant director of the U.Va. Bookstore, students and alumni can’t get enough of the following: {article_images_1}Anything with a  “V-sabre” on it “The list of items people expect to find with a Virginia sabre is endless,” Terwilliger says. I asked our buyer what she thought the oddest request for a V-sabre item is and she replied, ‘I have lost my sense of odd.’” Anything containing  sugar and/or caffeine An i-Anything Anything marked down at least 25 percent Bluebooks The bookstore orders approximately 27,000 blue and green books a year for exam periods. Business, Technology, 2013-04-12T15:45:59+00:00 http://uvamagazine.org/top_university_news/article/a_better_way_to_think_about_u.va.s_crisis http://uvamagazine.org/top_university_news/article/a_better_way_to_think_about_u.va.s_crisis#When:15:45:40Z Administration, Alumni, Education and Learning, University News, 2013-04-12T15:45:40+00:00 http://uvamagazine.org/top_university_news/article/staley_an_icon_of_basketballand_now_a_hall_of_famer http://uvamagazine.org/top_university_news/article/staley_an_icon_of_basketballand_now_a_hall_of_famer#When:15:33:22Z 2013-04-12T15:33:22+00:00 http://uvamagazine.org/thelist/article/top_5_dining_hall_foods http://uvamagazine.org/thelist/article/top_5_dining_hall_foods#When:15:29:10Z According to focus groups conducted by U.Va. Dining Services and ARAMARK, the most popular foods at Newcomb, O’Hill and Runk dining rooms are as follows (accompanied by comments from students): {article_images_1}Chicken Nuggets “Chicken nuggets are the best! They are good at all three dining rooms.” Fro-Yo/Ice Milk “My RA told me when I was a first-year that I had to try the ice-milk. It is a staple of dining at O’Hill.” Omelets Build Your Own Stir-Fry Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies “We love the vegan chocolate chip cookies—and we aren’t even vegan!” Food, Students, 2013-04-12T15:29:10+00:00 http://uvamagazine.org/top_university_news/article/honor_informed_retraction_referendum_takes_immediate_effect http://uvamagazine.org/top_university_news/article/honor_informed_retraction_referendum_takes_immediate_effect#When:15:27:48Z Students, U.Va. Tradition, Honor Code, University News, 2013-04-12T15:27:48+00:00 http://uvamagazine.org/thelist/article/top_5_majors http://uvamagazine.org/thelist/article/top_5_majors#When:15:23:51Z Five most popular majors for 2012 graduates, according to U.Va.’s Office of Institutional Assessment and Studies (numbers in parentheses are the number of bachelor degrees conferred): Politics (425 total; 297 Foreign Affairs, 128 Government) The Politics Department is home to more majors than any other department in the College. On average since 2000, more than 700 students each year have concentrated in one of its two majors—Government or Foreign Affairs—for their bachelor’s degree. Interdisciplinary (413) The Interdisciplinary Major Program gives students in the College the opportunity to design an individual program of study instead of pursuing a regular department major. Medical Ethics, Psychobiology, Irish Studies, Physical Anthropology, Post-Modern Studies and Philosophical Psychology are examples of some of the kinds of programs students have created. Economics (373) The Department of Economics now occupies Monroe Hall and has 700 undergraduate students pursuing degrees. Psychology (361) The Department of Psychology offers undergraduate degrees in a wide variety of sub-disciplines. Study ranges from examining human development and complex thought processes to social relations, brain and neural mechanisms and psychopathology. Commerce (329) The McIntire School of Commerce was ranked 5th by U.S. News and World Report in 2012. DEGREES CONFERRED BY MAJOR, CHARTED {article_images_1} Schools & Departments, College of Arts & Sciences, McIntire School of Commerce, Students, 2013-04-12T15:23:51+00:00 http://uvamagazine.org/alumni_spotlight/article/two_alumni_take_to_the_skies http://uvamagazine.org/alumni_spotlight/article/two_alumni_take_to_the_skies#When:14:42:56Z In January 2013, U.S. Air Force Lt. Col Todd McDonald (Col ’91) and Capt. Evan Fillman (Engr ’08) deployed to Southwest Asia in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. When they deployed from McGuire Air Force Base in New Jersey, they had no idea they were both Wahoos. About a month into their deployment, McDonald spotted Fillman wearing a U.Va. t-shirt at the gym, and the two realized their U.Va. connection. {article_images_1} The two KC-10 pilots were not on the same crew for day-to-day operations, but shortly after their meeting in the gym, they were scheduled to fly a combat mission together. It was “sheer luck,” says Fillman, “a happy coincidence that we were able to fly together.” The KC-10 is the military’s largest air-to-air refueling platform, a huge plane that transports cargo but is specially designed to run air to air refueling missions. “It has the ability to [carry and] deliver 40,000 gallons of jet fuel to coalition aircraft in a single sortie,” says Fillman. {article_images_2}On a refueling mission, a KC-10 will often take off and loiter in a circular pattern at altitude, providing gas to the fighter jets that support the troops on the ground. The KC-10 crew, made up of two pilots, a flight engineer and a boom operator, work together to accomplish the mission. First, the jet that needs fuel stabilizes in close trail behind the tanker. Next, the KC-10 boom operator maneuvers the boom to affect contact with the receiver jet, thus allowing fuel transfer to begin. At this point, the KC-10 and the receiver jet are flying at the same speed. The KC-10 can also flip roles and become the receiver. It’s a complicated process that requires significant special training. McDonald has been flying KC-10s for more than 20 years, and he happily passed along advice to Fillman, who has been flying KC-10s for 2 years. While in the air, they reminisced about the Grounds, Rugby Road, and Air Force ROTC Detachment 890, U.Va.’s Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps. “It was a great moment, especially for me as a young KC-10 pilot, to be able to fly with an extremely experienced pilot who also went to U.Va.,” says Fillman. Alumni, 2013-04-05T14:42:56+00:00 http://uvamagazine.org/in_your_words/article/college_life http://uvamagazine.org/in_your_words/article/college_life#When:17:47:28Z The following is taken from a speech given in Charlottesville on March 14th, 2012, to an audience of students and alumni from the University of Virginia. The speech is a reflection on the passing of four years of college and a contemplation of the ways in which that time mirrors the passage of the phases of a lifetime. Another spring … another spring approaches us, and again it is signaled by the same signs. Afternoon classrooms are getting warm again, musty in the dusk heat, and again they’re visited by our yearly guests: high school seniors, those future college kids and potential Cavaliers. Their presence here is one of many nods that another year at Virginia is rounding the corner, approaching its final turn, again sprinting to its finish. But the sudden onset of spring this year has been an especially bittersweet occasion given that it marks my last season at the University of Virginia. After what seemed like an invincible, endless string of days and nights, I know now that I have seen more sunsets here than I will see. Gabriel García Márquez crafted a memorable phrase for the last phase of a man’s life; he called it, “the autumn of the patriarch.” And that’s where I and the rest of my class find ourselves now in our college lives. Our autumn in springtime. Our leaves budding just as they fall. We patriarchs at twenty-two. And here, in that spirit, I want to say and attempt to summarize what I think college life is, and how it parallels—in more ways than you’d think—real life. This is how it goes. Your first year starts the carefree childhood of your college days. You’re thrust from the stultifying summer after high school into a world freshly colored with freedom. There are no rules because you haven’t been taught them yet. It’s the time you can do anything, and there aren’t any repercussions, because, like a child, you don’t know any better. You learn new things and you meet new people every day; you look at the fourth years preparing to exit as a kid sees his grandparents, thinking, That will never be me. No, I’m the exception here. I don’t know how I did it, or why it’s just me, but I’ll stay like this forever. Second year you start to become a young adult. It’s your twenties and thirties. You’ve finally moved into your own place and you’re getting comfortable around here. Your friends are settled in too, and man, are you all the coolest, tightest bunch of pals in the history of the world. You throw some parties, stay up late; you go out and drink and meet some pretty people you like and want to get to like you. You refrain from acting like a total idiot though, like you used to do when you were a kid, because you know the rules now. You have some older friends, and you know some younger people too. It’s a weird realization that there are people coming up behind you in the world, but that’s all right because you’re still young. You don’t really have to worry about your future that much, but you still prepare for it because people tell you to. So you start taking steps towards it. Next you’re middle aged, a third year. You’re respected and known due to the reputation you’ve built. You have a solidified group of friends your age, while you know a set of people below you and have a network of friends ahead. You don’t really have to worry about the end because there’s still that group of older people ahead of you. They are the buffer protecting you from having to ponder your exit. This is the age where you have both authority and energy. You’re fresh enough to still swing, and you’re old enough to know the ropes. But soon it’s your fourth year. Senior. Citizenry. This is the beginning of your end. Oddly enough, a strange thing has happened to this college world of yours as you return in those late summer days for your final year. It somehow looks less familiar than it did when you last left. You’ll try to figure out why this is so and realize that it’s because the fourth years of last year aren’t here anymore. They’ve passed on. They were some of your most intimate friends, your strongest allies, and the only surviving witnesses who had seen you grow from your beginning. And now that they’re gone, there’s a void. And it won’t, and can’t, be filled, because they can’t be brought back. As Christopher Hitchens noted, it’s a melancholy lesson of aging: the realization that, once you pass a certain point, you cannot make old friends. And with those older friends gone—like the older siblings, aunts, fathers and grandmothers who will exit Earth before you—the world loses some of its essence, some of its nature. It lacks what once colored and textured it for you. And no new friend will ever bring that back. Moreover, you realize that your past has solidified into something real. All of those college experiences—tailgates and spring breaks, all-nighters and bonfires—have turned from incidents into anecdotes. Floating frozen in amber, this is now your history. It eases the ache of the lost presence of those older friends because you now have the immense company of the past on your side. It sustains you. Remember it. Hold it in the fist of your soul. Yet this same past also seems to intensify a sharp and melancholic pang: you know that after this year, these college friendships will be put on hold. They will still be there, forever, but they will simply have to stagnate. {article_images_1} Soon the calendar becomes an enemy. Each day it ticks off represents more and more stripped away from less and less. But because of this, you, strangely enough, revert to your beginning days, your starting out days, days when everything was freshly surprising. Walks to class take on new value; you realize how few are the days left in which you’ll wear a backpack. You start to notice again how the Rotunda looks in the mist of an early morning, how Old Cabell Hall smells, what it sounds like on the quads at twilight. Your senses reawaken to what they had become anesthetized to, because everything has taken on a renewed preciousness as it dwindles. The novelist Martin Amis talks about living late life in what he calls “a farewell mode,” where you transition from saying ‘hi’ to the world to saying ‘bye’. And that’s where you are. It’s spring. You start preparing your final bows as flowers clutter the stage and the curtains begin to close. Still, the coming of our high school visitors also hints at a more subtle change. As we make room for them in our classrooms, we are prefiguring that moment when we’ll make room for their entire upcoming class. When they—all young and wide-eyed as you once were—will see their dorms for the first time and settle into this place for their next four years. And moreover, my class—this most bright and loyal of classes—will after that day be forever making room for that class and the classes which will follow, allowing them the same pleasures we’ve had here, making room for them just as the fourth years did when we were those wide-eyed kids, anxious and eager in this place for the first time, three years ago. I once heard it said that the day your first child is born is the day you’ll actually understand you’re going to die. It’s not a resentful feeling in the least, but rather the realization that you’re taking your place among the genealogical hierarchy. You’ve got to go because you’ve got to make some room. One of the greatest poets of the 19th century was Alexander Pushkin, a brilliant writer who died foolishly at the age of thirty-seven after being shot in his twenty-ninth duel. But he was a genius, and he wrote a striking poetic line about children: It will be our descendants who Out of this world will crowd us too. So they crowd us out. And just like newborns do to their proud parents, the next class is soon to crowd us from Charlottesville. We go so that they can come. It’d be the peak of selfishness or stupidity to pretend that you’ll just stick around here forever. It has to end. Sure there are things we’ve left undone. And sure I know that in the future I’ll be wanting to come back to do some things just one more time—back to the Lawn, back to the Virginian, back to Mad Bowl for pick-up football. One more time. One more time. But there’s consolation to be found in the fact that you’d always have left some things undone—even if you were in college for another hundred years—and you’d always want to go back and do some things again. That’s the thing about time—it’s finite so it makes you pick what you want to do with it. The same goes for life as it does for college life. Now college may, as I’ve heard it declared on countless occasions, be the best time of your life. But how can you be sure that’s true unless you move on to do something else? And what kind of life would it be if you never got the chance to grow up—to rise to the full height of your true potential and actually put to use what you’ve learned? It’d be stifling and eventually hellish if you were forced to stay here forever. Always a college kid. Always running around Charlottesville. There’d be no point to ever doing it in the first place. The American historian Wallace Stegner once observed that if roses lasted forever we’d look on them like weeds. In other words, the rarity and brevity of a thing are inseparable from its value. And it is in that same way that the forty-five months of life bookended by the fall of first year and spring of fourth are to be cherished because they do—let’s now admit—slip by in a blink. Still, the coming years here will be no less bright just because you won’t be around to see them. In our place will be the next class, living out their own time at Virginia, just as we have. And soon they’ll be sitting in our shoes, as fourth years, in the autumn spring of their college lives, imparting their shards of advice as they move on to follow us into the world. And it is in thinking of those younger girls and boys that we should avoid any resentment in leaving, regardless of how tempting it may be. Instead, we should have dignity, remembering all we’ve learned along the way. We should give thanks, reflecting upon so many golden, glorious moments here. We should feel contentment, accepting that we—like those who came before and those that will follow—were given a finite and fixed amount time here, no more, no less. Finally, we should feel no resentment, but instead appreciation and gratitude—those impulses that lie furthest from the acidity and bitterness of vain anger. I want to end this speech by returning to those lines about our descendants crowding us from the earth. Pushkin followed them with a forward-looking affirmation that I want to address to you all, if I may: So fill yourselves until you’re sated On this unstable life, my friends It’s nullity I’ve always hated, I know too surely how this ends. Alumni, Students, 2013-03-22T17:47:28+00:00 http://uvamagazine.org/in_your_words/article/memories_of_the_university_during_the_1950s http://uvamagazine.org/in_your_words/article/memories_of_the_university_during_the_1950s#When:15:57:22Z Past issues of the University of Virginia Magazine aroused pleasant memories that occurred during the spring of 1945 and the school year 1957-58 in Charlottesville and at the University of Virginia. In 1945 I visited the James and Somers families on Jefferson Park Avenue. During a game of croquet on the James’ lawn I met Dr. Jesse Beams. Apparently, Mr. Somers was involved in the machining of the centrifugal apparatus that Dr. Beams’ group used to separate uranium isotopes in Rouss Hall during WWII. As a 19-year-young US Navy man I had no idea who Dr. Beams was nor did I know anything of his research and the contribution of Mr. Somers to the nuclear effort. In 1957 I applied for the Academic Year Institute for High School Science Teachers. Dr. James Cole, a professor of chemistry, was the director of this program. Fortunately, I was accepted for this great opportunity to upgrade my science and math foundation. Professors Cole, Brown, Stevenson, Victor, Beams and Hobbs—extremely competent teachers and researchers—provided the subject matter so vital to our growth as science teachers. Some of the top professors in the United States were teaching at U.Va. Visiting scientists and scholars were everywhere. William Faulkner was author-in -residence. {article_images_2}The Russians launched Sputnik on October 4, 1957. Several hours later the engineering students had a Sputnik model hanging on a wire between the engineering building and a lamp-post. This model actually beeped Sputnik’s signals. We hiked up to the athletic practice field above Copeley Hill (where married students lived in WWII trailers) to observe Sputnik passing overhead. What an exciting time to be at U.Va.! Every season brought a celebration party: gin and juice, mint julip, and beer and pretzel seasons. Another exciting event at U.Va. was the May 1958 visit of John and Jaqueline Kennedy with brothers Robert and Edward. Edward Kennedy was a student in the Law School. A visiting friend and I slipped into the field house while Senator John Kennedy addressed the group. {article_images_3}The school year 1957-58 was the most exciting experience of my academic career. Fifty years later I was honored with membership in the Jefferson Society. But I have never forgotten how impressed I was with the quality of the student body. Young men in tweed jackets, shirts and ties, gentlemen that lived by an Honor Code had a strong influence on my behavior as a teacher and scholar. How fortunate the students of U.Va. are to have such an inspiring history. The high school science teachers that participated in the AYI impressed me with their dedication to science education. According to the obituaries in Virginia Magazine, several have died during the past three years. I sure would appreciate hearing from those teachers who have survived. It would be a joy to chat with them about the great experience we shared at U.Va. during that exceptional school year of 1957-58. Alumni, History, Schools & Departments, Curry School of Education, 2013-03-22T15:57:22+00:00 http://uvamagazine.org/in_your_words/article/balance http://uvamagazine.org/in_your_words/article/balance#When:13:30:10Z I want to laugh I want to cry I just don’t want to say goodbye. These past four years at UVA Have taught me how to seize the Day. Time’s flying by and yes I’m scared To leave these memories that we’ve shared There’s a quote I want to introduce Of a wise man named Dr. Seuss: “Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened,” he said. And so, I must focus on the road ahead. {article_images_1}Balance decisiveness with acceptance To give a thought another chance Balance confidence with humility To understand one’s credibility Balance interaction with time alone To learn how to be okay on your own I enter this new road with a smile To grow and learn with every mile December 10, 2012 Students, U.Va. Tradition, 2013-03-22T13:30:10+00:00 http://uvamagazine.org/polls/article/should_fans_be_allowed_to_storm_the_court_or_field_after_a_big_win http://uvamagazine.org/polls/article/should_fans_be_allowed_to_storm_the_court_or_field_after_a_big_win#When:15:00:52Z 2013-03-08T15:00:52+00:00 http://uvamagazine.org/features/article/unearthing_slavery_at_the_university_of_virginia http://uvamagazine.org/features/article/unearthing_slavery_at_the_university_of_virginia#When:20:12:32Z On Oct. 22, 2012, a University of Virginia landscaping crew began clearing topsoil from land just north of the University Cemetery. Founded in 1828, the cemetery provides a final resting place for University presidents, faculty members, prominent alumni and even a Civil War general. Now a planned expansion of the cemetery had the crew, under the supervision of local archaeologists, taking a peek under a thick, two-foot-deep layer of dirt that covered a former plant nursery. An earlier survey had turned up nothing, but this time archaeologists spotted a subtle change in the soil's color and texture, forming what became, after a bit more digging, an unmistakable pattern. {article_images_2}Laid out before them, an irregular checkerboard stamped on the red Virginia clay, was a series of poorly marked and unmarked grave shafts, 67 in all. "The significant number of grave shafts identified in the burial ground suggests the use by a large population associated with the University," says Benjamin Ford (Grad '97, '98), principal investigator of Rivanna Archaeological Services, which oversaw the dig. "With the exception of students, the largest population of individuals living on Grounds at the University [at the time the graves were believed to have been filled] would have been enslaved African Americans." Ford also points to a clue found in an 1898 Alumni Bulletin, in which the son of a former University librarian referred to "servants," a common euphemism for "slaves," in his recollection that "in old times, the University servants were buried on the north side of the cemetery, just outside of the wall." {article_images_1}The newly discovered graves will remain undisturbed and the site will be preserved and memorialized by the University. The expansion of the cemetery will now move southward, rather than northward, where the gravesite was found. These are not the first such discoveries at U.Va. In 1993, archaeologists uncovered a dozen graves on what is now the South Lawn; in 2005, they found two more. Scholars linked the site to a free black landowner named Catherine "Kitty" Foster, born sometime in the 1790s, and to a wider community of free blacks who lived in a neighborhood known as Canada. In 2011, U.Va. president Teresa Sullivan dedicated a small park and memorial to Foster and her fellow free blacks. {article_images_4}Unlike on the South Lawn, however, the graves just outside the University Cemetery do not point to one individual or a named community. Instead, the discovery focuses new attention on a group that for years many at the University denied ever even existed: enslaved people on Grounds. In histories of U.Va., enslaved African Americans largely go unnamed and sometimes even unmentioned, and scholars, until recently, have done little to bring them out of the shadows. The tide has turned in recent years, as the Board of Visitors, students, faculty, staff and alumni have initiated efforts to understand, document and commemorate the slaves who lived and labored at the University of Virginia. Each group is working on answers to a common set of questions: Who were these enslaved men and women who helped build and run the University? What did they do, how were they treated and how should the University treat their legacy? "You could be a student for four years and never have these uncomfortable realities intrude on your life here," says Frank Dukes (Col '75), a U.Va. architecture professor and director of University and Community Action for Racial Equity (UCARE). {article_images_9} Filling a historical void When Maurie McInnis (Col '88), professor of art history and vice provost for academic affairs, attended the University of Virginia as an undergraduate in the mid-1980s, she worked for the University Guide Service. "The standard line then was that Thomas Jefferson would not allow slaves to come with students; therefore, there were no slaves," she says. McInnis graduated in 1988, but later returned to teach art history and for a number of years has lectured, with Kirt von Daacke (Col '97), an associate professor of history, on Jefferson, U.Va. and slavery. One of her undergraduate students was Catherine S. Neale (Col '06), who wrote what scholars agree is the definitive treatment of slavery at U.Va. to date. "Catherine Neale was the first person to go through the archives for information about slavery," McInnis says. "Since then there has not been that much systematic work done. We've been poking around the edges. We still need that top-to-bottom, thorough examination of slavery at U.Va." "I found it incredibly striking that there was not more scholarship about slavery and the University," says Neale. "There was just nothing out there." Like McInnis, she joined the Guide Service. "When I first started, the guides talked a little about slavery. Everybody talks about Henry Martin," she says, referring to the bell ringer who stayed on at the University after the Civil War, dying in 1915. Although born enslaved, Martin likely was freed before being hired by the University. But the tours, Neale says, primarily focused on integration of the University during the 1950s. Julian Bond, U.Va. professor emeritus of history and former director of the NAACP, emphasizes that documenting and researching the past is critical to today's University. "What is yesterday makes our today," says Bond. "It sounds trite, but it affects who we are now, how we behave now, what we plan for the future. Having some relatively deep knowledge of the past is essential." By the time Neale graduated in 2006, the Guides had established a "Slave to Scholar" tour and Neale herself had penned her award-winning thesis, available in the history department library, titled "Slaves, Freedpeople, and the University of Virginia." Along with a much shorter monograph written in 2003 by Albemarle County historian Gayle M. Schulman (Grad '80), it is one of the only scholarly works to focus entirely on slavery at the University. The story these histories tell is complex and painful. Slavery at the University The first two slaves at the University worked to clear land that had once been James Monroe's cornfield during the summer of 1817. Then, at the first Board of Visitors meeting, on October 7, 1817, officials authorized the hiring of additional laborers, including slaves, to begin construction of the University. According to Neale, these men hauled timber to construction sites on Grounds, where they cut and nailed it. They also molded and fired bricks and used them to build the University's first buildings and walls. In an effort at cost cutting, most of these slaves at the University were hired from local owners, who were paid a set annual amount per slave and who expected their "property" to be returned reasonably well clothed. This often meant nothing more than providing outer- and underclothing, along with double-soled shoes. Sally Cottrell Cole {article_images_8} Sally Cottrell Cole was born enslaved around 1800 and worked at Monticello as a maid to Thomas Jefferson’s granddaughter Ellen Randolph. In 1825, the Jefferson family hired Cottrell out to U.Va.’s first professor of mathematics, an Englishman named Thomas H. Key, whose wife required a nurse and maid. Professor Key abruptly resigned in July 1827 and returned to England. Before leaving, he purchased Cottrell for $400 on the condition that she be immediately freed. Virginia law at the time required freed slaves to leave the state within 12 months. Rather than leave, she worked for U.Va. chemistry professor John P. Emmet, then on her own as a seamstress. Cottrell was baptized at First Baptist Church in 1841 and, five years later, married Reuben Cole, a free black man. Tradition placed the onus of medical care for hired slaves on the University, but care was sometimes delayed as slave owners and the University argued over who was responsible for the cost. In at least one instance this came at the expense of a sick slave's life, according to research by Ervin Jordan Jr., an associate professor and research archivist in Special Collections who is at work on a book about African Americans at the University. The University owned outright a handful of slaves. Jefferson himself, in his role as a member of the Board of Visitors, agreed to purchase a slave for $125 in January 1819. By 1830, the University owned four slaves. In 1832, the University purchased a slave named Lewis Commodore for $580, Henry Martin's predecessor as bell ringer. At any given time, however, there were as many as 100 or more slaves working on Grounds. Once the University was built, the work of slaves transitioned from construction to the day-to-day necessities of students, who were prohibited from bringing their own slaves onto Grounds. Some students who owned slaves brought them to Charlottesville despite the prohibition, hiring them out or housing them elsewhere. In contrast, faculty were allowed to bring their personal slaves with them to live at the University. Students were, however, attended to by slaves on Grounds; those slaves were owned by the independent hotelkeepers who ran the hotels, or boardinghouses, where students lived. "There was about one slave for every 20 students," says Ervin Jordan. "They were kept busy during the course of the day." In 1835, an average slave working in one of the hotels began the day making fires, blacking boots, sweeping floors, making beds and carrying away ashes. On a more periodic basis he did various "deep-cleaning" chores such as whitewashing the fireplace before either bringing in the ice or the wood, depending on the season. Slaves were often blamed when living conditions at the University deteriorated, as they often did. The historian Philip Alexander Bruce, who published a five-volume history of the University in the early 1920s, referred to "shifty negro servants," "slipshod slave service," and "lazy, untrained slaves," blaming them, among other things, for contributing to deadly outbreaks of disease. Catherine Neale's history includes accounts of other slaves being kicked, beaten or yelled at by students who, in some instances, resented the fact that faculty were allowed to keep slaves on Grounds. "Typical students came from Southern, slave-owning families," Jordan explains. "When you owned slaves, you had the power of life and death over another human being. These students tended to have what I would call an attitude problem with authority. These students might even have owned more slaves than their professors, and they did not take too kindly to authority." According to Neale, a group of students beat Lewis Commodore, the enslaved bell ringer, apparently in protest of the school's strict time schedule in 1837. In a rare move, Commodore was asked to testify, and he identified one of his assailants. The following year, two students attacked Fielding, a male slave belonging to Professor Charles Bonnycastle. Fielding received, as described by Bonnycastle, "a severe and inhuman beating" because he had interfered with the students' attempts to disband a group of free blacks. When Bonnycastle intervened "for the purpose of preventing his servant from being murdered," he too was beaten. In this case, Fielding was not allowed to testify and ultimately the University declined to punish the students. Other instances of abuse were punished; for example, a student who fired a pistol and attacked a slave in 1839 with a knife was expelled. In 1856, according to faculty minutes cited in Gayle Schulman's history, a student confessed to beating unconscious a slave girl, aged 10 or 11. She had wandered onto Grounds and, after being confronted by the student, had not replied with what he deemed to be appropriate deference. The student told professors "that whenever a servant is insolent to him, he will take upon himself the right of punishing him without the consent of his master." The student said his actions were "not only tolerated by society, but with proper qualifications may be defended on the ground of the necessity of maintaining due subordination in this class of persons." The faculty, after originally recommending expulsion, reconsidered and the student was not punished. Such a result was fairly typical. McInnis says that early records of the University indicate that students were more likely to be disciplined for wearing the wrong jacket than for assaulting a slave. As for their sometimes violent behavior: "It helps put into perspective what Jefferson wrote in Notes on the State of Virginia," she says, referring to Jefferson's famous observation that the white children of slaveholders, "nursed, educated, and daily exercised in tyranny, cannot but be stamped by it with odious peculiarities." It was for that reason that Jefferson prohibited students from bringing their own slaves on Grounds. "[Jefferson] hoped he could take 18- to 22-year-olds from that plantation environment and educate them out of being tyrants," McInnis says. "But he did not anticipate that there was no way to operate the University without slavery. There was no other labor force available." {article_images_5} Today's University addresses slavery In 2007, the Virginia General Assembly passed a resolution expressing regret for the state's role in the slave trade, and the Board of Visitors soon followed suit, commending the General Assembly's action and making particular note of its regret for the University's use of slaves. "If we are to lay claim to the glories of Virginia's past, its proud moments and its contributions to the nation's greater good, we must also acknowledge some painful truths. Slavery was one of those truths," Thomas Farrell (Col '76, Law '79), then rector of the Board of Visitors, wrote in a Richmond Times-Dispatch editorial about the BOV's statement. "By doing so, we can begin to address the future with a new sense of clarity, purpose and strength." For some, the BOV statement was a first step in the process of acknowledging the legacy of slavery and the University's involvement with it. Others felt the BOV resolution would have been more effective with increased publicity and follow-up activity. Frank Dukes says many in the University community didn't even hear about the resolution. And among those who did, "there was actually more resentment than the sense that this was a good thing. People felt that words without actions are meaningless." With that in mind, Dukes secured a grant in 2007 from the Andrus Family Fund, whose mission is fostering "just and sustainable change," to conduct interviews on Grounds and around Charlottesville. The project's goal was to determine how the University of Virginia community could best examine and address the history and legacy of slavery and segregation. "People had different attitudes toward commemoration," Dukes says of those interviewed during his project. "Some found it insulting, a way of substituting for action on issues relating to African Americans, such as the fact that they represent a larger number of low-income workers at U.Va. ... So this is what we were hearing. It's important to learn about history and to commemorate, to not forget, but we also have to act." With an additional grant in 2009, Dukes founded UCARE, which is dedicated to finding ways to understand the University's role in slavery, racial segregation and discrimination, and addressing and repairing the legacy of those harms. The path to understanding and repair begins with open conversation about topics that have been infrequently discussed among those in the University community. "There's a need to open up dialogue among different races to make the subject of slavery less taboo for those who want to discuss it," says Ted Jeffries (Col '93), director of Ridley, a scholarship fund for African-American students at U.Va. "There's real value in talking about slavery at U.Va., because it can be part of a continual healing process and growth as a University community that the Board's statement helped to begin." Jeffries is not alone in his assessment that more opportunities for conversation are needed at U.Va. "I remember seeing some comments on a document that asked graduating seniors to rate their experience at the University of Virginia, and the common concern for many of them was that no one had created a space for them to talk about race," says Julian Bond. "Young people feel this lack of opportunity for real discussion." Taking action, commemorating the past {article_images_6}The efforts of various groups around Grounds have focused more attention on issues surrounding slavery, and a growing number of other colleges and universities have seen similar movements. "If we want to just confine ourselves to the history of [slavery in] higher education, then we have to acknowledge the work that other institutions have done: Brown, Emory and many others," says Deborah McDowell, director of the Carter G. Woodson Institute for African-American and African Studies. "So it's important on that front that we have this discussion. The University of Virginia is a public institution, and one of some standing. Inasmuch as the conversation about slavery is fairly advanced in the circles of higher education, we should be a part of it. Slavery as an institution lasted for hundreds of years and provided the foundations of the economic, the social and the political structures of this country. To the extent to which we avoid talking about that history, we impede our own progress." Few students at U.Va. have done more to advance the conversation about slavery than Ishraga Eltahir (Col '11), who arrived in Charlottesville as a student in the autumn of 2006. "Prior to coming to U.Va., I did not know the depths of the University's history as it relates to slavery," she says. "I knew U.Va. was an old school with a great deal of historical significance, but was not aware of the full story or that enslaved laborers were critical to the foundations of the University." She took a course from Dukes and was assigned to research slavery at U.Va. From there she interned with UCARE, became involved with Student Council's Diversity Initiatives Committee, and in 2010 helped to found the student group Memorial for Enslaved Laborers (MEL). After surveying students, MEL resolved that the University required more of a memorial than the small, easily overlooked plaque devoted to the free and enslaved laborers who had built the Rotunda that was installed in March 2007. Eltahir says that her involvement with MEL, on the one hand, "comes from a place of deep love and appreciation for the University of Virginia." On the other hand, "it pains me to see a place that I value so much contradict its love of history by largely ignoring events and individuals of utmost significance to our current existence as an institution and as a community." Since Eltahir's graduation, MEL has sponsored a design competition for a memorial to U.Va. slaves and narrowed the submissions to three. In February of this year, the group submitted a final proposal to the University. {article_images_7}"This whole project has encouraged people to think about the ways in which enslaved people have been rendered invisible," says Jared Brown (Col '13), the current chair of MEL, who hopes a memorial might be placed on Central Grounds. "It's important to have something tangible," says Jordan Jackson (Col '15), a second-year student. "Conversations, symposiums—eventually they all go by the wayside, but the memorial remains. Slaves built this university and they deserve to have something tangible." Another memorial was dedicated on Central Grounds last year, resulting from the efforts of the IDEA Fund, an alumni group founded a year and a half ago with the goal of providing, in the words of its chair, Tierney Temple Fairchild (Darden '93, Grad '96), "action-oriented leadership and support." (The group's name stands for Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Access.) In January 2012, IDEA helped sponsor a celebration of the life of the bell ringer Henry Martin, which included a panel discussion and a service in the Rotunda. Later, a marker in Martin's honor was placed near the University Chapel. "It was very good, a start," Fairchild says, although some have expressed misgivings about the event. Singling out Martin only "reinforces the old pro-slavery vision of the loyal slave," according to one faculty member who preferred not to be named. Fairchild says she agrees with some of that criticism, but says the Martin tribute was just the beginning of a broader commemoration process by IDEA. "Our goal was not to say, 'We did this plaque and now we're done.' Henry Martin was one person at one time. He may not have been representative at all. But our efforts led to a report, which is asking, 'How is this story being told?'" That report, a catalog of all such efforts by the University with regard to slavery, is part of an effort to bring U.Va.'s commemoration of slaves up to the level of what's being done at Monticello and the Smithsonian, says Meghan Saunders Faulkner (Educ '10), an assistant to Marcus Martin, vice president and chief officer for diversity and equity. "When you go to Monticello, they talk a lot about slavery," Faulkner says. "At U.Va., we have only a plaque—a small slate memorial underneath the south entrance of the Rotunda that students walk right over every day and may not be aware they missed it." Petrina Jackson, head of instruction and outreach at the University of Virginia Library, believes the University is ready to delve deeper into its past. "A lot of alumni and other people see U.Va. in a particular way and they worry that talking about slavery might tarnish the University," says Jackson, who, with Ervin Jordan, curated a 2012 library exhibit titled Working Without Wages that examined slavery at U.Va. "But you can't hide from what happened. The more you uncover the better. I just don't see how you benefit from hiding from that history. In fact, I think it creates more respect for the University to be open about it. It tells people that the University is not so fragile that it can't take on the weight of its own history." History, 2013-03-06T20:12:32+00:00 http://uvamagazine.org/features/article/what_we_talk_about_when_we_talk_about_money http://uvamagazine.org/features/article/what_we_talk_about_when_we_talk_about_money#When:20:12:40Z "Every charge on my credit card was because I needed it. I couldn't start living until I furnished my new apartment, I couldn't start working until I bought a faster computer, I couldn't interview for this job until I got a professional outfit. I couldn't possibly go on with the day until I had a latte and a chocolate croissant. Getting rid of my credit cards has put a stop to day-to-day justification of need." —From The Billfold, "How I Stopped Hating My Apartment (And Maybe Also Myself )" Aug. 30, 2012 Logan Sachon (Col '05) is not afraid to talk about money, nor is she afraid to confess her own financial woes. In a time when the Internet is saturated with whimsical Instagram photos and chirpy Facebook updates, Sachon writes daily about her struggles with spending and debt on the website The Billfold, which she began with her friend Mike Dang last year. Sachon, 28, and Dang, 29, a graduate of the Columbia School of Journalism, met when they were both blog writing for Bundle, a personal finance startup backed by Microsoft and Citigroup. "We had a fair amount of independence in what we wrote, but it wasn't ours," Sachon says "Mike and I had all these conversations about what we'd do if it were our site." Sachon had noticed that interviewing people about their financial portfolios for Bundle was stirring anxiety within herself. "I was in a ton of debt—I still am—and I wouldn't have wanted anybody to ask me those questions," she says. She started writing about her own spending habits. "I slowly got used to it and realized: Wow. I feel a lot better, being open about everything. There is value in this." {article_images_1}She and Dang envisioned The Billfold as "a site about money," although not a personal finance site. "Neither of us is a personal finance expert at all," Sachon says. "Our own stories and other people's stories are really all we have to share." The two also knew that their stories would balance each other well. Dang budgets, saves for retirement and sets aside money from his paycheck every month to help his parents pay their mortgage. Sachon, meanwhile, readily admits she has a "spending problem." "I've known Logan for a few years, and she has always had a significant amount of credit card debt," Dang says. "We've never had a problem talking about money with each other." Those conversations were to become the basis for The Billfold. Sachon and Dang decided to pitch their idea of a money site to The Awl, a New York-based network of websites devoted to long-form essays and shorter musings on "the issues of the day." Sachon had already freelanced for the site, interviewing comedians, novelists and entrepreneurs about their daily lives and big ideas—displaying the same curiosity about how people "make it" that now propels her own website. "Mike and Logan had a great idea for a website and they presented it to us, and the rest is history," says John Shankman, The Awl's publisher. The Billfold launched in April 2012. {article_images_2}With its tagline "everything about money you were too polite to ask," The Billfold taps into the anxiety many young people feel about the economy and serves as a place to talk openly about those fears. The Billfold's insistence on the value of individual stories may be the key to its success. Its audience has steadily grown since its launch—the site currently averages 200,000 unique views and one million pageviews a month. More than 150 people have written for the site. Some are known writers; others are getting their first break. All currently write for the site for free. "The Billfold addresses money anxiety in a concrete and necessary way. Both Mike and Logan are always linking to news stories that are ethically and informatively crucial if young people really want to understand the financial underpinnings of the world we are set to inherit," says Jia Tolentino (Col '09), a writer for the site.  Now pursuing her M.F.A. in creative writing at the University of Michigan, Tolentino first noticed The Billfold when she was just out of the Peace Corps and writing corporate ad copy to pay the bills. "I'd never written about money before," she says. "Actually, I'd never really published anything creative before." She sent in her first essay, about potentially buying a house, to Sachon and mentioned their U.Va. connection. Heidi N. Moore, the U.S. finance and economics editor for the Guardian and former correspondent for NPR's Marketplace, is also a Billfold contributor—Sachon interviewed Moore about her own financial habits and has asked her to break down complicated economics issues for the average reader. "A lot of personal finance coverage is not fully accessible; it's a lot of numbers and it's usually written by people who have it all figured out, or act like they do. What I liked about The Billfold right away was its honesty. It tackles the way money makes us crazy—what it does to our emotions, our self-worth, our identity. No other website will tackle that," Moore says. "To borrow a phrase from [HBO's] Girls, I think The Billfold is also the voice of a generation." Sachon and Dang do seem to have an uncanny ability to connect to their readers. While Dang often serves as the site's kindly sage, advising readers about budgeting, investing, careers and housing, Sachon's posts can seem irreverent at first glance, full of caps-locked words for emphasis, and written in a wry, deadpan tone that barely covers the churning worry beneath. Sachon's interest in writing stems in part from her time at U.Va., when she worked on the staff of The Declaration, or "the Dec," a weekly student newsmagazine known for its arts coverage, long think pieces and "Poodah Corner," its cheeky humor column. "I showed up [to the Dec] my first semester and was terrified the whole time because everyone was smarter and funnier than I was, but for some reason, I kept coming back," Sachon says. "I learned how to put together a publication, and think about vision and writing. I never took any writing or media studies classes at U.Va. My interest in approaching the world in a way that's personal and funny comes from the Dec." A Peek Inside The Billfold {article_images_6}In her post “Why This Millennial Doesn’t Buy Stuff,” a response to pieces in the Atlantic and Fast Company on why Generation Y “doesn’t seem to enjoy purchasing things,” Sachon wrote her own reasons out as a numbered list: Stuff costs money. I don't have money. Okay, let's say I did have money. Theoretically that would be because I had a job. But how long will I have that job? Is my industry steady? Do I feel comfortable enough in my job to sign up for four years of car payments? Do I feel comfortable enough in my job to sign up for a 30-year-mortgage? Do I feel comfortable enough in my job to sign up for a year's lease? Do I feel comfortable enough in my job to pay rent month-to-month? … No, is the answer to all that. I don't know where I'll be in six months, because I don't know where I'll have to be in six months. And that is why I don't want to buy stuff. Readers commented excitedly, some of them mimicking her format: Yup! Crippled by education loans Student loans! Temporary jobs in temporary places! Attempt to be environmentally friendly by thrifting/repurposing/doing without! Wages have been stagnant for the past 40 years. Astronomical rents. Inflation on required things like food. Also gas. Also any sort of entertainment. While at U.Va., thinking about money wasn't really on Sachon's radar. She did work a part-time job her fourth year at the Rotunda information desk. "We opened the building in the morning and closed it at night," she says. "If there weren't tours going on, we'd tell visitors some anecdotes. I had a good spiel about the [1895] fire." Still, her parents paid for her tuition and room and board. "I knew it was generous, but it wasn't until after I graduated and met people who had student loans or hadn't been able to go to college at all that I realized how lucky I really was," she says. Sachon graduated from U.Va. before the recession struck. She toyed with the idea of graduate school, envisioning paying for it with student loans. "It was just sort of assumed that you'd take on this debt," she says. "The mentality seemed to be: Student loans! Everyone's doing it!" At that time, Sachon says, she and many of her friends thought that they would have well-paying jobs right after graduation. "It just seemed inevitable—but it was a delusion of grandeur." In the year after she graduated, Sachon says she quickly ran up $7,000 in credit card debt, although she had a steady job in Southern California. "I never stopped to figure out what that salary meant, what I had to spend each month. The debt came from just living above my means the entire year. I was so sure that very soon I'd get a better job and that $7,000 would be nothing, something I'd pay off in a lump sum," she says. Instead, she was laid off from her job and began working as a freelance writer, living paycheck-to-paycheck and, as she describes, using her credit cards as "stop gaps" so that she could still do "almost whatever" she wanted. She stopped keeping track of her finances. Last year she added up her debt and discovered she owed about $20,000, much more than she thought she did. "That was a huge deal for her—having one number in your head, and then discovering that the real number was double what you originally thought," Dang says. "When she told me about her actual credit card debt number, my reaction was, 'Wow.' And then: 'So what are you going to do now?'" Sachon decided to be open about her spending problem and debt on The Billfold and to hand over her credit cards to Dang so she would stop using them. Additionally, Sachon and Dang discuss how much debt they've paid off each month in their "Let's All Throw Some Money at Our Problems" column on their website. "It's a way of keeping ourselves publicly accountable for paying off our debt," Dang says. They invite readers to join in—the column's comments sections are full of readers' personal lists of student loan, car loan, mortgage and credit card debt balances, slowly whittled down each month. "It takes a lot of guts to put yourself out there like Logan has with her debt," Dang says. "This last year was the first time I saw Logan making a real decision to deal with her debt rather than wish for a windfall to solve all her problems. Money is so personal, and you can't help but make emotional changes when you're doing something like getting in control of your credit card debt." As she has started to tackle her debt, Sachon's writing has become less wry and more honest—in January she started a popular new Billfold column on depression and money problems and how the two are often intertwined. The reader comments rolled in quickly: The best thing about The Billfold is the candidness/humanness of it—our fallibility and nuance in the face of what should be straightforward, two sides of a ledger book. Words can't adequately explain how much this meant to me and probably a lot of other people. Thank you for doing this. If all the praise from readers weren't proof enough that The Billfold is succeeding, there is another metric to consider. The Billfold's advertising sales are based on how many people the site reaches. In December, the site turned its first profit. Dang and Sachon hope that that money will allow them to start paying their writers and commissioning longer pieces of reporting. "The Internet is a changing beast, so who knows how long this model will work," says Sachon. "It's a funny business, but we're in a good place—we're growing each month. We like our site and we think it's helping people. We know it is, actually." Money Advice from the Experts Almost a third of U.Va. students (32 percent) graduate with student loan debt, averaging $19,384. Thanks to AccessUVa, the University's financial aid program, that number is lower than the average of those of students who graduate with debt from other state institutions. Still, the national outlook for recently graduated students is somewhat gloomy. According to the Los Angeles Times, average undergraduate student loan debt jumped to $27,253 in 2012, up 58 percent from $17,233 in 2005. New graduates also face a difficult economy—the unemployment rate for young college graduates is now 6.3 percent, although that has fallen from 8.8 percent in 2011. So how should young people manage their financial lives these days—whether it's dealing with student debt, credit card debt or shiny new income? We asked three financial experts for advice. {article_images_3}Karin Bonding, chartered financial analyst and lecturer at the McIntire School of Commerce: I teach a special personal finance course offered only to non-McIntire students. I'm seeing more and more anxiety about the job market. I push my students to attend the Comm School career fair. A lot of them are resistant because they are not McIntire students. But there are companies there like Hecht and the CIA and others that are not necessarily looking for Commerce students. It's also important to start interviewing and networking, learning how to look people in the eye. If you are considering graduate school, especially one that will require loans, you have to look at the cost benefit. I advise my students to take a year or two off before you go to graduate school, because you will want to figure out what the real world is like. Try Teach for America or teaching or working abroad, where you get a stipend and some real-life experience. You will begin to get to know yourself. And finally, credit cards are incredibly dangerous when you do not pay them off in full every month. You have no grace period. In other words, if you buy anything today and you didn't pay off your bill for the last month, interest starts tomorrow. {article_images_4}Jim Donovan, adjunct professor in the School of Law; Goldman Sachs manager director: The most important thing is to get yourself on a monthly budget. The budget should include paying down some portion of your debt each month. Having a budget will force you not to spend more than you earn and not to ignore your debt. {article_images_5}Heidi N. Moore, U.S. finance and economics editor at the Guardian: I would say to young people, to borrow a phrase from Logan: be kind to your future self. Think about how the way you spend money is not just about now. It's about what you will be able to do next year, and the year after. And most importantly, be financial citizens. Read about money, learn about it and demystify it. It's only scary when you refuse to think about it. If you confront it, head on, you get to take control. Open your bills. Open your student loan statements. Open your paychecks. Get used to seeing those numbers. Then you realize you can control them.   Alumni, Alumnae, 2013-03-05T20:12:40+00:00 http://uvamagazine.org/retrospect/article/the_school_of_athens http://uvamagazine.org/retrospect/article/the_school_of_athens#When:20:04:03Z {article_images_3}Soon after the Rotunda Annex was completed in 1853, a copy of Raphael's mural "School of Athens," painted by renowned French copyist Paul Balze, was installed in the Annex's 1,200-seat auditorium. According to a U.Va. Library online exhibit, "the hundreds who contributed [to the cost of the mural] envisioned it as a 'nucleus of a Gallery of Fine Arts' that would, like the Academical Village, be inspired by ancient Roman buildings and provide American students with the opportunity to experience the masterpieces of Europe." After faulty electrical wiring in the Annex started the 1895 fire that destroyed the Rotunda Annex, along with the mural, architects McKim, Mead & White commissioned a replacement copy that would be incorporated into their design for Cabell Hall. George W. Breck, a muralist from New York who later served as director of the American Academy in Rome, completed the replacement mural in 1902. Breck made his mural four inches off scale from the original to comply with a Vatican policy prohibiting exact copies of its original artwork. A 1902 article in Municipal Journal and Engineer provides some background on the Cabell Hall mural's earliest days. "For a year and a half [Breck] worked in Rome upon the great canvas, a copy of the famous 'School of Athens.' ... This canvas arrived in New York, en route for its destination … and thus it was possible to exhibit in New York before being sent south to its final location. This is destined to form the focus of the great auditorium hall of the new buildings of the University, which have arisen Phoenix-like from the ashes of the old." Lincoln Perry has recently completed another large mural in Old Cabell Hall, titled "Students' Progress." Perry says the work, which spans the building's entire lobby, is intended to be a modern-day complement to "The School of Athens." {article_images_1} {article_images_2} Arts & Entertainment, Visual Arts, Grounds & Buildings, History, U.Va. Tradition, 2013-03-05T20:04:03+00:00 http://uvamagazine.org/sports/article/unstoppable http://uvamagazine.org/sports/article/unstoppable#When:14:50:14Z As arguably the world's top female athlete in outdoor endurance sports for years, Monique Merrill has amassed trophies for mountain biking, skiing and contests that test a backpack full of skills—running, swimming, orienteering, paddling, pedaling, climbing and ski mountaineering. As a member of Team Nike, Merrill (Col '91) helped win the 2006 Primal Quest, a series so tough it claimed the life of one athlete and set a standard in adventure racing. These days, though, her drive to be immersed in world-class endurance racing is not so compelling for a number of reasons. Amazing Grace Natural Eatery, the natural-foods shop she started in Breckenridge, Colo., has grown into a restaurant, and the years simply have given her a different outlook. {article_images_1}"I'm 42; it's probably time to put energies elsewhere. I definitely was never able to give as much as I felt I should to my business," Merrill says. "Being a professional athlete and a restaurant owner—it takes a lot of energy." Energy has been her trademark, along with mental toughness and physical durability. "Mona is an extraordinarily talented athlete who also happens to be an extraordinary human being," says outdoor writer Jayme Moye. "People wonder what her secret is, how she's able to do so well, to persevere, to overcome setbacks." "Genetically, I think I won the lottery," Merrill says. "I never had any formal training with anything, but seemed to do really well right off the bat." Of course, she had some help. Growing up, she lived largely overseas—Africa, Indonesia, the Caribbean. An elderly woman in Jakarta gave her swimming lessons, and during her high school years in Florida, she rose to All-America status as a swimmer. At U.Va., she says with a laugh, "I really never did any sports. I drank a lot of beer." After a youth spent in the tropics, Merrill was drawn to the Colorado mountains, settling in Breckenridge and developing a relationship with Chris Ethridge. He owned a sports shop, and the two became avid endurance athletes. In 2001, however, during a bike ride near Boulder, Colo., Ethridge was hit by a car and killed. The loss devastated Merrill. "When he passed away, instead of turning to drugs and stuff, luckily I had sports," she says. "I really dove into it in a very intense and neurotic level." She racked up victories in 24-hour mountain bike races and ski mountaineering (where skiers go up as well as down mountains and traverse rocks and ice). Her peak came in the mid-2000s, when, in addition to Primal Quest, she won world championship adventure races in Sweden and Scotland and triumphed at the North American Randonee Rally in Wyoming. (Randonee skiing requires ascending mountains with special bindings and traction-providing "skins" that are removed from the skis for the descent.) A setback came in 2010, when Merrill plowed into a concrete post while mountain biking during a team adventure race in France. Among her injuries were broken ribs, a shattered wrist, a collapsed lung and pulmonary contusions. Within months, she was back on the racing circuit, and she has continued competing in a variety of events. Merrill counts her blessings for such physical prowess, but doesn't discount the importance of attitude and perspective. "I just feel really grateful and blessed for my life. I was able to live overseas, my family is extremely supportive and close, and I have these genetic gifts," she says. "I feel like I'm one of those people who [has been] able to live an inspired life." Now, she's more inspired to take a deep breath and smell the coffee brewing in her restaurant. She's also ready to let go of demons that pursued her after Ethridge's death. "When you have a lot of anger or a lot of loss, it can propel you to do things you would never do," she says. "You know that saying about the mother who picks up a car to save her child? I almost feel that was me for 10 years—really trying to get rid of a void and the feeling of emptiness. "Now, I'm just in a more peaceful spot," she says. "It's nice to have those achievements, but they didn't come without a price." Alumni, Sports, 2013-03-05T14:50:14+00:00 http://uvamagazine.org/sports/article/on_the_rise http://uvamagazine.org/sports/article/on_the_rise#When:22:22:28Z {article_images_1} At the start of the ACC Tournament, women's soccer head coach Steve Swanson worried that his 13-4-1 team still "wasn't clicking" as a unit. That changed once tournament play began. After taking down perennial powerhouse UNC—which had won 20 of the last 25 ACC championships—and then beating Florida State, U.Va. faced Maryland in the title game. For the Wahoos, the game wasn't only about victory. They wanted to avenge their regular-season 3-1 loss to the Terrapins, one of the few squads that beat U.Va. all year. In the locker room before the game, the team watched a motivational video compilation, created by the entire staff, of clips from previous ACC games leading up to the championship. Once the game began, Virginia dominated both sides of the ball, culminating in a 4-0 victory—U.Va.'s first ACC title since 2004. "The great thing about this team is that they recognized the need to come together, to play for one another and to serve the team more than anything else," Swanson says. "The result was some of the best soccer the program has ever seen." {article_images_2}The ACC title earned the team a number-two seed and home-field advantage heading into the 2012 NCAA Tournament. Many coaches and players considered U.Va. a strong contender for the finals. But after home-field wins over La Salle and Rutgers, U.Va. stumbled in the round of 16, losing 3-1 to Duke at Klöckner Stadium. "It was a hard one for our team to accept," says Swanson, who holds the highest winning percentage in the history of the Virginia women's soccer program. Several U.Va. team members earned post-regular-season accolades, including fourth-year player Caroline Miller, who was voted the ACC Women's Soccer Offensive Player of the Year. Wahoo sophomore midfielder Morgan Brian was also named to the All-ACC first team. Miller will go on to play soccer professionally—in January, she was selected by the Washington Spirit in the National Women's Soccer League College Draft. And the future for U.Va. women's soccer looks bright, with a core of talented returning players and an influx of highly regarded recruits. "Our goals are to win an ACC Championship, win an NCAA Championship and have fun. And not necessarily in that order," says Swanson. Sports, Women's Soccer, Students, 2013-03-04T22:22:28+00:00 http://uvamagazine.org/sports/article/against_the_odds http://uvamagazine.org/sports/article/against_the_odds#When:21:21:40Z Sean Doolittle sat in the Oakland A's bullpen one night early last June. Close to 12,000 fans filled the stands of the Coliseum, watching the Athletics battle the American League West-leading Texas Rangers. A's starting pitcher Travis Blackley had pitched himself into a hole, allowing the Rangers to score five runs through the fifth inning. Now, with two outs and last year's American League Championship Series MVP Nelson Cruz stepping up to the plate, the bullpen phone rang. A's bullpen coach Darren Bush picked it up, listened for a moment, then lifted his eyes and nodded at Doolittle. The former U.Va. baseball standout's time had come. Doolittle (Col '08) finished his warm-up and began jogging toward the mound. He tried to stay calm and manage his adrenaline, but his excitement kicked in every time he looked to the stands and realized what was happening. Not only was he making his major league debut but just last fall, in a last-ditch effort to salvage his career after a wrist injury—his third serious injury in as many years—he had made an unorthodox and rarely attempted move in the major leagues, switching from infielder to pitcher. {article_images_1}As he stood warming up on the pitcher's mound, he'd only been pitching for a few months in the minor leagues. Before that, he hadn't thrown a pitch in a game since his college days, five years earlier. As the lefty looked to his catcher for the sign, "everything became weirdly calm," Doolittle says. He struck out Cruz on a 96-mph fastball, ending the inning. The next inning, Doolittle struck out Mike Napoli swinging, then Yorvit Torrealba looking. He fired a fastball over the plate for Mike Gentry, who hit a line drive to first base for an easy out. Inning over. After the game, reporters crowded around Doolittle's locker. "It was really surreal," Doolittle told them. "I was so focused on controlling my breathing and trying to calm myself down, [ I ] didn't really get too worked up about the situation." Still, the baseball world took notice. Only a year earlier, Doolittle was toiling in 100-degree Arizona heat with a cast on his wrist, contemplating leaving the sport entirely. Like many talented collegiate players, he'd started a promising minor league career only to see it derailed by injury. But Doolittle would not quit: He spent nearly a year relearning the pitching skills of his college and high school days, a rare metamorphosis that ultimately led him to the big leagues. A triple threat Doolittle grew up playing baseball in Tabernacle, N.J. By high school, he was a triple-threat player who could hit, field and pitch well enough to be a late-round draft pick by the Atlanta Braves. But he wanted to pursue both fielding and pitching, so he chose instead to play college ball. He landed at U.Va., where the Cavalier coaching staff had been successful fielding two-way players. "We knew it was important to [Doolittle] to play both ways," U.Va. head coach Brian O'Connor says. "A lot of schools just wanted him as a pitcher, but our recruiting coordinator, Kevin McMullan, who's also our hitting coach, was emphatic that Sean could also help us from an offensive standpoint." The gamble worked. Doolittle started 59 of 60 games at first base in the fall of 2005, hitting .313 and leading the team with 11 home runs. He also made 22 appearances on the mound, posting a 3-2 mark with a 1.64 ERA. The next year he was named ACC Player of the Year, with a .324 batting average, 49 runs and 70 RBIs. On the mound, he was 11-2 with a 2.38 ERA, helping the Wahoos to their highest season winning percentage ever.  In 2007, Doolittle earned second-team All-America honors, finishing the season with an 8-3 record and a 2.40 ERA while batting .301. "To make the contributions that he made both offensively and pitching-wise is really, really rare," O'Connor says. With major league recruiters eyeing him again, Doolittle realized he'd have to make a position choice. But he wasn't ready to give up playing either side of the ball, so he told interested teams that they'd have to decide. In the 2007 major league baseball draft, Oakland chose Doolittle, then a junior, as a first baseman/outfielder with the 41st overall pick. Billy Beane, the A's general manager depicted by Brad Pitt in the 2011 movie Moneyball, joked at the time that Doolittle came with a sort of insurance plan: If things didn't work out as a fielder, he could always try pitching. "We laughed," Doolittle says. "I don't think any of us thought we'd use that plan." Doolittle spent the next two seasons hitting in the minors, never having a second thought about giving up pitching. "I really liked playing every day; that's why I was so excited about being drafted as a hitter," Doolittle says. "I wasn't even thinking about pitching." Doolittle entered the 2009 season with Triple-A Sacramento. But in May, while playing right field, Doolittle tore his left patellar tendon as he was fielding a ground ball. He missed the rest of the next two seasons, but eventually recovered and joined the A's spring training in 2011. He started the season back in Sacramento, but in May ripped a tendon in his right wrist during an at-bat. His knee was healthy again, but now he couldn't swing a baseball bat. Cavaliers currently playing in the Majors {article_images_3}RYAN ZIMMERMAN Third baseman, Nationals The “face of the franchise” for the Washington Nationals, Zimmerman (Col ’06)is one of the steadiest third basemen in baseball, having won the Gold Glove award, two Silver Sluggers and been voted to the All-Star game. He played in 145 Nationals games last season, finishing .282 at the plate with 95 RBIs. {article_images_5}MARK REYNOLDS First baseman, Indians Signed as a free agent by the Cleveland Indians after a two-year stint with the Baltimore Orioles, Reynolds (Col ’05) is best known for his home run hitting ability. In Baltimore last year, he played in 135 games at third and first base while committing only 11 errors. {article_images_2}JAVIER LOPEZ Pitcher, Giants Relief pitcher Javier Lopez (Col ’02) has won two World Series since joining the San Francisco Giants in 2010. The left-handed specialist has given up only one home run through 79 innings in the last two seasons. {article_images_4}MICHAEL SCHWIMER Pitcher, Phillies The 6’8” relief pitcher for the Philadelphia Phillies was called up to the majors in August 2011, becoming the 29th U.Va. player to make it to the major leagues. Schwimer (Col ’08) threw 34.1 innings in 35 games last season. HOT PROSPECT Entering the 2013 season, left-handed pitcher Danny Hultzen (Col ’12) had not yet played Major League Baseball, splitting time with AA and AAA teams. Hultzen, drafted by the Seattle Mariners in the first round of the 2011 draft, was ranked the No. 18 overall prospect in MLB.com’s annual list. "That's when I was the most discouraged, like, 'Is this a sign?'" Doolittle says. "I'd had it worked into my contract that I could go back to school if something happened and major league baseball would pay for the rest of my education. I already had three-quarters of a degree and I knew that with a degree from U.Va., there's so much I could do. But then I thought, 'I can't see myself doing anything other than playing baseball.'" A new plan Doolittle went to the team's facility in Arizona to rehabilitate his right wrist, but by July it still wasn't responding to therapy. Oakland director of player development Keith Lieppman devised a plan with A's pitching coordinator Garvin Alston and presented it to Doolittle: Start working out as a pitcher, they told him. You're a lefty, so the wrist won't be affected. Besides, it will keep you occupied for three months. Maybe the wrist will come around. Doolittle began basic mechanical work, long-tossing baseballs and talking to pitching coaches. Soon he was throwing bullpen sessions off the mound. His fastball speed and control, he says, returned almost immediately. In mid-August, he decided to test the wrist again by hitting a baseball off the tee. The pain was extraordinary. He asked the A's if he could remain as a pitcher. They agreed. With one day left in his Arizona rookie season, Doolittle pitched in relief, his first game in more than four years. He walked the first batter, but struck out the next two. "Later that day, I packed up the car and drove home to New Jersey—and I remember being so happy," Doolittle says. "I felt like I'd found a way to extend my career." Doolittle began the 2012 season with the A's Single-A team, but by June he had rocketed himself into the Oakland bullpen. While he isn't the first major league player to make the switch from infield to pitcher, Doolittle's accelerated rise, particularly after three major surgeries, is considered extraordinary. "I've been the farm director here for 22 years and I've never had a story like this," Lieppman says. After his June debut against Texas, Doolittle pitched with the A's for the rest of the season, helping the team claim the American League West title—one game ahead of the Rangers. He finished his first professional pitching season having pitched 47 innings in middle relief over 44 games—the fourth-highest game appearance total of all the team's pitchers—with a 3.04 ERA, 60 strikeouts and only 11 walks. Doolittle pitched in three postseason games too, posting a 3.38 ERA before the A's lost the division series to the Detroit Tigers. Doolittle is spending the offseason working out in Arizona and rooming with his brother, Ryan, a pitcher in the A's minor league system. He still hasn't completed his U.Va. degree and says those plans are on hold for now. And despite his slugging past, he hasn't been tempted to pick up a baseball bat. "I have enough to learn about pitching that that keeps me mentally occupied," Doolittle says. "I really feel like I've found what I'm supposed to be doing." Alumni, Sports, Baseball, 2013-03-04T21:21:40+00:00 http://uvamagazine.org/only_online/article/war_stories_hostage_of_paradox http://uvamagazine.org/only_online/article/war_stories_hostage_of_paradox#When:20:30:15Z John Rixey Moore (Col ’66) served as a Special Forces team leader in Vietnam, taking part clandestine reconnaissance missions “deep in the jungles of enemy-controlled wilderness.” Virginia Magazine is pleased to offer the first chapter of his new memoir, Hostage of Paradox: A Qualmish Disclosure. Read our feature, "War Stories." {article_images_2}Time hung like a drop that would not fall. I squirmed against the fabric of the aircraft seat, tried to stretch my legs as much as the re­stricted angle from the cushion to the space under the seat in front of mine would allow, and felt yet again in the weight of passing hours a grim and wearing accrual of inertia. My thoughts thronged with home images and disrupted associations, as they hurled themselves in un­digested worry against a threatening host of vague foreboding that awaited my arrival in a mysterious jungle on the other side of the Pacific Ocean. I remembered the exact moment that my seat on this flight became inevitable. Just a month before, I stood in what would turn out to be the last of many morning formations at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Moments after I had reported my platoon present or accounted for, Sergeant Major Fant stepped forth and began handing down the day’s orders. Fant, with his chiseled features and immaculately tailored uni­form, could have stepped out of a Special Forces recruitment poster. He was the quintessential Green Beret. Handsome, professional, and a combat veteran whose service in Vietnam was behind him, he was the ranking NCO of the company and, if not exactly the commanding officer, was unquestionably the psychological head of the unit. At the end of the day’s mundane list of assignments, he shifted his cold green eyes, pointed directly and unmistakably at me, and said one word: “Vietnam.” I knew right then that whatever might come of this unwelcome news, my life would never be the same. Now I was irretrievably, depressingly, on the way. Despite over three years in the Army, I had resisted the military’s efforts to wear down my sense of independence enough to maintain a vestige of in­dividualism–or at least of what I regarded as the remnants of my old pre-conditioned self. Though most of the men I served with in Special Forces were “lifers”, that is, guys who saw the military as a career, there were some like me whose private reaction to official attempts at imposing service protocols beyond obeying orders was essentially that of civilians in uniform. Yet now, trapped in an airplane, bound to a common fate with so many others, I began to feel slender lay­ers of myself slipping quietly away beneath the hopelessness and the uniformity. I had become anonymously undifferentiated from the oth­ers. I knew I had been reduced by training and equipment to a quasi-mechanical, interchangeable part in the whole monstrous enterprise, a reflection of the success of human mass production and the equipping of armies. Trapped within the ferocious indifference of such huge logistical processes, the borders of my former familiar world lost their defini­tion. The way I thought of myself began taking on a nebulous and transparent edge. It occurred to me that I had somehow, through some process I could not name, at some undetected moment—perhaps when I had climbed the ladder to the aircraft—been transmogrified into one of history’s nameless GIs. I had not thought of myself in just that way before, not even after nearly four years in the military. Of course there had been many joking references to the term “GI” over the years, but in a moment of painful existential alarm I came to see that I was be­ing herded onto the pages of America’s history of war as just another G.I: Government Issue; One Each; Olive Drab. Utterly expendable, instantly replaceable, and with vestigial individualism suppressed be­neath the time-tested rites of military protocol, I had become all but lost in a faceless abstraction of serial numbers. Over time, a tour in the military succeeds in drawing solitaries together and dissolving their singularities in the face of shared chal­lenges. The child I once had been drew inexorably nearer the edge of the void, saw the blackness there, and somewhere during the night, fell slowly adrift among the shifting fragments of paradigm. Like some hapless mariner from another time, I was the unwilling hostage of enormous forces, which now converged toward that dark region near the margin of ancient maps labeled, “Here bee strange beests.” The barracks rumor and apocrypha that preceded the flight had supercharged the air, and despite my efforts to ignore scuttlebutt, I was slowly burying myself in morbid images of my own death, which warped and writhed before me, demanding attention and capturing my imagination in a paralyzing collision of mind and heart. I had a book along, but could not keep these thoughts from their insistent intru­sion on any reading. For hours I stared out the window at the endless steel-grey sea until even that was swallowed whole by an insidiously deepening night. The darkness quickly closed about me like some im­placable malevolent force with a brooding and inscrutable intention of its own. I don’t think I feared the fact of death, which, as the ultimate un­knowable, I found hard to expect as a reality, but I worried about the method of it. How would I face it? Would it be a quick flashing blind shot through the head, or might my end instead come in a scream­ing agony of dismemberment in some dark, blood-spattered corner of jungle while my companions looked on with helpless indifference? Yet from time to time my efforts to suppress the furtive parade of these images brought forth prolonged seizures of another naïve cer­tainty that, no, I would be fine after all. That sort of violent end only happens to other people. I’m too, what?–agile, decent, free of malice, educated, well trained, or just plain lucky (fill in the blank)–to die in Vietnam. {article_images_1}I thought about my life and how little of it I could have foreseen, and in my yearning for things now gone and perhaps forever out of reach, I tried to read through memory’s secondhand images the shapes of the roads that had led me to this moment, this dreaded flight, and wondered for all my will and intent how much of it was really my own doing. I could not know it at the time of course, but I was traveling to­ward a forced education on the subject of fate by a protracted intimacy with both the quick and the dead. It was July 27/28, 1968, somewhere beyond the international dateline and farther from home than I had ever been. My twenty-fifth birthday had come and gone the day before, during through-process­ing at Fort Lewis, Washington. Some birthday present. The flight was long and oppressive. The tedium lay not so much in the duration as in the dull, kinetic threat that lay somewhere ahead in the night. It was difficult not to think about it. Vietnam and what­ever dangers it held waited out there in the dark, an immutable beast, ancient, and humped out of the sea like the abrupt landscape on a Chinese scroll, its smoky yellow eyes fixed upon me. We were being transported in a converted air freighter, chartered by the government from the Flying Tiger Line, and fitted with seats as a troop carrier. It had even been equipped with a few apprentice air hostesses, who floated incongruously along the corridor with self-conscious cheer in a cautious pantomime of tentative assistance, their crisp and colorful clothing whispering among us with excruciating irony. With their curiously reserved attentions, they seemed like glam­orous technicians in some experimental botanical laboratory, tending to the needs of rare, poisonous vines. Yet, it was they who belonged in the rarified atmosphere of soft lighting, automated temperature control, and scented air. We, citizens masquerading as soldiers, mis­construed in the government-issued clothes and hermetically sealed in an aluminum chrysalis far above the oxygen, were simply passing through the elaborate metaphor. I had a left-side window seat where, unable to read for the endless hours, I stared out across an empty burnished sea that stretched away so far to the south that it blended into nothingness in misty layers of vapor along the curvature of the earth itself. The engines filled the cabin with their continual drone, while outside my window the sea­scape passed slowly behind us in ponderous silence. As the day began to fade, the scale of the view, the very breadth of its panorama, rather than having the effect of freeing my spirit from the confines of an aircraft full of uniforms and uncertain destiny, in­stead began to press in upon me with the full weight of my own insig­nificance. My sense of aloneness deepened. I tried to send my mind loping back along the years of my life in search of sunny memories from any time not freighted by dread. A few scenes of home and of younger days came gamely forth, but the comfort I hoped for, the sense of self I sought there, was not in them. The heavy uncertainty of my situation, the looming presence of whatever lay ahead, pressed in upon all my efforts to think about other things like a low-intensity headache. I could not escape the feeling that something profoundly unpleasant had already singled me out from the crowd and was wait­ing now somewhere in the night, patiently tapping its claws. In the long, crowded solitude my gnawing fear gave way periodi­cally to grapple with a growing curiosity about the coming day and what I would find there. Like struggling creatures, neither fear nor my curiosity could prevail, and neither would withdraw. Outside, the starlit ocean seemed oddly tipped beneath the en­croaching gloom, as though its conjectural lines of longitude gathered ahead like drawstrings. Behind us and a little to the south, a red moon rising slow in the east came up through layered clouds like a crooked smile, and as a deeper darkness closed in around us, lightning began to stitch up its distant folds with pale fire. In the momentary light that flashed through the clouds of a distant storm I thought I glimpsed the Beast of my imagination. A vein pulsed out there, and almost imperceptibly, two ominous plates moved to­gether, dusky tiles of armor in the fierce cold flicker. As we rushed on toward some distant collected point of fury beneath the vast and re­lentless sky the whole cloak of night came down upon my tiny hopes and fears. We were retracing the route taken far below us in 1942 by men just like ourselves who rode in rolling, sweltering troop ships. Many of them had been bundled into eternity in the first quick chaotic moment they stepped ashore, and during the hours of that night with nothing to see out the window, I wondered again what our own arrival would be like: We would probably land at night, I thought, likely drawing fire on the runway. Then, under covering perimeter fire, we would be hur­ried into underground bunkers by way of a trench dug into the earth alongside the runway, and would undergo our first briefings there, perhaps with moist dirt, loosened by incoming rounds, sifting down through overhead logs. Indoctrination by newsreel tends to animate the expectations of those who are faced with the prospect of a featured role in one. Through the night the flight attendants practiced their professional smiles on those who were awake. They had to. This was not the sort of duty anyone with any airline seniority would have taken. Despite oc­casional rousing outbursts among a group of men seated near the front of the plane, there was little talk. An atmosphere of quiet introspection seemed to prevail; or perhaps that was simply my own contribution to the stillness. Self-conscious conversation and easy teasing drifted between the girls and some of the men. A pang of envy for the girls’ attentions sagged through me, and in that strange aquarium world of silences and undercurrents, it shifted again my alternating awareness of their presence. Inept at talking to girls anyway, I could think of nothing to say and so drifted in private twilight for hours, while struggling with an undeniable urge to memorize their movements as diminishing rem­nants of all romantic fantasy. By the time the long flight ended, I had not spoken a word to any of them, hoping that silence at least had the virtue of a certain colorless dignity, which is the only substitute for constructive ideas on unhappy days. Hostage of Paradox: A Qualmish Disclosure by John Rixey Moore, © 2013 (Bettie Youngs Book Publishers), is a Pulitzer-Prize entry, a Colby Award contender and “USA 2012 Best Book” award winner. Reprinted with permission from the publisher BettieYoungsBooks.com. Available on-line at Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Alumni, History, 2013-03-04T20:30:15+00:00 http://uvamagazine.org/arts/article/perrys_progress http://uvamagazine.org/arts/article/perrys_progress#When:20:29:00Z {article_images_1}Lincoln Perry used live models for nearly all of the dozens of figures that move throughout "Students' Progress," his recently completed mural that wraps around the entire lobby of Old Cabell Hall. "Having a model sit can give an extra level of specificity and surprise, an energy sometimes lost when working from one's head or from drawings. I never work from photographs if I can help it," Perry says. Perry has been a visiting artist at the University since 1985, and many of his paintings of Grounds are in the Fralin Art Museum's permanent collection. In 1996, the Old Cabell Hall restoration committee asked Perry to add some movement and color to the building's newly restored but empty walls. After 16 years and two phases of work, Perry completed the mural in November 2012. Its 29 panels follow a fictional student, Shannon, along her undergraduate journey at U.Va. and into her adult life. Perry needed subjects to paint the many professors and fellow students Shannon encounters at the University. {article_images_2}He did preliminary sketches of students and faculty on Grounds and created the panels in his studio in Maine. In 2000, Perry installed the first phase of panels on the lobby walls. "Once I was actually painting in Old Cabell, it was much easier to work from life," Perry says. He asked faculty members to come to the lobby to pose for him. He placed ads for student dancers and actors, sometimes asking students who were walking through the lobby to model for him, too. Perry finished the graduation panel of what he then called "The Student's Progress" in 2000, but says that he was "drawn to the idea" that the story would continue. In 2006, Perry asked if he could continue painting Shannon's journey along Cabell's walls, and former U.Va. president John T. Casteen III agreed. For the expansion, Perry first made a scale model of the lobby space, planning each new scene. He then painted on canvas he had mounted on the walls of Old Cabell, once again using live models for the figures. In the new panels, Shannon attends graduate school, marries, has a daughter, and teaches her play violin. Shannon's daughter then enters the University, following in her mother's footsteps." Perry sees "Students' Progress" as a return to Jefferson's original vision for the architecture of the University, where the Academical Village opens up into the landscape, symbolizing a student's wide-open future. When Old Cabell was built at the south end of the Lawn in 1898, it closed off that view of the mountains and made the University a more insular space. The completed mural, with Shannon's story leading into her daughter's, figuratively reopens that view. The Lawn, and the student's future, once again connects with the world outside the Academical Village. The artist himself is a part of the University's landscape. Although the mural is complete, Perry's likeness remains permanently at work in an east-side panel, facing south toward the mountains. Arts & Entertainment, Visual Arts, Grounds & Buildings, 2013-03-04T20:29:00+00:00 http://uvamagazine.org/presidents_letter/article/remaking_the_university http://uvamagazine.org/presidents_letter/article/remaking_the_university#When:15:28:21Z In the last issue of Virginia Magazine, I described the strategic planning process that was just beginning in Charlottesville. A few months later, we are seeing the first fruition of this work. Working groups drawn from faculty, staff, students, alumni and parents have reported their initial priorities in seven areas: faculty recruitment and retention; student life; technology; streamlining; resources; synergies; and what it means to be a public university in this century. {article_images_1}We have held open forums on Grounds to encourage members of our community to express their ideas, and alumni and friends have submitted comments through the planning website at strategicplanning.virginia.edu. The working group reports are posted on this site. At the time of this writing in early February, we have just presented these reports to the Board of Visitors' Special Committee on Strategic Planning, and, with the committee's guidance, we are proceeding with the planning work. Alumni can be valuable sources of advice as the planning continues. All University alumni will soon receive a survey that we will use to inform the planning process. The working group focused on streamlining recently sent a survey to all U.Va. employees, and 1,900 employees responded to make their voices heard. The forthcoming survey represents an opportunity for alumni to make your voices heard. I encourage you to respond. The 20-plus ideas that appear in the working group reports will eventually be distilled into a handful of priorities that we will pursue. Several overarching themes have already emerged. First, our plan must outline strategies that will allow us to successfully recruit and retain world-class faculty at a generational turning point when many of our long-term faculty will be retiring. This is our opportunity to remake the University for its third century, and we must do this in a competitive environment in which many other universities are recruiting for the same reason. Second (and this is related to the first theme) our greatest potential to solve complex societal problems will come by creating multidisciplinary teams of faculty who pursue discoveries at the nexus of disciplines—medicine and engineering, technology and design, and so on. And we should recruit our new faculty with this reality in mind. Cross-school collaboration also has implications for the construction and renovation of our facilities, presenting opportunities for greater efficiency while nurturing innovation in the faculty. Our plan must include strategies for integrating emerging technologies in the academic enterprise. This will include experimenting with new technologies to teach students both on Grounds and in remote locations, defining and supporting scholarship in the digital age, and harnessing tools to compute, analyze, and interpret massive data sets—and doing all this while strengthening U.Va.'s trademark commitment to face-to-face, residential education. Our plan should position U.Va. as a leading institution in advising—not just academic advising, but also career advising that we will dispense to students in accord with the values of honor and ethics that we espouse here. And finally, our plan will include a reconsideration of our core purposes and relationships as a public university in this century, including our relationships with a broad range of stakeholders in the Commonwealth. The current environment for higher education is as challenging as any period in our history. At a time when European and Asian countries are racing to imitate America's research universities because they view us as models of excellence, our own universities are imperiled by progressive disinvestment coupled with increasing demands for affordability, productivity and efficiency. The pressures and criticisms are tremendous. U.Va. can emerge as the leader in American public higher education during this period of profound challenge, and I believe we are qualified to lead for several reasons. Thomas Jefferson founded this University nearly 200 years ago with a specific purpose: to create an educated citizenry to sustain the Republic. This founding story makes us different from our peers, and it gives us inspiration and a clear sense of purpose today. We have a historical precedent to be the training ground for national (and increasingly global) leaders. U.Va. is capable of leading because innovation is in our institutional DNA. Mr. Jefferson redefined higher education when he created a wholly new, unprecedented type of secular university, unfettered by religious doctrine, constrained only by the "illimitable freedom of the human mind." We can draw momentum from that tradition of innovation to redefine higher education in U.Va.'s third century. U.Va. can define a new model based on its uncommon scale. Our university combines the vast resources of a research university with the smaller size of a liberal arts college. At large research universities, faculty focus on their own research; at small liberal arts colleges, faculty mostly reproduce knowledge discovered elsewhere. At U.Va., we produce knowledge, and our students and faculty are partners in discovery and innovation. Our professors guide our students through an intellectual progression by transforming information into data; data into knowledge; and knowledge into wisdom. And finally, U.Va. has the moral authority to lead because this is a secular institution where values matter. Honor and ethics; self-governance; leadership; diversity—these values give moral and ethical underpinnings to University life and culture. In its third century, U.Va. will be known as a truly global university with a distinctively American story intertwined with the nation's founding. We will leverage our unique scale to create the best residential education and to drive collaboration and innovation at an unequaled pace and quality. And we will proudly promote a set of values in an age when moral relativism is perhaps the more fashionable stance. The plan for U.Va.'s future is a work in progress. But in a sense, we already know where we want to be—at the forefront, leading the way, as we have been since the University's founding. Administration, Education and Learning, Faculty, Schools & Departments, University News, Budget, 2013-03-04T15:28:21+00:00 http://uvamagazine.org/features/article/rethinking_the_way_we_learn http://uvamagazine.org/features/article/rethinking_the_way_we_learn#When:20:12:55Z Why Don't Students Like School? had been a successful book for Daniel Willingham. The U.Va. cognitive psychologist's plainly written primer for teachers on how their students' brains work received good reviews from publications like the Wall Street Journal. For a while, it was No. 7 among all nonfiction books on Amazon.com. Bill Gates even read it. {article_images_1}But two years after its publication, the notice had quieted. The book slid several thousand slots down on the bestseller list—"Probably behind a few dozen cat books," Willingham says—and he wondered whether his work was actually making a difference. Then one night last November just before bed, he flopped down in front of his home computer and started scrolling through his Twitter account. A tweet popped up from a follower in England. It said something like, "Good to see Willingham's ideas are having some influence." There was a link to a news article in The Guardian. Willingham clicked. The story said that the English secretary of education, Michael Gove, was laying out an ambitious new plan for revamping his nation's school system. Gove wanted to institute new, rigorous standardized tests, which he said would push students to build up their factual knowledge base and ultimately boost their ability to think critically and creatively. And he was citing Daniel Willingham's "quite brilliant" work as the chief inspiration behind his plan. "My first reaction was, 'Uh-oh,'" Willingham says. "I'd never spoken with him or anyone from his office, and the headline said that he was calling for 'rote' learning, which is not what I say at all. But when you read the speech, he gets the science that I talk about right. I don't agree with some of the ways he intends to apply it. But it is good to see the book being considered in serious ways." For nearly a decade, Willingham has been leading the charge to educate teachers on how the brain works—in simple, approachable terms—and help them leverage that knowledge in the classroom. His forays out of the ivory tower are now the central part of his work and are beginning to shatter long-held myths about how the brain learns—he says there is exactly no evidence that learning styles actually exist, for example—while capturing the attention of high-ranking policy makers across the globe like Gove. "One does not earn the esteem of fellow academic psychologists by doing what Dan does," says Sam Wineburg, a professor of educational psychology and history at Stanford University. "There are few academics who acknowledge the responsibility of the academy to students and the work in public schools. You don't earn tenure by helping out teachers. But Dan has made that his cause." Filling a gap Many education experts agree there is a wide gap between what scientists know about cognition and how teachers leverage that knowledge in their instruction. They cite a number of reasons, from education schools that don't emphasize it enough to academics who are poor at translating the science for busy teachers. "I know I took ed psych classes and when I try to recall what I learned—blank," says Scott McLeod, associate professor of educational leadership at the University of Kentucky, who has debated the benefits of classroom technology with Willingham. "Academics get rewarded for writing arcane journal articles that practitioners can't read and then we wonder why nobody pays attention to us. There are lots of smart people who are doing really smart things, but they never reach the people who need it the most." Willingham says he first saw the gap after being invited to speak at an educators' conference several years ago led by E.D. Hirsch, a U.Va. education professor emeritus and author of the seminal book, Cultural Literacy, which challenged American educational standards. "I frankly didn't think I could offer much," Willingham says. "I just talked about some of the basics of the established research within cognitive science and what it might mean in the classroom. But people in the room were clearly very surprised by what I was saying. A lot of it was news to them." The first step in understanding how cognitive science can help students learn is to recognize how the brain thinks, Willingham says. First, imagine the world as a sort of river of external information constantly flowing into the brain—what color these letters are, the smell of your coffee percolating or the score of a game on TV. Working memory, the part of the brain where awareness or consciousness exists, takes in all of that information. It feeds some of it down into long-term memory, which is sort of like a huge warehouse of factual knowledge about the world. Those facts can be both concrete, the colors of a stop sign, for example, or abstract, such as what the square root of nine equals. Long-term memory, meanwhile, is also feeding other information back into working memory. And when that information meets the external information, knowledge is rearranged in new ways—thinking occurs. Knowing how to combine information and rearrange ideas is the key to successful thinking, Willingham says. {article_images_2} But there's a wrinkle, and it is one of the myths in learning that Willingham is trying to break: The brain is actually lousy at thinking. It's slow and often wrong. Consider how long it would take you to balance your checkbook if you had to do it in your head, and what the chances would be that you'd be wrong when you are done. A $5 calculator, Willingham likes to say, can do it faster and is always right. The brain would prefer to rely on memory to operate—recalling facts it already knows. So why do we think? The brain is a sort of pleasure hound. Willingham says it enjoys that little rush it gets when it solves a problem that seems challenging but solvable. For some people that might come by putting in the final piece of a jigsaw puzzle; for others, it might be deciphering the meaning in an Emily Dickinson poem. The question of why don't students like school, then, might be best answered by posing a slightly different question: When do students like school? Willingham says it's effectively when teachers hit that sweet spot between too hard and too easy. "There are other reasons why a student likes school, of course," Willingham says. "There are social reasons, sports, those sorts of things. But from a learning perspective, that's when students are going to be most engaged." Knowing 'just facts' Long-term memory is a central part of Willingham's model. The bigger the storehouse of information a brain has, he says, the better the brain will comprehend information coming in, the more dots it will connect and the stronger memory it will have. But more importantly, a larger long-term memory capacity frees up space that the information would otherwise take up in working memory, thus allowing more thinking to occur. So Willingham argues that teachers should not shy away from building factual knowledge in their students, even if the conventional wisdom of many is that doing so sacrifices the development of creative and critical thinking skills. {article_images_3}"It's mostly a myth that you can develop critical thinking skills without a base of factual knowledge," Willingham says. "Reasoning, logic—all of those are interwoven with, and dependent upon, knowing facts. The more factual knowledge you have, the more ability the brain will have to do that higher-level thinking." That's why Willingham thinks standardized tests make sense. "There are no good tests for critical or creative thinking," Willingham says. "But we can test factual knowledge pretty well. Success in those should be seen as an indicator of a higher potential for critical thinking." Willingham stresses, however, that he does not advocate attaching "high stakes" to standardized tests, such as basing teacher pay or rating schools based on student scores. "The most notable thing standardized tests have done is prompted teachers and administrators to change their curriculum and instruction in ways that will boost test scores," Willingham says. "Prepping for tests that way yields fragmented and short-lived knowledge. Testing factual knowledge is like taking someone's temperature. It's an important indication of what's going on, but it's not the only one." That message, however, often gets lost by both Willingham's supporters and critics. When Gove, the English education secretary, announced his Willingham-inspired plans to implement more rigorous tests across the United Kingdom, he attached the very same stakes to it that Willingham rejects. "That's one of the challenges Dan faces in doing this work," says McLeod, the Kentucky professor. "It might get widely read and cited, but people will use it for whatever justification they want. It's a fine line to tread. He tends to be associated by most educators with a more politically conservative crowd within education, for better or for worse, because conservatives tend to back standardized testing." Fact or Fiction Daniel Willingham's work challenges tightly held myths within education about the brain and how it thinks. Below are some of the common myths, and what Willingham says the science shows about each of them. Myth: Learning styles: People have preferences as to how to process information, and they think and remember more effectively when these preferences are leveraged by teachers. Fact: "People do have preferences, but they don't think or remember better when [those preferences] are honored." Myth: Left-brained/Right-brained types: The left hemisphere of the brain deals with more ordered, logical thinking, whereas the right hemisphere is more artistic and intuitive. Fact: "People certainly differ in their abilities—verbal versus mathematical, for example—but these differences are not much reflected in the brain hemispheres. Most tasks are complex enough that they call on much of the brain, both left and right hemispheres, for their support." Myth: Learning to read is natural: It's like learning to speak, and reading instruction is not only unnecessary, it makes kids hate reading. Fact: "Learning to speak is, indeed, 'natural' in that it's a terribly complex feat that virtually all children learn, and learn merely by exposure to language—instruction is not needed. But most children do not learn to read merely by exposure to printed texts." Myth: Kids today don't know how to think: Children just memorize facts but they don't know how to apply them. Fact: "You can't think effectively in a domain, such as science, literature or history, unless you have a good background of factual knowledge. They are a prerequisite. At the same time, it's easier to learn facts than to learn to think critically in a subject, so it's no surprise that many students seem to know some facts, but not what to do with them. That's likely a reason that this complaint about education is perennial." Willingham says he works hard to focus his work on the science, but that it's an uphill battle to keep the information from becoming politicized. "I try to leave out anything in my writing that is politically charged," Willingham says. "I get called conservative because of what I say about standardized tests, but I've been called a 'lefty' because I've written about the importance of preschool. People abuse what I write and use it for their personal agendas, or they simply mischaracterize what I say. But all I really know is the science, and that's what I try to stick to." One of the most common myths that Willingham tries to battle with science is the theory of learning styles. While its exact genesis is unclear, many teachers, students and parents have come to believe that some students might learn best when information is presented in a certain way, visually, for instance, or kinesthetically. But Willingham says 50 years of research shows learning styles are a fiction. Take two students, he says, one a perceived visual learner and the other a so-called audio learner. Give them each some vocabulary words and definitions to listen to several times. Then have them look at a slide show of pictures depicting other words. If the learning style theory is correct, the audio student would get more of the words right the first way, and the visual one would get more with the pictures. Researchers have found time and again, however, they don't. Willingham says it may be true that some people have stronger visual or auditory memories than others, and so they might better retain visual or auditory information that comes at them. He says it's also true that some information, such what Europe looks like, is better shown than described with words. "But most of the time, we remember what things mean, not what they look like or sound like," he says. "When we're told a story, we remember what the person said happened, not what their voice sounded like when they told it to us, because it doesn't mean much." Teachers and administrators who've worked with Willingham say that it's his willingness to break down myths in a matter-of-fact way free of any apparent ideology that makes him credible to those on the front lines of education. "To see a college professor who was so concerned with the practical application of the research, it's been remarkable," says Vince Watchorn, head of school at Providence Country Day School, a private prep school in Rhode Island that has hired Willingham as a consultant. "He's not some guy in an ivory tower, even if that's where he works. Teachers take to him because he can deliver this information and he's not trying to push an agenda. It's just 'here's what we know about this.'" Willingham says he hopes his work will someday lead to cognitive science becoming a cornerstone in educational policy and instruction, replacing many of the fads and myths that have existed during the last several decades. "I would love to change the zeitgeist so people in policy will want to know first what the science says, and what its limits are, and what knowing those both can do to help kids," he says. "I don't want it ever to be, 'We need to know what Willingham thinks.' I'd like it to be routine for people within education to be always asking, 'What does the data show?'" Arts & Entertainment, Books, Education and Learning, Faculty, Research, 2013-03-03T20:12:55+00:00 http://uvamagazine.org/arts/article/light_and_shadow http://uvamagazine.org/arts/article/light_and_shadow#When:13:20:00Z {article_images_5}Second only to Abraham Lincoln in books written about him in the past century, Thomas Jefferson functions as a prism through which we refract our cultural questions, insecurities and aspirations. But why do we repeatedly look to our third president for cues? "It's not any man who can become every man," says Joseph Ellis, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian, in an interview. "Everyone projects his or her own convictions and values onto him." One could say people look to Jefferson's life for foundational truths, though confirmation for many different viewpoints can be found there. "He can be different people, in different parts of his life, in different times," says Ellis. "You can find what you're looking for if you want to find it. "He wrote the magic words of American history, and he was simultaneously a slave owner and a racist," says Ellis. "The best and worst in American history are combined in him, and that's fascinating." Below, four recently released books examine different aspects of Jefferson's life, and their authors weigh in on what makes our third president such a compelling figure. The Jeffersons at Shadwell {article_images_1}"He's very challenging to us because there are parts of him we like and parts we don't like," says Susan Kern (Arch '90), author of The Jeffersons at Shadwell. She also cites the breadth of material available about him as a factor. "He was a chronicler of his time," she says. "The trove of Jefferson materials is so rich we wind up working around him." Kern's book offers new perspectives on Jefferson by examining the time spent at his boyhood home, Shadwell plantation. Drawing on account books, diaries and letters, she details day-to-day life on the farm, and how Jefferson cultivated the skills he would later apply at Monticello. Currently a visiting professor at the College of William and Mary, Kern was an archaeologist for the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, and helped conduct a five-year excavation of Shadwell, which lies on land adjacent to Monticello. Many artifacts were buried after the main house burned down in 1770, and it was there that she found inspiration for her book. "It's a book that could not have been written before the archaeological excavations that we did there, so it's new material," she says. "It's a niche in the larger history of Jefferson studies." Jefferson's Shadow: The Story of His Science {article_images_2}"He's so difficult to get ahold of," says Keith Thomson of Jefferson. "It's the bar of soap phenomenon: the harder you squeeze it, the more likely it is to pop out and fall." While researching a book for Monticello on Jefferson and natural history, something else occurred to him. "I realized there was not a book that discussed his general interest in science, or his ability with inventions and tinkering and whatnot. "I discovered that historians of science don't pay attention to Jefferson, and historians of Jefferson don't pay attention to the fact that he was very interested in science," says Thomson. Thus Jefferson's Shadow: The Story of His Science was born. The book examines how the president's passion for science intersected with his political philosophy and religion, as well as the contributions he made to the fields of geography, paleontology, climatology and scientific archeology. "Here was this extraordinary man making these contributions to science with one hand, and doing everything else with his other." Thomson also reveals how the study of science was central to Jefferson's world view. "He got hold of it very early in his life—the importance of having facts that you can really hold on to, that you can work from. Where there were not facts, such as climate, he set out to measure the temperature every day. "It's the vanity of the author that you can get it right," says Thomson, of trying to capture Jefferson in a book. "I've tried to put an emphasis on an aspect that other people have ignored." Master of the Mountain: Thomas Jefferson and His Slaves {article_images_3}"So much is written about Jefferson because new data continues to emerge from the archives, and also because our perspective on the past is fluid, always reflecting current concerns," says Henry Wiencek, whose book Master of the Mountain: Thomas Jefferson and His Slaves challenges the notion of Jefferson as a benevolent slaveholder. "I was interested in discovering Jefferson as an on-the-ground manager," says Wiencek, "how slavery actually worked, the business of it and the financial aspects. "It's my view that life at Monticello was harsher than we thought. When you examine the documents relating to overseers, you see that one after another, Jefferson hired and kept on his payroll overseers who were very cruel." Drawing from new evidence and archaeological work done at Monticello, Master of the Mountain asserts that after the ideological excitement of the Revolution had died down, Jefferson started to see slavery with a more calculating eye. "Planters began to see the immense profitability," Wiencek says. "We look to him to try to figure out how it is that we fought a revolution for universal liberty and kept slavery," says Wiencek. "Jefferson represents our notions of liberty and individual freedom, and he is also intimately tied up with the vexing legacy of slavery." Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power {article_images_4}"He seems a hopeless bundle of contradictions—yet aren't many of us hopeless bundles of contradictions? Isn't the tension in one's heart and mind between right and wrong, between light and shadow, the most compelling of human dramas?" asks Jon Meacham, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power. A comprehensive biography, the book examines Jefferson's life with an eye toward understanding him as a leader who could think like a philosopher and maneuver like a politician, as well as one who could navigate the wilds of bipartisanship. "I thought that Jefferson's long life in the arena of practical politics—from pre-Revolutionary Virginia forward—was at once less appreciated and more interesting than many people tended to believe," says Meacham in an email interview. "My goal, then, was to capture him as a political figure, a man whose chief concern for many years was the building of coalitions to solve particular problems in particular moments." To Meacham, the third president's complexity and the contributions he made to such a critical moment in American history account for the continued enigma. "In Jefferson we have a man whose own drama unfolded during one of the most pivotal periods in the long history of the world," says Meacham. "And so Jefferson will live on and on." Arts & Entertainment, Books, History, Thomas Jefferson, 2013-03-03T13:20:00+00:00 http://uvamagazine.org/arts/article/required_reading16 http://uvamagazine.org/arts/article/required_reading16#When:13:20:00Z Christopher Sprigman is a professor in the School of Law. His new book is The Knockoff Economy: How Imitation Spurs Innovation, co-authored with UCLA law professor Kal Raustiala. You and your co-author state that the freedom to copy and bring knockoffs to the market benefits creators and consumers alike. What is your favorite example of this in your book? {article_images_1}My favorite knockoffs from the book come from our chapter on cuisine. There are a large number of famous dishes, such as molten chocolate cake or miso-glazed black cod, that became famous because they were widely copied. Because copyright doesn't apply to recipes, the inventors (Jean-Georges Vongerichten in the case of the cake, Nobu Matsuhisa for the cod) can claim no royalties on their creations. Nor can they effectively block others from selling their version. We usually think that unrestrained copying is a danger to creativity. But that doesn't seem to be the case in cuisine. Recipes are readily copied, and yet there is a huge amount of innovation around the globe. Cuisine is one of the many areas—others include fashion, comedy, open-source software, football, fonts, databases and financial innovations—in which creativity seems to get along quite nicely with a wide freedom to copy. In fact, in some of these areas, copying seems not simply to coexist with creativity but to spark it. Is there a person you've written about who you think does not benefit from our knockoff economy? The freedom to copy creates winners and losers. Our point isn't that no one is ever hurt by copying—just ask the major record companies. Our point is that, taken overall, copying does not seem to hurt creativity nearly as much as we might think. And in some instances, the freedom to copy means more innovation. To see this point clearly, think for a moment about football. You may not think of football as a creative industry, but it definitely is—the game changes all the time, as coaches look for more effective offensive plays and formations and defensive counterstrategies. Beginning with the introduction of the forward pass in the early 1900s, we've seen repeated instances where innovative offenses (the West Coast Offense, the spread offense, the spread-option) and defenses (the nickel, the zone blitz, the 46) have renewed the game. In all of these cases, the innovating coaches were quickly copied. And the copying, far from deterring the next round of innovation, seems to speed it. What books did you read as you researched for your book, and what are you reading now for fun? {article_images_2}My favorite research-related reading wasn't actually a book. It was Phyllis Diller's private joke file. By the time she retired from stand-up, Phyllis Diller had more than 50,000 jokes, carefully organized by topic. (The Diller archive is now at the Smithsonian Museum.) Approximately half of the jokes in Diller's file were obtained from one of the large groups of writers she used. Looking at the file, it appears that she freely borrowed from other sources, such as comic strips. For example, a number of jokes about Diller's dysfunctional marriage to her fictional husband, "Fang," seem to have been inspired by the comic strip "The Lockhorns," which she followed obsessively. The Diller joke files contain hundreds of "Lockhorns" panels mounted on index cards. And this sort of "borrowing" was the norm among comics of Diller's generation. As for what I'm reading now, my current favorite is Down in the Hole: The unWired World of H.B. Ogden. This is a book by two ersatz Victorian scholars resetting the plot of the best TV show ever made as a Victorian novel. Reading this book, I came to see that The Wire is in fact a Victorian novel, or at least adopts the conventions of one. This isn't to say that The Wire isn't wildly original—it is. But it also does a lot of borrowing. And that's good. Arts & Entertainment, Books, Faculty, Schools & Departments, Law School, 2013-03-02T13:20:00+00:00 http://uvamagazine.org/arts/article/new_notable18 http://uvamagazine.org/arts/article/new_notable18#When:13:20:00Z {article_images_1}Fever by Mary Beth Keane (Grad '05) In this historical novel, Mary Beth Keane humanizes Mary Mallon, the Irish immigrant commonly known as Typhoid Mary, who unknowingly infected dozens with typhoid fever when she worked as a cook in wealthy New York homes at the turn of the 20th century. Keane's version of Mary is complex; she grieves deeply for a child who dies of the fever in her care, and yet she refuses to believe that she is a carrier of the disease, defying the Department of Health's order to never work as a cook again. Keane carries the suspense of whether Mary will come to understand what she has wrought all the way through to the end.   {article_images_2}Is It Safe? by Sarah A. Vogel (Col '96) The petrochemical compounds found in many plastics, drugs and pesticides ultimately make their way into our bodies. Sarah A. Vogel, who works for the Environmental Defense Fund, found her friends were constantly asking which everyday household items are safe. Her book examines the debate around bisphenol A (BPA), a chemical used in plastic production. Researchers say that BPA may increase the risk of chronic diseases and behavioral abnormalities, but the plastics industry and U.S. regulators insist small amounts of BPA exposure are safe. Vogel argues that we can no longer live by the notion "a little bit can't hurt." Alumni, Arts & Entertainment, Books, Health, History, Science, 2013-03-01T13:20:00+00:00 http://uvamagazine.org/first_person/article/the_quality_of_souls http://uvamagazine.org/first_person/article/the_quality_of_souls#When:21:07:19Z Calvin didn't roll over. He didn't crawl. When all the other babies were babbling and taking wobbly steps, he was just lying there, smiling. Always smiling. I tried to convince myself that he would catch up. And that one day, as he streaked across the Lawn, we would all laugh about how we worried something was wrong when he was just a baby. I tried to convince myself, but deep down I knew; I had this terrifying feeling that it wasn't going to turn out that way. That's about all I remember of my son's first year. They say that happens with trauma—you block it out. But I'll never forget the night the doctor called to tell me what was wrong with my baby boy. {article_images_1}He said Calvin had a mutation in the 18th chromosome, an extremely rare genetic syndrome called Pitt Hopkins. Fewer than 200 cases in the world had been diagnosed—and when the doctor took his genetics boards 20 years ago the syndrome had yet to even be discovered. By this point in our conversation, I was already frantically Googling. The papers online said my son would not talk. They said he may or may not walk. He would likely have seizures as he got older. And he would be severely impaired, both intellectually and physically. He was only 13 months old and already his future felt grim, if not totally lost. That was exactly a year ago. On that day, in that darkness, I never would have imagined where we would be now. Old friends stood by us. New friends rallied to support us. And so many friends we'd lost touch with, in particular so many U.Va. alumni, came back into our lives. Their phone calls, emails and meal deliveries buoyed us through that difficult time. This past year has been an education in the things that matter. All the smiling Calvin does is actually part of his syndrome—children with Pitt Hopkins tend to be very cheerful. I have met many special-needs parents whose children do not have the muscle control to smile or whose sensory disorders leave them so uncomfortable in their own skin they can rarely enjoy their surroundings. My heart aches for them. My son can smile. It used to seem like such a little thing. In the early days after the diagnosis, I tried to take solace in mantras like "everything happens for a reason." The truth is I don't believe some divine order led Cal to me, or me to Cal. But I know that I have two choices—hope or despair—and that the latter gets us nowhere. Of course, not everything is so clear cut. I worry that I will still be changing his diaper when he is 30. How will that work, I wonder? Then there's the big question, the one I can't bring myself to utter out loud—will my son have a meaningful life? I know that Cal has made my life immensely more meaningful. He is a constant reminder to look not at human deficiencies but at the quality of souls. Perhaps it's just the desperate hope of a mother trying to make sense of it all, but I like to believe that his brain, unclouded by judgment and ego, knows only light and love. Our son's diagnosis has given my family a new purpose: to find a cure for Pitt Hopkins. Because Pitt Hopkins is an extremely rare, recently discovered disease, there was no foundation, no research and no hope of clinical trials at the time of Calvin's diagnosis. My husband and I decided to change that. In the past year, together with a small group of families, we have raised more than $300,000 for Pitt Hopkins research. We recently made our first grant to David Sweatt, an esteemed neurobiologist at the University of Alabama, Birmingham. A large part of the grant was for Sweatt to hire the best researcher he could find to assist him. After a nationwide search, Sweatt found Andrew Kennedy (Grad '11), toiling away in the chemistry laboratory of Timothy Macdonald at U.Va. To me, this felt like kismet—a U.Va. scientist will be the one helping to find a cure for my son. Of course, finding a cure is my wildest hope—one that I have to keep in check at the back of my mind and tucked deep in my heart. My realistic hope is that there will be a treatment within the next decade that won't necessarily cure Pitt Hopkins kids but will give them much higher functioning, fuller lives. Still, that is a long time from now. For today, for now, I try to live in the present, to focus on the blessings I have, rather than what I want. It isn't always easy, but when I forget, I need only look over at my son, beaming his bright, beautiful smile—reminding all of us to do the same. Audrey Davidow Lapidus lives in Los Angeles with her husband, Eric; and their children, Sadie, 6, and Calvin, 2. She is president of the Pitt Hopkins Research Foundation. Alumni, Research, Schools & Departments, College of Arts & Sciences, Science, Biology, 2013-02-28T21:07:19+00:00 http://uvamagazine.org/features/article/war_stories http://uvamagazine.org/features/article/war_stories#When:20:12:25Z {article_images_1}The past century has seen two world wars and major American operations in Asia and the Middle East. U.Va. alumni have lived through all these conflicts, and experienced firsthand how military service has changed with different geopolitical strategies and advances in technology. Some things, though, have stayed the same. James Austin (Col '49), Eric Gyauch (Engr '82), Ellen Gyauch Davis (Med '86) and A.W. Simmons (Col '09) all learned about the cultures and people of the countries where they worked. Some saw loss of life and the costs of war to the injured. From a military family herself, Davis went on to study how deployment affects families and children. Today only 1 percent of American citizens serve in the U.S. military, yet their service shapes the lives of all Americans. "It's important that people know what it's really like," says Simmons. "Every day, members of the armed forces are doing real work—work that not only directly impacts the lives of the people they lead but also the long-term security prospects of our nation." World War II On the night of April 27, 1944, James Austin's ship sailed into the English Channel as part of Operation Tiger, a dress rehearsal for the invasion of Normandy—a plan that called for British and American boats, under the command of Dwight D. Eisenhower, to land on the long, wide sandy beaches of the English coast. Austin's ship, an LST 57 (Landing Ship, Tank)—a flat-bottomed vessel designed to support amphibious missions—was carrying tanks and troops toward Slapton Sands, a beach in England. "We called the LSTs 'Large Stationary Targets' because they'd get stuck on the sand during low tide. We'd have to wait until the next tide came in to move them back out to sea," says Austin (Col '49). {article_images_2} It was five weeks until D-Day, and although he wouldn't know it until later, Austin was about to participate in the bloodiest training exercise of World War II. In 1943, Austin was, he says, "a Southern Baptist farm boy just graduated from Appomattox High School." He'd been trained as a navy pharmacist's mate and his LST also carried two doctors. His ship was a part of Foxy 29 medical evacuation unit, which was later awarded a Presidential Unit Citation. "That night we loaded up and set out into rough waters," says Austin. What happened next would be kept secret until long after the war was over. "The Germans knew we were there. Just after midnight, German E-boats fired on and sank three LSTs. We lost more American boys into the cold waters of the English Channel that night than we did on Utah Beach on D-Day," he says. Austin's ship wasn't hit, but it took on wounded sailors and soldiers, as well as casualties. "They called me 'Morphine Flo,' for Florence Nightingale," he says. "I tended to the wounded and the suffering." By morning, 749 men had lost their lives in the cold water. "We didn't breathe a word about it for 50 years," says Austin. "It would have been bad for morale, and we had a war to win. To think that we were on some lumbersome thing like an LST, and the whole world depended on it." {article_images_3}After Operation Tiger, LST 57 went back to South Hampton to wait for the real invasion. On June 2, it took on board six tanks and several 155-millimeter guns. "On the early morning of June 6, the sky was dark with airplanes pulling gliders full of paratroopers," says Austin. "We were the largest armada ever assembled in history, headed to the beaches. The battleships Nevada and Texas were behind us, shooting salvos over our heads toward the batteries where the Germans were supposed to be. We could feel the vibrations. We were like a cork in a bathtub." LST 57 landed on Utah Beach and Austin took a small boat to gather the dead and the wounded from the water and bring them back to the ship. "We filled every bunk with a casualty. We loaded out the tanks, scrubbed down the tank deck and filled it up with men. And we brought them back to England." Among the wounded were American, Canadian and British members of the landing team, paratroopers who had been dropped inland and fought their way back to the beaches—and Germans. One was a German pilot, whose plane had been shot down over the beach. "My buddies thought he should be shot, but I didn't agree. The belt buckle of his uniform had the words 'Gott mit uns,' which means 'God with us,'" says Austin. "There's an apocryphal story about Abe Lincoln, that during the Civil War someone said to him, 'Surely God is on our side.' Lincoln said, 'My greatest concern is to be on God's side.' I treated the German. We were all just human beings, hurting, crying and dying." Over the next few days and into the next few months, LST 57 ferried tanks and troops to France and casualties back to England. "It must have been 40 trips back and forth," he says. Austin was in London for V-E day—saw "Princess Lizzy," who later became Queen Elizabeth—and in Seattle for V-J day. He went to U.Va. to study law, but graduated with a degree in philosophy and religion. There he met his future wife, "the flower of Charlottesville," he says, Madeline Staples (Educ '50). After graduating from Southern Baptist Seminary in Louisville, Ky., Austin became a Baptist minister and spent 65 years in the ministry. "I learned in the Navy about life and people," says Austin. "It led me to what I became after." Sixty-eight years after D-Day, Austin was presented the French Legion of Honor by the French government in September 2012 at the French Consulate in Atlanta. Relative peace, then conflict in the Middle East In 1978, Ellen Gyauch (now Davis) and Eric Gyauch, twins and recent high school graduates, were both offered ROTC scholarships. Their father, a U.S. Air Force officer, told his teenaged children, "Don't do it for the money. It's bigger than that." {article_images_4}Davis (Med '86) and Gyauch (Col '82) had grown up on military bases, moving every few years, and their friends were the children of other military families. "We knew the benefits of military service and understood the desire to serve," says Davis, "but what our father was telling us was that the military would get every pound it paid for. In the military, you don't really belong to yourself. You don't belong to your family. It needs you 24/7." Gyauch attended U.Va. and Davis went to Davidson College for their undergraduate degrees. The summer after junior year, the two attended training at Fort Bragg for six weeks. Before they left their home in Montgomery, Ala., they had to prepare physically for the challenges of the coming weeks. "We put on our army boots at 4 a.m. every day and ran in the street in the dark," says Davis. Gyauch did well at Fort Bragg. "He was always good at that stuff: orienteering, shooting targets, exercise. I hated all those things," says Davis. Davis and Gyauch graduated on the same day—their parents driving between their ceremonies—"one of the perils of having twins," says Gyauch. "Then I went right into the service, the day I graduated." Gyauch became an aviation maintenance officer for the U.S. Army and earned his flight wings. After 18 months of military training, his first assignment was in South Korea in 1983; Seoul was already preparing for the 1988 Summer Olympics. "The U.S. Army has always maintained a strong presence in South Korea due to the threat from North Korea, to maintain peace at the border," says Gyauch. He went to the DMZ, which is the most heavily militarized border in the world. "The South Korean soldiers look directly across at the North Korean soldiers. They faced each other." Gyauch commanded soldiers who were responsible for fixing helicopters and made sure they were ready for their missions. He also traveled all over Korea to recover military aircraft after crashes. "If an aircraft crashed into a field or a mountain, our Army recovery team would arrive after the bodies had been removed. It was solemn work; often pilots had died," says Gyauch. {article_images_5}After his service in Korea, Gyauch was assigned to Fort Bragg to work with the 82nd Airborne Division, where he earned his jump wings. "My unit, 1st/17th Air Calvary, 82nd Airborne Division, is responsible for rapid deployment anywhere in the world," says Gyauch. During his three years there, the division was often on alert, ready to deploy to nations in Latin America where there was unrest. "But we never did deploy," says Gyauch. "I served during a post-Soviet but pre-Middle East era of relative calm. The '70s had been a difficult time, but the military was regaining its public image. The Cold War was won during this era." Meanwhile, his twin, Davis, had been attending medical school and doing her residency at U.Va. "I took an educational delay to become a pediatrician and then the day after my residency ended I was assigned to Fort Bragg," Davis says. By 1990, with the first Gulf War on the horizon, Gyauch had left the military to work for Michelin. But Davis was deployed to a unit on the North Sea waiting to join the ranks in Iraq, and her father's words from 12 years before proved true. "My firstborn was 2 months old when I was deployed," says Davis. In the airport, her husband held her son, Michael, while she sobbed. "I felt like I was giving up this child who was supposed to be mine. It was almost a deal breaker for me, that moment." The Gulf War ended more quickly than expected, but Davis' career trajectory had been altered by her deployment. She worked as a pediatrician at bases all over the U.S., while she researched the medical needs specific to military families. "During the first part of the 20th century, because of the draft, most soldiers were young men without families. But since the early '70s, when the military became an entirely volunteer force, the demographics have changed," says Davis. "More soldiers have families and stay in the military for a career." Davis was scheduled to make a presentation about her fellowship research on Sept. 12, 2001, but it never happened. "We were put on immediate alert," she says. "Then I put away all my research for the next few years, and focused on the war." It became clear to Davis that someone needed to study how a prolonged military engagement affected military families. She and her fellow researchers traced how parental deployment affected children's mental and physical health. "The single most important factor affecting a young child during a parental combat deployment is to find out how the at-home parent is doing. Supporting the at-home parent supports the child and family, as a whole." As the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan wore on, Davis' work also revealed that multiple deployments take an even greater toll on service members and their families. "It does not get easier because a family has done it before." Her work was referenced in President Obama's "Joining Forces" document, which outlines a national initiative to support and honor America's service members and their families. Davis retired in 2009, as a colonel, after 20 years of service. Battling back from injury in Afghanistan {article_images_6}Mortar attacks came regularly during the day at Army 1st Lt. A.W. Simmons' outpost in the Pech River Valley. "You can engage an enemy from 5 or 6 kilometers away with mortars," says Simmons (Col '09). "We'd take mortar fire twice a week on average. And the enemy would send an observer up in the mountains to direct the rounds in, thus the need for daylight." Exchange of rifle fire was common both during the day and at night. "We were in direct firefights with insurgents about every other day," says Simmons. Simmons was deployed to the Kunar Province of Afghanistan in April 2011, where he was the officer in charge of a remote outpost called Nangalam Base. "The size of three or four football fields, it was an encampment with old brick buildings, some plywood shacks, all surrounded by HESCO barriers, which are big cages filled with dirt that make a thick wall." Simmons commanded about 50 American soldiers and mentored 100 Afghan soldiers on the outpost. "Our work was a combination of the hard-handed combat you expect in the infantry, as well as coordinating with local Afghan governance to build capacity and expertise," says Simmons. Six to seven hours day, Simmons was "outside the wire," actively patrolling the Pech Valley. Another seven hours were spent training the Afghan army in tactics and techniques. "I typically didn't sleep more than four hours a night." Simmons liked the intensity of the workload and even the stress of working in a dangerous place. "It was life squared. Or life cubed. Every day mattered very deeply." He joined ROTC at U.Va. because he had known since he was a teenager that he wanted to serve in the military. "My dad was a JAG officer, and he'd been at the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C., when Flight 77 hit the Pentagon," says Simmons. "He heard the sound of it. So, like a lot of people of my generation, 9/11 impacted me and how I imagined my future." On Nov. 21, 2011, Simmons' outpost came under mortar attack. "Mortars are high-angle bombs; you fire them out of a tube about 4 feet long, and they shoot out of the tube at a high arc," he says. Simmons and his men were preparing to go on patrol when the attack began and, as was his routine, he started running toward the operations center so he could start coordinating the counterattack and update his superiors some miles away. From the Archives: Vietnam {article_images_7}Laurie Croft (Col ’67) arrived in Vietnam in 1969 as a 2nd Lt. in the U.S. Army. “I joined an eight-man advisory team in Vinh Binh village,” Croft wrote in a Spring 2000 feature story for Virginia Magazine. “The team house (aka hooch), which was built of plywood, tin and screen, reminded me of a summer camp cabin.” On “movie night” the team watched The Graduate. “Twenty minutes into the movie, as Miss Bancroft was preparing for her soul-baring scene with young Dustin Hoffman, the team members abruptly left their seats. My fixation on Anne Bancroft was interrupted only by the sounds of exploding mortar rounds bracketing the hooch. I hit the floor and crawled instinctively toward the already full in-house bunker.” Read more. A mortar hit the ground behind Simmons, about 15 meters away, and threw him forward into the dirt. His legs were filled with shrapnel. "I knew my legs had been hit badly, but I was able to roll over and see they were still there," says Simmons. The noise of the explosion left him temporarily deaf as he crawled toward the first aid station about 60 meters away. "It's a bad idea to stay in the same place during a mortar attack," says Simmons. His men heard him "screaming my head off" and carried him into the first aid station. "They saved my life, and I owe them everything." No one else was hurt in the attack. Simmons was evacuated to a military hospital near Asadabad, then to Kabul, then to Germany, and finally to Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. His doctors told him it would take six months for the layers of muscle in his legs to knit together and to regain full range of motion in his now-shortened hamstring. "I really wanted to get back downrange and finish out my deployment with my men," says Simmons. By February, three months faster than expected, Simmons was cleared for service, but he wasn't sent to the front lines. Instead, he was sent to Hawaii to work as an escort and Gold Star family liaison. "When someone dies overseas, his remains are never allowed to be left alone. As an escort, I wore my full dress uniform, rendered proper honors at every transfer of remains, and escorted my fallen comrade to his final place of rest." Between late February and early April, Simmons' battalion lost three men out of 11 total over the whole deployment. "I was the escort for Army 1st Lt. Clovis T. Ray. He had been my replacement leading the platoon on my outpost." Ray died on March 15, 2012, of injuries caused by an improvised explosive device. Simmons continues to serve in the infantry. After serving for eight months as second in command of an infantry company, he is currently in full-time training to compete in the 2013 Best Ranger Competition at Ft. Benning, Ga., an annual competition among the Army's Rangers to find the best two-man Ranger team in the Army. His battalion is currently slated to return to Kunar Province in July 2013. John Rixey Moore (Col ’66) served as a Special Forces team leader in Vietnam, taking part clandestine reconnaissance missions “deep in the jungles of enemy-controlled wilderness.” Virginia Magazine is pleased to offer the first chapter of his new memoir, Hostage of Paradox: A Qualmish Disclosure. Read the first chapter now >   Alumni, History, Politics, 2013-02-28T20:12:25+00:00 http://uvamagazine.org/alumni_news/article/two_way_street http://uvamagazine.org/alumni_news/article/two_way_street#When:17:32:39Z In large ways and small, we’ve heard from you over the past year. From the 6,000 messages to the Board of Visitors on our website regarding the events of June to Facebook comments, tweets and letters to the editor, you’ve made your thoughts known. We know that communication is a two-way street; our goal is not only to report news about the University and its alumni but to also provide a place for alumni to discuss University-related topics. Here are some of the ways that alumni can communicate with U.Va. and one another.   U.VA. MAGAZINE The magazine’s Letters section is a place for opinion, debate and criticism.   U.VA. MAGAZINE E-NEWSLETTER Readers can comment on each e-newsletter article, as well as easily access linked U.Va. social media accounts to participate in conversations about the University.   U.VA. MAGAZINE WEBSITE Here readers can comment on and debate articles, as well as participate in polls about timely issues.   DIGITAL EDITION/IPAD The magazine is available in a digital form on uvamagazine.org and our iPad app. Subscribers can opt out of the print delivery and receive notification when the digital editions are posted.   GOOD OLD APP Mobile access to news, events, photos, a Grounds directory, live sports scores and much more is available for iPhones and Androids.   ALUMNI FORUM The newest addition to our communication channels is the online Alumni Forum, where alumni can start their own conversations about University issues. Launched in December, discussions have begun about everything from the Honor System to the ACC. Social Media     FACEBOOK Alumni are on Facebook through the University of Virginia Magazine and U.Va. Alumni Association pages, which receive frequent articles and updates.   TWITTER Follow the Alumni Association on Twitter (@UVa_Alumni) for frequent updates.   LINKEDIN The University of Virginia Alumni group is a central networking hub for Wahoos across the globe. The U.Va. Career Networking Community group includes students.   PINTEREST Share images of the University, Jeffersonian interior design, orange-and-blue fashion, and faculty and alumni books on U.Va.’s Pinterest page.   Alumni, Technology, 2013-02-28T17:32:39+00:00 http://uvamagazine.org/only_online/article/so_far_from_the_grounds http://uvamagazine.org/only_online/article/so_far_from_the_grounds#When:17:10:39Z This article was originally published in the Spring 2000 edition of Virginia Magazine. {article_images_4}It was eerie - I could actually hear the VC talking to one another. As I slammed my hand against the bottom of the flare to send it skyward, the unpredictable wind carried the projectile straight towards the VC. The ambush was sprung-everyone fired on full automatic. I shot another flare and it repeated the path of the first. On the third attempt, I aimed the projectile behind me and achieved a perfect launch. On command, we advanced toward the dike firing from the hip. Screaming seemed to help. November 22, 1963 As a member of the first-year football team known as the Twenty-One Jewels, I was delighted when our daily practice sessions against the varsity finally ended. An assistant first-year coach named Bob Canevari (Col '60, Grad '64) kept us in our traces. I celebrated the occasion by taking a long-overdue afternoon nap in the comfort of my Emmet House dorm room. My solace was disturbed by someone in the hall shouting, "The President has been shot." Several of us gathered outside to ponder the reality of what had happened in Dallas. The impact was immediate. The varsity's scheduled game with Maryland was delayed until the next weekend. The Twenty-One Jewels were called back into action for another week as scrimmage fodder for the varsity. We thought we had seen some difficult times, but our perspectives were soon to change. By year-end, 16,300 American advisors and support troops went to a place called Vietnam. The Journey Begins In January 1968, I finished my academic requirements and was commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant in the U.S. Army. Thirty days later I reported to Ft. Eustis, Virginia, where my father had trained in 1941 and my brother in 1965. While there, I ran into Al Groh (Com '66). We compared notes on our assignments. Al was headed to the United States Military Academy at West Point to coach football; I had orders for an artillery unit at Ft. Benning, Georgia, home of the Infantry School. It was then that I remembered our head football trainer, Dr. Joe Gieck (Educ '65, '75) had been on the football staff at West Point before coming to U.Va. A fortuitous career move; Al wears a Super Bowl ring today. During my stint at Ft. Eustis, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. All 2nd lieutenants were notified to stay near the base for possible civil disobedience duty in Washington, D.C. After moving on and training at Ft. Knox, Kentucky, I reported to my unit at Ft. Benning, Georgia. Shortly thereafter, Sen. Robert Kennedy was assassinated. At the time, I was serving a shift as battalion duty officer. Outside battalion headquarters, a large mob of angry soldiers gathered to vent its frustration at the news of Kennedy's death. It was an unwritten rule that no one walked on the battalion sergeant major's grass or messed with his pristine white-painted rock lawn border. Though issued .45 caliber pistols with four rounds each, my staff duty NCO (noncommissioned officer) and I pondered what show of force to exert against any trespassers. Our problem was solved by the timely arrival of the MPs, who dispersed the soldiers in their own gentle way. Receiving my U.Va. diploma by mail made me genuinely regret not being able to participate in the pomp and circumstance of graduation on the Lawn. This disappointment was compounded by the indifference my BOQ (bachelor officers quarters) brethren showed when given an opportunity to see and touch a real sheepskin diploma. (Twenty-six years later, watching my oldest daughter, Sudie Croft Pasco (Col '94), march down the lawn erased my regrets.) Three weeks after bringing Susan, my new bride, to Columbus, Georgia, I received orders to obtain another MOS (military occupational specialty) at Ft. Holabird, Maryland, and proceed therefrom directly to Vietnam for assignment. Two months in the Dundalk section of Baltimore, and I was ready for Vietnam. Before leaving, I attended the Richmond New Year's Eve party of fraternity brother and teammate Pete Gray (Col '68). Pete was one highly focused marine officer candidate. This was not surprising. In school, his exuberance, dedication and "can do" spirit left an unparalleled legacy of student leadership. That was the last time I saw Pete. {article_images_2} Welcome to Vietnam On February 1, 1969 in Atlanta, I said goodbye to my wife and family and began the 10,000-mile trek to Vietnam. From Oakland, California, transportation for approximately 200 troops was provided by a chartered World Airway DC 8 stretch jet. Though only age 22, I was several years older than most of the enlisted troops on board. After stops at Hawaii and Wake Island, we touched down in the Philippines where my father had fought the Japanese some 25 years earlier. During the last 1,000-mile leg of the flight, the mood on the aircraft among the first timers could be described as anxious. At dusk the coastline of Vietnam came into view dotted by the flames of countless cooking fires. Seconds before our wheels touched the darkened tarmac, the runway lights at Bien Hoa Airbase came to life. Twenty hours on the plane left everyone ill prepared for the stifling heat and unfamiliar surroundings. Someone in authority herded us to a bunkered area and delivered a short thank-you-for-coming speech. We were loaded onto military busses with wire meshed windows and transported to the sprawling army base at Long Binh. After a weekend stay, those of us on orders for MACV Advisory Assignments boarded a bus for Saigon. Within days, Long Binh was infiltrated by one of its worst Sapper attacks of the war. At MACV headquarters, sharing a barracks with lieutenants who had finished their tours was not good for morale. Their war stories prepared all cherry 2nd lieutenants to anticipate the worst. The sights, sounds and smells of downtown Saigon provided a carnival like atmosphere. All types of horn honking vehicles, both motorized and non-motorized, clogged the streets and narrow alleys. Exhaust fumes, combined with the smoke from hundreds of cooking pots, formed a permanent irritating smog over the city. Once-beautiful French colonial buildings bore the signs of neglect and disrepair. Curbs served as convenient trash receptacles. Sixty thousand barmaids beckoned you to come inside their establishments to buy them a "Saigon tea." High-pitched whiney-sounding music blared from unseen speakers. Recognizing the Americans' penchant for cleanliness, steam baths were conveniently located on every block. Destination: Go Cong Province I received verbal orders to proceed to Can Tho, the major city in the Mekong Delta or the IV Corps Military Region. Though the departing veterans in Saigon had conditioned me to expect the worst, my C-130 aircraft touched down unscathed on the perforated steel-plate runway outside Can Tho. At the airfield, a IV Corps representative presented me with orders to serve as a Phoenix Advisor on Advisory Team 92 in Go Cong Province. The last paragraph of the orders caught my attention: Primary duties include performance of duties as tactical advisor to ARVN/GVN Infantry type military or paramilitary units in the district area of responsibility to include frequent participation in ground combat operations. A quick inspection revealed the absence of infantry crossed rifles on my collar. I was one of many advisors to learn the meaning of the term "branch immaterial." You well might be placed in a slot for which you had no previous training. Can Tho was not nearly the size of Saigon, but it shared many of its same charms. In meandering through the city, I attracted a large swarm of street kids who wanted to touch the new American soldier. At first it was flattering; then it became downright annoying. Once in the safety of an American compound, I discovered the little thieves had shredded my pants pockets with razor blades held between their fingers. Noticing my plight, an Army lieutenant came over and suggested a few Vietnamese invectives that were guaranteed to scatter hordes of miscreant children. This sage advice came from Neal Cohen (Com '67) a fellow U.Va. ROTC member. Neal also made sure I did not miss my C-123 flight for Dong Tam, the home base of the 9th Infantry Division and the next leg of my journey. Dong Tam resembled a large dust pile surrounded by barbed wire and mud flats. I felt the need to keep moving. Unfortunately, my orders did not spell out how I was to complete my trek to Go Cong province. The friendly folks in the 9th Division transportation depot suggested I hitch a ride with either a Navy PBR or a Vietnamese sampan. Perhaps the dry-season heat and choking dust had clouded my senses, but neither choice seemed particularly attractive. My luck was holding. Americans on a scrounging mission from Go Cong were in the area. I would ride the final 40 kilometers by jeep. Once leaving Dong Tam, the road became a narrow, unpaved ribbon through thick jungle vegetation. As I admired the local flora and fauna, the driver reminded me to lock and load my M-16. Riding shotgun took on a whole new meaning in Vietnam. Along the journey, we ferried a number of canals and narrow rivers on small homemade rafts. The wakes from strange heavily armored watercraft, resembling Civil War ironclads, churned up the muddy riverbanks. At sunset, we entered the province of Go Cong and passed a sign to Vinh Binh, a village in the district of Hoa Dong. My driver said in his own special way that Hoa Dong was infested with VC and should be avoided. {article_images_3} The District Team When we reached the provincial city of Go Cong, the streets were dark and empty. The next morning I was taken to a special villa in town where I met my Phoenix contact. The American's flowery short-sleeve shirt, cut-off shorts and flip-flop sandals caught me off guard. For some reason, I expected CIA operatives to wear suits. My mentor said he was assigning me to the district team in Hoa Dong for a little seasoning before sending me to the Phoenix school in Vung Tau. By that afternoon, I joined an eight-man advisory team in Vinh Binh village. The team house (a.k.a. hooch), which was built of plywood, tin and screen, reminded me of a summer camp cabin. The only protected area was a very small bunker on the side of the hooch occupied at night by the team medic and our PRC-25 radio. Everyone else slept on canvas cots or bunks in an open room. A hundred competing roosters provided the morning wake-up call. The compound's pigs and ducks would soon chime in with their melodious barnyard sounds. I was not in Atlanta anymore. Luxuries were minimal: an outdoor latrine, an elevated water-filled 55-gallon drum for cold showers, mosquito netting for the cots, a small generator to provide power for four hours a night and a Vietnamese houseboy to wash, cook and clean. Team members consisted of a major (district senior advisor), a captain (deputy district senior advisor), a lieutenant (Phoenix advisor), one NCO and four enlistees, of whom one was a medic. My timing could not have been better; I arrived for movie night. The team had a 16-mm projector that was an olive drab clone of the ones we used after football practice to watch our opponents' game films. The movie that evening was The Graduate, starring Anne Bancroft and a young Dustin Hoffman. The previous day's warning from the jeep driver was obviously bad information. Twenty minutes into the movie, as Miss Bancroft was preparing for her soul-baring scene with young Hoffman, the team members abruptly left their seats. My fixation on Anne Bancroft was interrupted only by the sounds of exploding mortar rounds bracketing the hooch. I hit the floor and crawled instinctively towards the already full in-house bunker. I had every confidence that my 240-pound bulk could squeeze in with my new teammates. Once the initial rounds impacted, the major and captain ran for the district chief's bunker. Someone handed me the radio mike and said to inform province what was happening. It's not easy to talk when your heart is pressing against your vocal cords. Somehow, I managed to form enough words to describe our situation. The next day the major suggested that in any future attacks, I should find shelter outside in one of the protective holes next to the wall surrounding the compound. During an attack two nights later, I grabbed my helmet and flak jacket, ran out the back door and was clothes-lined in the dark by commo wire strung as a laundry line. The incoming rounds prompted a furious search for cover. The first two holes near the wall were fully occupied by Vietnamese soldiers. The third did not seem big enough to hold me, but I drew my knees up under my chin and struggled to close my ill-fitting flak jacket. A round landed next to my position, showering me with all manner of debris. After the shelling, when I went back into the team house, I respectfully told the major that this was my first and last time groping for a place outside. From then on the house bunker rules changed to "first come first served." The next morning I went around the compound with the captain to assess the damage. We were led to the body of a Vietnamese soldier's young daughter. She had never made it out of her bed. Inwardly, you question why this has to happen. Outwardly, you consider it one more reason to hate the Communists. To further confuse the emotions, had this been a farmer's work oxen rather than a child, reparations would have been paid. The Coconut Grove {article_images_1}Local Vietnamese Regional Force or Popular Force (RF/PF or affectionately, Ruff Puff) units accompanied by members of the district team-or mobile advisory team-carried out combat operations in the district where I was assigned. (Interestingly, baseball player Cary Gresham (Col '68, Law '74) of Richmond spent a memorable year on one of these teams in the Mekong Delta province of Vinh Long.) Hoa Dong had several VC hot spots. Perhaps the worst was a coconut grove located only a short distance from the compound. On my first operation in the grove, I learned to be totally aware of my surroundings. A freshly dug punji pit filled with sharpened bamboo spikes marked our route into the thick vegetation of the grove. As we crossed a number of irrigation streams and canals, each step in the Mekong Delta mud was an exhausting struggle. The slightly built Vietnamese soldiers could do little to free me from the mud's persistent grip. Five hours into the operation my canteen was drained, my fatigues were soaked in sweat and mud, and I was ready for a much-needed time out. A popping noise from the front of the column took my mind off my personal problems. Our point men had tripped a booby trap. I made a concentrated effort to put my size-12 shoes directly in the footsteps of the Vietnamese in front of me. My second operation in the grove mirrored the first until around noon, when we received small-arms fire from somewhere off to our right. The column assumed the prone position to assess the threat. Word was passed back to move on. A few minutes later the Vietnamese soldier next to me started frantically yelling and pointing. In the wink of an eye, an explosion knocked me down, and AK-47 rounds snapped over my head. My M-16 was nowhere to be found. At ROTC summer camp, I had tied the course record for the fastest low crawl; that day in the grove I set the world record. I made it to the protection of a drainage ditch. The firefight ended about as quickly as it began. I never saw the VC who threw the American M-26 grenade or fired on us. This encounter cost the VC one KIA and two prisoners, a woman and a young boy. We had six WIA, including three advisors. The woman prisoner would not talk; however, the trembling young boy led his determined interrogators to a cache containing a mortar tube with 16 rounds. I never found out whether the Vietnamese soldier beside me survived; we went to separate MASH units. The frag clinic gave me antibiotics for the shrapnel wounds and a sling to support my broken hand. My district teammates welcomed me back. For awhile, I was a little slower getting to the bunker during mortar attacks. John Paul Vann, the highest ranking civilian in IV Corps and topic of Neil Sheehan's novel A Bright Shining Lie required all advisory teams to conduct a minimum of three night operations a week. He had been an advocate of Vietnamizing the war since the earliest American involvement. When he arrived by chopper late one afternoon to spot-check our ambush map overlays, we knew his orders were not to be taken lightly. My first overnight was spent in a small, circular, mud-walled outpost five klicks (kilometers) from the village. Seemed like a good opportunity to rack out. Except for the Ruff Puffs dusting the perimeter with mortar fire at 0200, the evening was a yawn. The next morning newly placed VC flags hung tauntingly from the only tree within 30 meters of the outpost. Alumni, History, 2013-02-28T17:10:39+00:00 http://uvamagazine.org/arts/article/bestsellers_at_the_u.va._bookstore1 http://uvamagazine.org/arts/article/bestsellers_at_the_u.va._bookstore1#When:13:20:00Z Fiction/Poetry Vanitas, Rough by Lisa Russ Spaar (Col ’78, Grad ’82, Faculty) The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling The Collected Stories of Deborah Eisenberg by Deborah Eisenberg Dear Life by Alice Munro Our Andromeda by Brenda Shaughnessy The Round House by Louise Erdrich Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell Telegraph Avenue by Michael Chabon Nonfiction All the President’s Men by Carl Bernstein & Bob Woodward The Defining Decade: Why Your Twenties Matter—And How to Make the Most of Them Now by Meg Jay (Col ’92, Faculty) America Again: Re-becoming the Greatness We Never Weren’t by Stephen Colbert Guy-Write: What Every Guy Writer Needs to Know by Ralph Fletcher Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power by Jon Meacham Already Ready: Nurturing Writers in Preschool and Kindergarten by Katie Wood Ray and Matt Glover An Extraordinary School: Re-Modelling Special Education by Sara James (Col ’83) It’s Even Worse Than It Looks: How the American Constitutional System Collided With the New Politics of Extremism by Thomas E. Mann Master of the Mountain: Thomas Jefferson and His Slaves by Henry Wiencek A More Perfect Constitution: Why the Constitution Must Be Revised: Ideas to Inspire a New Generation by Larry J. Sabato (Col ’74, Faculty) Alumni, Arts & Entertainment, Books, Faculty, 2013-02-28T13:20:00+00:00 http://uvamagazine.org/only_online/article/changes_to_the_honor_system_2013 http://uvamagazine.org/only_online/article/changes_to_the_honor_system_2013#When:20:32:15Z In a February vote, students approved the addition of “informed retraction” to the Honor System. Informed Retraction allows students to take responsibility for their actions immediately after they are made aware that an Honor report has been filed against them, and take a leave of absence from the University. Another proposal, endorsed by the Honor Committee—including both informed retraction and jury reform—was not approved by students. Post-Vote Articles Students Approve Informed retraction U.Va. Students Approve New Honor Plea, Reject Jury Changes Coverage and Commentary Prior to Vote Infographic: The Honor Committee's Proposal We follow two students as they go through both the existing and proposed honor systems. Honor Committee Proposes Changes to the System We look at some of the ways that the Honor System has evolved over the years, challenges to the system as reflected in recent surveys gauging student and faculty attitudes about Honor, the proposal’s details and the Honor Committee’s rationale for proposing change. 2013-02-27T20:32:15+00:00 http://uvamagazine.org/research_and_discovery/article/make_it_stick http://uvamagazine.org/research_and_discovery/article/make_it_stick#When:21:45:58Z Louis Bloomfield, the popular U.Va. physics professor, spent more than a decade trying to solve one of the most difficult problems that humankind has ever faced: How to fix a wobbly table. But last year, after thousands of experiments, he emerged from his basement laboratory on McCormick Road with a silicone-based substance in hand that can be at once pliable and rigid, the perfect answer for those teetering tables, he says. "I thought it would be an easy-sneezy task," says Bloomfield, author of How Things Work, which demystifies the physics behind everything from golf balls to nuclear weapons. "It took a while, but in the end, I think I've created something that will do a lot more than fix tippy restaurant tables." The substance, which Bloomfield calls "Vistik," initially feels sort of like rubbery gel padding. But it can be stretched or balled up, like Silly Putty, and eventually returns to its original shape—no matter what. It even bounces pretty well. "It's also extraordinarily tasteless," says Bloomfield, who's chewed on a few pieces of the nontoxic substance "just to see." When Bloomfield began shopping his invention around with the help of U.Va. Innovation, the office that helps connect technologies created by U.Va. researchers with business partners, the first to bite was MeadWestvaco, a paper company based in Richmond. {article_images_1} During a recent meeting, a company representative accidentally stuck two pieces of Bloomfield's invention together and became intrigued with how they clung to one another. "I started apologizing for that self-stickiness, which is a side effect of its molecular structure," Bloomfield said. "Then everyone in the room started telling me not to. They saw it as an adhesive for packaging. I never would have thought of that." MeadWestvaco is now testing customized versions of Vistik but other companies are interested in it for other uses, says Matt Bednar (Engr '95, '97), a licensing associate at U.Va. Innovation. They include a large footwear company, a toy manufacturer—even a glove maker. Bloomfield says his invention reflects a change in the nature of his research. For 30 years, he says, he mainly produced basic science research that had little direct applicability to people. "I wanted to do something useful and I think I've done just that," Bloomfield says. Faculty, Research, Science, Physics, 2013-02-26T21:45:58+00:00 http://uvamagazine.org/university_digest/article/seven_society_calls_for_action http://uvamagazine.org/university_digest/article/seven_society_calls_for_action#When:20:53:00Z {article_images_1} Just before sunset on a December evening near the end of the fall semester, seven large, identical banners were raised on seven buildings around Grounds. Accompanied by a letter to the University community from the Seven Society, one of U.Va.'s oldest secret societies, the banners featured a quotation from English poet John Donne that touches on accountability and the interconnectedness of all people. {article_images_2} The banners and letter helped reinforce an earlier message from President Teresa Sullivan that reminded students, faculty and staff that living in a community of trust requires kindness and respect, along with the responsibility to speak out when they witness actions that violate the community of trust. Reflecting on a semester that included an alleged hate crime and a sexual assault on Grounds, and the tragic death of a student while studying abroad, the Seven Society encouraged the University to come together to fight against injustice and apathy.     Grounds & Buildings, Students, U.Va. Tradition, Secret Society, 2013-02-26T20:53:00+00:00 http://uvamagazine.org/university_digest/article/news_briefs20 http://uvamagazine.org/university_digest/article/news_briefs20#When:21:46:15Z {article_images_1} Reaching Out Billy Cannaday has been named U.Va.'s first vice provost for academic outreach, a position created to advance efforts to reach new off-Grounds students and expand the University's distance-learning offerings. "The challenge will be to approach technology-enhanced learning in ways that build on our existing strengths," Cannaday says. He will also continue as dean of the U.Va.'s School of Continuing and Professional Studies, a position he has held since 2008. Top Teachers {article_images_3}Robert Swap, a professor of environmental sciences, has been named the 2012 Virginia Professor of the Year by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education. Dr. Erik Hewlett, a professor of medicine, infectious diseases and international health, was one of only 12 educators selected by the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia to receive a 2013 Outstanding Faculty Award, the state's highest honor for college faculty. Swap, who earned his bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees in environmental sciences from the University, directs U.Va.'s Summer Study Abroad program in Southern Africa and the Eastern/Southern African Virginia Networks and Associations program. Hewlett has been with the School of Medicine since 1980, and served as associate dean for research from 1992 to 2010. {article_images_4} Goodwin Returns to BOV William H. Goodwin Jr. (Darden '66) is transitioning from the assignment of senior adviser to the University of Virginia Board of Visitors to being an appointed member, a familiar position for the Richmond-based businessman. In January, Gov. Robert F. McDonnell appointed Goodwin to complete the unexpired term of R.J. Kirk, who resigned in October. Last June, McDonnell appointed Goodwin—who previously served on the board from 1996 to 2004—as a nonvoting special adviser to the BOV. {article_images_2} Final Words Stephen Colbert, the host and executive producer of Comedy Central's award-winning series The Colbert Report, will be the keynote speaker at U.Va.'s 2013 Valedictory Exercises, the ceremony at which the Class of 2013 will pay tribute to their time at the University and present the class gift and University awards. Colbert's wife, Evelyn McGee Colbert, is a 1985 alumna of the College of Arts & Sciences. Jim Webb, a former U.S. Senator (D-Va.) and Secretary of the Navy, decorated Vietnam veteran, journalist, filmmaker and author, will deliver the commencement address at the University's 184th Final Exercises. Advancing Female Faculty {article_images_5}In January, U.Va. marked the start of a new program, U.Va. ADVANCE, which strives to boost the ranks of female faculty in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), and in social and behavioral sciences and economics (SBE) fields. Funded by a $3 million grant from the National Science Foundation, the program consists of five initiatives: to improve department climate, document the experiences of senior and retired women faculty, support search and selection, fund women's research and scholarship and encourage new approaches to addressing underutilization of women in STEM and SBE academic careers. "The success of this program depends on our engaging as many people as possible in identifying and addressing subtle sources of bias at the University," says Gertrude Fraser, U.Va.'s vice provost for faculty recruitment and retention and leader of the ADVANCE program. Administration, Alumni, Faculty, Schools & Departments, University News, 2013-02-25T21:46:15+00:00 http://uvamagazine.org/student_life/article/blue_books http://uvamagazine.org/student_life/article/blue_books#When:21:43:03Z {article_images_2}For many former students, the sight of a blue (or green) examination book might cause stomachs to churn and bring back memories of frantic essay writing and cramped hands. With the permission of some good-natured U.Va. students and faculty, we’ve captured moments from final exams, from an an essay spilling over to the back cover to an exhausted parting note to a professor. {article_images_1} Blue exam books originated at Butler University in the late 1920s. First printed by Lesh Paper Co., they were given blue covers because Butler’s colors are blue and white. PENMANSHIP AWARD {article_images_3} {article_images_1}Blue books come in two sizes: 8.5 by 7 inches, which was the original size, or 11 by 8.5 inches. THE DRAMATIC EXIT {article_images_4} {article_images_1}In 2007, Roaring Spring Paper Products introduced the “green book,” an exam book with the same dimensions as a blue book, but made with recycled paper and given a green cover. THE Overachiever {article_images_5} {article_images_1}The U.Va. Bookstore orders about 17,000 blue books and 10,000 green books a year for students to purchase during exam time. The Apologist {article_images_6} The Apologist 2 {article_images_7} The Mad Dash {article_images_8} Students, 2013-02-25T21:43:03+00:00 http://uvamagazine.org/university_digest/article/bookmarked_notes_from_under_grounds http://uvamagazine.org/university_digest/article/bookmarked_notes_from_under_grounds#When:21:22:43Z {article_images_1}The Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections library has more than 16 million objects on its shelves. Scholars and students use many of the manuscripts, photographs and letters, but most of the collections sit in boxes, unused for decades. A new blog from Special Collections, Notes from Under Grounds, brings some of these lesser-viewed items to light. One recent post shows some of the library's most beautiful map holdings. A peek at a world map from the 1662 Blaeu Atlas, considered the finest one published in its time, reveals how similar, and yet how very different, the world was thought to be. Arts & Entertainment, Schools & Departments, Library, 2013-02-25T21:22:43+00:00 http://uvamagazine.org/university_digest/article/links_to_lincoln http://uvamagazine.org/university_digest/article/links_to_lincoln#When:21:09:44Z {article_images_1} When actor and U.Va. drama professor Richard Warner was cast as U.S. Rep. Homer Benson in Steven Spielberg's Lincoln, he grew his own beard and sideburns for the role. "Most of the beards you see in Lincoln are real. [It was] the most amazing array of beards that I have ever witnessed on a set," he says. Warner is not the only U.Va. name that appears in the film's credits. Lance Lemon (Col '11) played an African-American Union solider in a re-creation of a battle scene near Powhatan. Leslie McDonald (Arch '09), a Hollywood art director and production designer currently teaching a studio class in the School of Architecture, was one of the film's three art directors. Most of Lincoln was shot in and around Richmond, Va., and McDonald staged the Richmond Capitol building to look like the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., as it appeared in Lincoln's time. Alumni, Arts & Entertainment, Film, Faculty, 2013-02-25T21:09:44+00:00 http://uvamagazine.org/university_digest/article/by_the_numbers1 http://uvamagazine.org/university_digest/article/by_the_numbers1#When:20:42:21Z The University has kicked off its partnership with Coursera, offering five not-for-credit courses taught by U.Va. professors that run intermittently January through April. The online courses are free and open to all. Here are some numbers—as of mid-February—that provide an idea of the interest in these Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). {article_images_1}306,402 Total enrollment for spring 2013 74,487 Enrollment for the first MOOC offered by U.Va.—Professor Ed Hess' Grow to Greatness: Smart Growth for Private Businesses 15,318 Posts and comments on a discussion forum for participants in Hess' class Students, Technology, University News, 2013-02-25T20:42:21+00:00 http://uvamagazine.org/university_digest/article/the_search_for_life_on_other_planets http://uvamagazine.org/university_digest/article/the_search_for_life_on_other_planets#When:20:19:21Z Last year, Michael Skrutskie, a U.Va. astronomy professor, led a team of scientists that created and placed a thermal infrared camera into the core of the Large Binocular Telescope, located in Tucson, Ariz. The camera made the telescope the world's most powerful, with a clarity matching that of the famed Hubble Space Telescope, which can see several billion light years away from its orbit above earth. The camera has already produced game-changing science on how the universe behaves, and will play a central role in NASA's search for other planets that could support life. We talked to Skrutskie recently about the camera's future, as it peeks into the past. {article_images_1}U.Va. Magazine: How does the camera work? Skrutskie: The LBT collects light from two large mirrors, then sends it through a series of instruments that correct for atmospheric disturbances. The light is then fed into our camera, which sees light at the infrared end of the spectrum, invisible to the human eye. The camera sits in what is basically a thermos, because it has to be kept very cold, 60 degrees above absolute zero, or about 350 degrees below Fahrenheit, to minimize its own infrared glow. What has it seen? It's looked at exoplanets—planets that circle a star other than our sun—to see how they cool down and age, and how their atmospheres work. The first observations conflicted with expectations, suggesting current models are inaccurate or at least incomplete. The instrument has also observed the leftovers of solar system formation around other stars—disks of debris originating from the collision of asteroids and comets characterizing cleanup of young solar systems. What are your plans for the camera? NASA is supporting our efforts to conduct the first extensive survey of around 100 nearby stars, [searching] for young, and thus hot, planets similar to Jupiter. Why is that important? To date we know of only one place in the galaxy where life originated and we have to ask the question of whether the structure of our solar system played a significant role in the development of, and survival of, life. If it did, then other similar solar systems are places to focus our efforts. Jupiter very well may have played a major role in the cleanup of the inner solar system as well as shepherding the population of asteroids away to minimize the potential for impacts on the Earth. Most of the other planetary systems discovered to date are unlike our own, with "Jupiters" much closer to their parent stars. But the discovery methods are biased to find those types of systems. The new LBT instrument provides, for the first time, the capability to look at a large sample of planets like Jupiter much farther out. Research, Science, Physics, Technology, University News, 2013-02-25T20:19:21+00:00 http://uvamagazine.org/university_digest/article/head_of_the_class http://uvamagazine.org/university_digest/article/head_of_the_class#When:19:57:21Z {article_images_1}Two fourth-year students studying politics at U.Va. have received two of the nation's highest academic honors. Hillary Hurd (Col '13), a Richmond native, is one of 34 students chosen as a Marshall Scholar and will pursue a master's degree in international relations at Cambridge University, and in peace and conflict studies at the University of St. Andrews in Fife, Scotland. Joseph Riley (Col '13), meanwhile, will attend the University of Oxford to obtain his master's and doctoral degrees in international relations as a Rhodes Scholar. Riley, of Tennessee, is the first ROTC student chosen as a Rhodes Scholar since 2009, and is just one of 32 students selected nationally. He is a majoring in Mandarin Chinese and the politics honors program in the College of Arts & Sciences. The 21-year-old is co-authoring a book with Dale Copeland, an associate professor and director of undergraduate studies in U.Va.'s Woodrow Wilson Department of Politics, examining Sino-American relations. {article_images_2}"It has honestly been one of the most exciting, yet humbling, experiences of my life," Riley says. "I realize I have been given a great opportunity, and I am resolved to make the most of it. The scholarship and the degree will open numerous doors for me in the military, and will allow me to take assignments and leadership positions that I would not otherwise be able to hold." Hurd, 21, who is double-majoring in Russian and East European studies and the politics honors program in the College of Arts & Sciences, is the nonvoting student representative to the University's Board of Visitors and editor in chief of the Wilson Journal of International Affairs. She is a Jefferson Scholar and an Echols Scholar. "To live and breathe in one of the world's oldest, most revered universities is such a dream," Hurd says. "I cherish being a student, and I'm relieved to know that I'll have at least two, and possibly more, years to refine my understanding of international law and politics and to learn from a new family of Marshall Scholars." Schools & Departments, College of Arts & Sciences, Students, University News, 2013-02-25T19:57:21+00:00 http://uvamagazine.org/university_digest/article/end_of_an_era http://uvamagazine.org/university_digest/article/end_of_an_era#When:19:43:21Z The 123-year-old Cavalier Daily won't be publishing a print daily anymore. Editors at the student-run newspaper have announced that they will "shift focus from the traditional daily newspaper to a digital-first newsroom." {article_images_1}Beginning the next school year, the paper will become a twice-a-week printed newsmagazine and enhance its digital and online offerings. The students plan to add mobile and tablet apps, a daily e-newsletter, enhanced multimedia content and emphasize social media and web graphics, according to a statement by the paper's editors. Breaking news articles and other daily content will be posted on the publication's website. The print publication will come out every Monday and Thursday, and will feature more "in-depth investigative journalism" along with an increased focus on features, graphics and weekend previews, the editors say. "Much of our audience is now getting its news online, and the print frequency reduction will free up time and resources that we can devote to producing digital content," outgoing editor Matthew Cameron said. The Cavalier Daily received a $20,000 grant from the University of Virginia Parents' Committee last fall for digital expansion efforts. Students, U.Va. Tradition, University News, 2013-02-25T19:43:21+00:00 http://uvamagazine.org/university_digest/article/understanding_the_sacscoc_warning http://uvamagazine.org/university_digest/article/understanding_the_sacscoc_warning#When:19:26:00Z In December, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC) placed U.Va. on warning for one year, following a review of governance issues related to the Board of Visitors and the resignation and reinstatement of President Teresa Sullivan last summer. Understanding SACSCOC and why accreditation is important SACSCOC is the recognized regional accrediting body for 11 states; it defines accreditation as a process "intended to assure constituents and the public of the quality and integrity of higher education institutions and programs, and to help those institutions and programs improve." The U.S. Department of Education requires that universities be accredited to be eligible for federal funds, such as Pell Grants for students and research grants for faculty, and has authorized SACSCOC as the accrediting agency in the University's region. Accreditation is also necessary for graduates to be eligible for graduate and professional schools. {article_images_1}SACSCOC's concerns with U.Va. The Department of Education issues a set of core standards that must be met in all regions and all universities. The SACSCOC action concerns the University's compliance with one of these core standards on board governance, and with a lesser regulation on the role of faculty. SACSCOC believes U.Va. was not in compliance with a rule that a minority of governing board members can't be in charge and another rule requiring policy that clearly identifies the faculty's role in governance. The warning's effect on the University The University was placed on warning for 12 months and is expected to correct deficiencies or make satisfactory progress toward compliance. The sanction does not affect the University's eligibility to receive federal funding, including financial aid and sponsored research, nor is it a criticism of the University's academic quality and programs. "The concern is over the university's governance and really had nothing to do with the academic quality of the university," Molly Broad, president of the American Council on Education, said in an Associated Press story. "The warning is a reminder that the university is a public trust and that the governance responsibilities are shared among the rectors, the president and the faculty. It should be taken seriously, but … I believe [it] will quickly be in U.Va.'s rearview mirror." How the warning is being addressed In November, the Board approved three new policies designed to promote greater accountability and transparency. These new policies provide clarity on procedures for electing and removing presidents, establish comprehensive guidelines for evaluating a president's performance and provide for more direct involvement by faculty in board deliberations. The Board of Visitors and the president continue to work together on the governance-related concerns raised by SACSCOC in preparation for a fall 2013 visit from representatives who will, according to a January letter to the University, "review evidence of compliance." Administration, Faculty, Schools & Departments, 2013-02-25T19:26:00+00:00 http://uvamagazine.org/university_digest/article/the_early_results_are_in http://uvamagazine.org/university_digest/article/the_early_results_are_in#When:19:22:47Z The Class of 2017 began to take shape when the University posted its Early Action admission results on Jan. 11—nearly three weeks ahead of its Jan. 31 deadline. Introduced last year, the early action process drew 13,668 applicants, an increase of 17 percent from last year's total. Early admission offers were made to 3,848 students, while 3,532 were deferred to the "regular" admission cycle. Last year, nearly 800 deferred students were eventually admitted in the regular decision process. Almost a third of the early applicants (4,442) identified themselves as minorities or international students, up from 29 percent a year ago. Those offered admission posted an average SAT score of 1,421 (on a 1,600-point scale), up from an average of 1,413 last year. Of those students who received offers, 98.3 percent ranked in the top 10 percent of their high school graduating classes. Grades and test scores are important, but admission officers are always seeking well-rounded students. "We're looking at personal qualities and characteristics," says Greg Roberts, dean of admission. "We're seeking interesting students who love to learn." Target enrollment is 3,465, or 105 more students than the previous first-year class—reflecting the state's push to increase the number of degrees awarded statewide, with an emphasis on degrees in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Admissions, Students, 2013-02-25T19:22:47+00:00 http://uvamagazine.org/university_digest/article/value_propositions http://uvamagazine.org/university_digest/article/value_propositions#When:19:03:07Z {article_images_1} The University's reputation as one of the best values among public institutions has received a slight uptick with the recent release of two lists measuring value. U.Va. has moved past the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill—last year's No. 1—to earn Princeton Review's highest ranking for publics. In Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine's list of the "100 Best Values in Public Colleges," U.Va. was ranked No. 2, up a spot from last year. Both rankings reward colleges that provide a world-class education at an affordable price. "We commend these colleges for their stellar academics and their exceptional affordability as evidenced by their general financial aid awards or their comparatively low sticker prices—or both," says Robert Franek, Princeton Review's senior vice president and publisher. President Teresa Sullivan says the recognition reflects the "quality and dedication of our faculty and staff, along with the success of those who manage our finances and operations." But she also cautions against complacency. "Anyone who has been following higher education closely knows that the dynamics constantly change," she says. "Maintaining the quality of our faculty and the high level of the education our students receive while keeping the price tag affordable to families is no easy task. But this is exactly where our priorities lie for the future. Much of our energy will continue to focus on these critical areas." Schools & Departments, University News, Rankings, 2013-02-25T19:03:07+00:00 http://uvamagazine.org/letters/article/letters_to_the_editor26 http://uvamagazine.org/letters/article/letters_to_the_editor26#When:17:28:56Z Good Reads I love The University of Virginia Magazine, and by far, my favorite column is "Required Reading," where almost always there is a list of books that the interviewed person recommends. In the latest issue (Winter 2012), there are no books listed for the interview with Meg Jay and her research on 20-somethings. Thus, what are the "required readings"? I would love to know what books influenced her research or what books we might check out that will give us more insight into 20-somethings these days. Sherri Bowen (Grad '87) Austin, Texas We followed up with Meg Jay for book recommendations. —Ed. "I try to give my clients a crash course in adult development," says Jay. "To that end, books that have helped me are: Carol Dweck's Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, Tim Wilson's Redirect: The Surprising New Science of Psychological Change, Sheena Iyengar's The Art of Choosing, Christakis' and Fowler's Connected: The Surprising Power of Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives. A fun and provocative read is Lori Gottleib's Marry Him: The Case for Settling for Mr. Good Enough. Right now I'm reading Andrew Solomon's Far From the Tree, which is about when children and parents are different from one another; it truly is a work of art that must be read." Food History I enjoyed the article about the "Crystal Palace" [the temporary dining facility that served students during the Newcomb Hall renovations]. During my years at U.Va. we did have the "Commons," which was a University dining facility in what is now Garrett Hall; the major food service offering was a not so charming establishment that we dubbed (without affection) as "Ptomaine Tavern." This establishment was housed in a temporary wooden building located on Emmet Street, (presently occupied by a parking lot) across the street from what is now the Central Grounds parking garage. Those of us not on a food plan (and there were many) soon discovered the Corner. I also found a second year who owned a truck that could also take us to a facility near the Monticello Hotel, which we called the "50 Center." (You guessed it, dinners were 50 cents.) Having read the review on the recently renovated Newcomb Hall dining facilities, today's students don't always appreciate an honest attempt of providing good institutional meals. One student told me that the menu improves considerably on Parents' Weekend! My congratulations to those who are trying to make dining on the Grounds better. Richard Evans (Engr '57) Charlottesville Saving the Rotunda {article_images_1}Really enjoyed the in-depth look at the Rotunda renovation in the Winter 2012 issue. Looking forward to the completion of the work brings the thought that a significant improvement in the viewing of the north side would be to remove the base from under the statue of Jefferson. Michael Pierry Abingdon, Va. I read with interest the article on the Rotunda. I'm sure in your research you read Mr. Joe Vaughan and Omer Allen Gianniny Jr.'s book about the 1973-76 "restoration," Thomas Jefferson's Rotunda Restored. It is a very complete book with many pictures, including pictures of the construction underway. John Staley, a mechanical engineer and Virginia Tech alumnus, and I, an architect and a 1967 graduate of the University, may be the last living members of the Ballou and Justice Architects and Engineers team who worked on the Rotunda. Louis W. Ballou, a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects, and my partner, Charles C. Justice, were two senior principles of the A&E firm. Mr. Ballou, whose life-long dream was to "restore" the Rotunda, headed up the "restoration" team. Bruce M. Justice (Arch '67) Chesterfield, Va. One aspect of the article in Virginia Magazine regarding the ongoing work on the Rotunda caught my attention, and I thought I'd pass on a bit of information in case it might be relevant. I collect threaded glass insulators. Yes, it's a rather odd hobby, but I find the glass objects very interesting. Often, the history behind them is interesting as well. Most were made between the 1880s and the 1920s. One of the more desirable colors (for collectors) is purple. But all purple insulators started out as clear pieces. Often, manganese was added to the glass to neutralize the blue-green coloring that results from iron impurities in the glass. In other words, it was added to keep the glass clear by removing any aqua tint. However, when the manganese in the glass was exposed to sunlight, it turned the glass purple. The longer the exposure to sunlight, the deeper the shade of purple. Also, the greater the amount of manganese added, the stronger the reaction to sunlight and the darker the purple color. Not all clear glass used to manufacture insulators had the manganese; but most older glass did. In the insulator-collecting community, glass that has a light purple hue is called "sun-colored amethyst." The piece of glass pictured in the article looks exactly like glass that is sun-colored amethyst. Absent any other information, I would have guessed that the glass had been manufactured as "clear" around the turn of the century and had been exposed to a modest amount of sunlight over some period of time; not much, but enough to get that slight purple hue. The article was not clear as to the sequence of events in terms of this glass being uncovered. It stated that the glass had been in the dark for decades and, as a result, had turned slightly purple. But that is the opposite of what normally happens. Glass manufactured at the turn of the century would only turn purple from exposure to sunlight. Being kept in darkness would have maintained the original color of clear or light gray. Therefore, the information in the article did not make sense. Was this glass ever exposed to the sun for any length of time; even if the roof below was never opened up for the skylight? If it was, that would explain the coloring. Andrew Levin (Col '75) Chapel Hill, N.C. We got it wrong. A University expert provides more detail below. —Ed. The project team was aware that the glass was originally clear and darkened after being exposed to light due to its chemical content. The preservationist, with John G. Waite and Associates, performed research on the hundreds of glass tiles discovered in the rubble buried beneath the lower step of the roof. Manganese was used in the glass manufacturing process from c. 1860 to c. 1915 and the resulting color is a common means for dating antique glass. Before that period, lead was used as a clarifying agent, and selenium was used after c. 1915. {article_images_2}We don't know how long the tiles were exposed to light. Presumably for at least a year or so after they were initially installed, while the work on the interior progressed, but perhaps for many years—then certainly again during the 1976 renovation, when the steps were demolished and the rubble was used to fill the vault below the lowest step. The tile I held in the photo was one I picked from the top of the bucket and was in pretty bad shape. I have nicer samples I keep on my desk. Stephen P. Ratliff (Col '79) Acting Academic Division Director, U.Va. Facilities Planning and Construction Department Rockfish Gap In the Winter 2012 issue—"A Message From the President"—Ms. Sullivan begins her letter as follows: "In August 1818, Thomas Jefferson and several prominent colleagues gathered in a Rockfish Gap tavern in the Blue Ridge Mountains to produce a comprehensive plan for the University of Virginia." U.Va. alumni, history buffs and President Sullivan may like to know that there is a Virginia Historical Marker on Afton Mountain describing this historic event. It reads as follows: ROCKFISH GAP MEETING The commission appointed to select a site for the University of Virginia met 1-4 August 1818 in the tavern that stood nearby. Among the 21 members present were former presidents Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, as well as judges Spencer Roane, Archibald Stuart, and Creed Taylor. The commissioners chose Charlottesville over Lexington and Staunton for the site of the university. The tavern at which they met was owned by Samuel Leake (1790-1858) and Walter Leake (1792-1859). Enlarged later, as part of the Mountain Top Hotel and Springs, the popular tavern burned in 1909. President Sullivan concludes her letter with, "Our obligation extends back in time to the moment when Mr. Jefferson and his team of collaborators met at Rockfish Gap … and forward in time to the future generations of students who will come here to learn in U.Va.'s third century and beyond." I have been so fortunate to be a U.Va. alumnus with three U.Va. alumni sons and one U.Va. alumnus grandson. Edward A. Leake Jr. (Col '51) Richmond, Va. Examining Honor The January edition of the Virginia Magazine E-newsletter reported on proposed changes to the Honor System. The Feb. 25-28 student vote on the proposal occurred after press time. For the results of the vote, and to see more information and discussion on the proposal, visit http://www.uvamagazine.org/honor Below. are just a few comments, originally submitted online, about the proposal. I hope we stay true to our value of Honor, but also look at the facts on the ground and shape our community by considering both value and fact. Jefferson did not create the Honor Code; Jefferson, however, was a man of the Enlightenment who did not believe in dogma but cast his lot with reason. Toby Zhang (Com '07) Santa Monica, Calif. The current Honor System has evolved into a nightmarish and unfair debacle that at best makes a mockery of due process. These changes can only help, but the appeals process has to be addressed as well. Patrick Ryan (Col '71, Law '79), Titusville, N.J. The current single sanction penalty is fundamentally wrong because it leaves no opportunity for forgiveness. This proposed change to the Honor System clearly addresses that ideal. Hughes Bakewell (Com '81) Mountain Lakes, N.J. The last thing the University needs to do is take away the representative and random nature of the jury. The issue is with the penalty; the single sanction is the largest deterrent to the reporting of violations and the cause of most of the uneasiness. R. Arun Bala (Com '10) New York, N.Y. {article_images_3}I find the whole discussion alarming and saddening. Making the system more flexible will not improve honor, or make it more "significant in the lives of students." The Honor System should be held up as the ideal, that which we strive for. It should not be watered down to reflect the current state of honor at the University. It is not meant to be a reflection of what is, but rather a model for what should be. W. Scott Gillespie (Col '95, Educ '97) Charlottesville As Student Council president in 1998-99, we challenged the single sanction and put the issue to student referendum. It narrowly lost. At that time there were substantial disparities in treatment of minority students in the system. The Committee should remember that some student populations are severely under-represented in the system; and any jury that appears to be "packed" rings of unfairness and invokes old historical biases that once persisted in the Old Dominion. Howard A. Foard III (Col '99) Fairfax, Va. The real issue is the same as it has always been: what is a "significant" act of lying, cheating or stealing? What would really help the system is a much more clearly defined concept of "significance," based on the views of the current generation of students in consultation with the faculty. John T. Chesser III (Col '83) Des Moines, Iowa The Honor Committee seems to be dancing around the obvious problem. Creating a "professional" jury of questionable intent does not address the issues inherent with a single sanction approach. Offering an "informed retraction" does nothing more than provide an alternative single sanction that punishes all offenses with one sweeping and likely inappropriate penalty. Is the University of Virginia community willing to stand by the single sanction fallacy solely to promote the delusion that innocence and guilt are always black and white? Ethan Heil (Engr '11, Grad '16) Charlottesville Today's Honor Committee is moving exactly in the wrong direction, bending over backwards to make the responsibility of self-governance feel good. Bending the Honor Code to fit today's relativistic culture of corruption and compromise simply adds shades of gray to an issue that's black and white, and any student entering U.Va. who thinks that a small lie, a bit of plagiarism or a trivial theft is not the same thing as lying, cheating or stealing needs to be reoriented and reprogrammed on Day One. Which is to say, every student. The Honor Code should be short and bitter, its fruit sweet. I'm disappointed to learn that the Honor Code is being further watered down, and that the University is immersed in self-delusion. John L. Tindale III (Darden '77) Pawleys Island, S.C. I commend the Honor Committee for proposing these changes, but I fear that the one-year suspension is still such a draconian penalty that it won't change much The single sanction was appealing in its simplicity; but the school has changed so much that the single sanction is no longer appropriate. Perhaps it is time to lay portions of the Honor Code to rest. Barbara Koch Silversmith (Com '83) Burke, Va. I am puzzled. The Honor System seemed to work when I was a student in the '60s. But then, we were not as smart, I am told, as students of today. Dumb as we were, we were still able to comprehend and deal with the single sanction and graduate in reasonable numbers. Perhaps smarter and honorable do not go hand in hand. I do not accept the argument that the problem is the Honor System. I will accept an argument that today's students and faculty are more lazy and less motivated by honor than those who passed before them. Don Lovett (Engr '71) Smithfield, Va. A funny story: A classmate and I are visiting another school when a fan belt breaks on his car. The belt was not readily available and the mechanic worked hard to find one to fit. The installation was very costly. We did not have the cash or a credit card to cover the repair. So, in a very rural area at a very late hour, my classmate says, "We are students of the University and I'm sure you heard of our Honor System. On my honor, I will send you the money immediately upon our return and the bank opening." The mechanic looked at us and said, "We have an honor system here also. He drives a big car with a badge on the side of it." We left a set of golf clubs as collateral and returned the next week to exchange. Johnnie Barr (Col '74) Staunton, Va. Alumni, Grounds & Buildings, History, Students, U.Va. Tradition, Honor Code, 2013-02-25T17:28:56+00:00 http://uvamagazine.org/top_university_news/article/u.va._takes_top_spot_as_best_value_public_university http://uvamagazine.org/top_university_news/article/u.va._takes_top_spot_as_best_value_public_university#When:01:50:46Z 2013-02-19T01:50:46+00:00 http://uvamagazine.org/top_university_news/article/secretary_of_state_john_kerry_to_make_first_major_public_address_at_u.va http://uvamagazine.org/top_university_news/article/secretary_of_state_john_kerry_to_make_first_major_public_address_at_u.va#When:01:48:46Z 2013-02-19T01:48:46+00:00 http://uvamagazine.org/top_university_news/article/online_classes_raise_questions_about_future_of_education http://uvamagazine.org/top_university_news/article/online_classes_raise_questions_about_future_of_education#When:01:45:34Z 2013-02-19T01:45:34+00:00 http://uvamagazine.org/top_university_news/article/new_offensive_coordinator_discusses_u.va._quarterbacks http://uvamagazine.org/top_university_news/article/new_offensive_coordinator_discusses_u.va._quarterbacks#When:01:42:39Z 2013-02-19T01:42:39+00:00 http://uvamagazine.org/top_university_news/article/sullivan_offers_insight_into_strategic_planning_process http://uvamagazine.org/top_university_news/article/sullivan_offers_insight_into_strategic_planning_process#When:01:37:28Z 2013-02-19T01:37:28+00:00 http://uvamagazine.org/only_online/article/friday_night_apps http://uvamagazine.org/only_online/article/friday_night_apps#When:19:15:56Z Since 2011, daily time spent using mobile apps has surpassed desktop and mobile web consumption, according to Flurry Analytics, an app-tracking firm. More than 40 billion apps have been downloaded from the Apple App Store and another 25 billion from the Android Market. Many people use apps for entertainment, cooking, reading, driving, working out, even for dating. We talked to two students and two alumni who have developed apps that can guide you through an evening out on the town. {article_images_2}Dinner: FOODIO Most college students begrudge being the unlucky person who has to pay the bill during a group take-out order, since they are often ‘stiffed’ by friends who don’t have cash on-hand. After several nights of being ‘that guy’ during shared orders, fourth-year student Rory Stolzenberg (Col '13) wanted to fix the problem. Wouldn’t it be nice, he thought, if everyone could pay for their order portions through their phones by entering their credit card information? In September of 2011, the economics and government double major began building the Foodio application for the Android phone, allowing for individual payments on a group order via the app. By May, he ran a beta test using several Corner restaurant menus. This past fall, Stolzenberg developed the product for iPhones and Blackberries while also enhancing the group-order function so that friends could sync their order between multiple phones. Stolzenberg visited Corner restaurants, pitching businesses on giving the app a try. Four restaurants agreed. The app itself is free for the user. If multiple credit cards are being charged for the order, there’s a processing fee and the restaurants pay a small commission—though they won’t have to pay unless they receive orders via Foodio. Foodio is scheduled to launch in mid-February—and if successful, extend beyond U.Va. “Our ultimate goal is for Foodio to be the go-to way to order any take-out or delivery food in the country,” Stolzenberg says. At a Game or Concert: ATTENDR {article_images_1}First-year student Brent Baumgartner (Engr '16) was sitting in Calculus class this fall when he had an app-iphany: “I wanted a social messaging app based around a localized event,” Baumgartner says. For example: you’re at a U.Va. basketball game and you disagree with a referee or want to know stats about a player. You send your thoughts to the app’s host, who publishes your comments to those in the Attendr group. “If you disagree with the latest penalty, you can write in, say why, and have a debate with everyone at the event,” Baumgartner says. The app is free to users at smaller events; for larger events, the host pays for its use. Baumgartner’s idea won the won the Vonage-OpenGrounds Future of Social Messaging Concept Competition at U.Va. on November 30th, which granted him a $15,000 grand prize. Baumgartner says he’s using $5,000 to 7,000 of the prize money toward building the app’s business. He’s still working on developing the app, along with two business partners, and hopes to expand nationwide once the app is running. Getting Home: TAXI MAGIC {article_images_3}Have you ever found yourself standing on a street corner, trying for 20 minutes to hail a taxi? Or perhaps you’re visiting friends in Charlottesville and after a late night out at the Corner, wish you could summon a cab with just the touch of a button? Thanks to U.Va. alumni Sanders Partee (’86) and Tom DePasquale (’82), you can. In 2007, Partee and DePasquale, already successful businessmen, founded Taxi Magic, now the country’s largest taxi booking network. The app allows you to book taxis through your phone, follow the cab’s progression and pay for your cab ride via the app. After starting in the D.C. area, Taxi Magic has spread globally in the last five years, including to Vancouver and London, in partnering with local cab services. They’re also located in U.Va. territory in partnership with Yellow Cab of Charlottesville. Downloading the app is free; should you pay for the cab via the app, there’s a $1.50 documentation charge. You can store previous address pick-ups as ‘favorites,’ which the app will remember, and the app now also utilizes Four Square to improve the speed and efficiency of pinpointing your exact location. “We talk about the app as a wanted app for a needed transaction,” Partee says. “The concept of needing to get around town is clearly a need, and we strive to be a wanted app—to make the app easy, convenient and fun.” Alumni, Technology, 2013-02-18T19:15:56+00:00 http://uvamagazine.org/only_online/article/queen_of_tech http://uvamagazine.org/only_online/article/queen_of_tech#When:17:54:56Z {article_images_1}Jenna Wortham (Col ’04) is a technology reporter for the New York Times where she writes about Internet startups, smartphone apps, social media and tech consumerism. She is also a former writer for Wired magazine and co-founder of Girl Crush, a “zine” about female friendship and admiration. On Twitter, where she has nearly half a million followers, she describes herself as a “GIF maker, news breaker” and as “in an open relationship with the Internet.” Here are just a few of her observations about how technology affects the way we live: On social media: “My use of Instagram, Tumblr, Twitter and Facebook has never been greater. But I’m growing tired of seeing everyone’s perfectly framed, glittering nightscapes of the Manhattan skyline, their impeccably prepared meals, those beautifully blurred views of the world from an airplane window seat. I’m getting tired of carefully crafting and sharing them myself … It’s success theater, and we’ve mastered it. We’ve gotten better at it because it matters more. You never know who is looking or how it might affect your relationships and career down the road, and as a result, we have become more cautious about the version of ourselves that we present to each other and the world.” Source On digital etiquette: “Most of us know that it’s rude to text at the dinner table or talk on the phone while paying for groceries at the store—even if we do it anyway. But what are the rest of the rules that apply to a world populated by smartphones, tablets, apps and services that turn our private lives inside out, and grant our friends and families round-the-clock access to our comings and goings? Can you crash a friend’s party that you found out about on Facebook or Instagram? Or send a text during dinner — if it’s under the table? Or should you always excuse yourself and head to the bathroom to do a quick and discreet skim through messages, texts and Twitter messages?” Source On concertgoers and their smartphones: “People pulled out their cameras at the introduction of the show and then again when [the artist] segued into his most popular hits, the peaks in the performance when the energy was at its highest … Perhaps instead of trying to obsessively document the night, my fellow concertgoers were interested in capturing small snippets of the show to serve as a trigger in the future, reactivating the way they felt during those moments. The videos could augment that physical recollection of the night, rather than serve as a replacement for it. Of course, plenty of people still try to capture every moment throughout the day; it’s compulsive and endemic of the way we interact and share information about our lives through the social Web. But maybe … we’re starting to overdose on the amount of memories we can reasonably review and adapting our behavior to cope. Maybe we’re starting to prioritize and selectively capture the flashes that seem most important, most evocative, and most likely to transport us back to the moment when they happened the first time around.” Source On the trouble with Twitter in times of crisis: “During Hurricane Sandy’s peak, Twitter was abuzz with activity, as tens of thousands of people turned to the microblogging service for alerts, updates and real-time reports and photographs of the storm Trouble is, not all of it was true. Deliberate falsehoods, including images showing the Statue of Liberty engulfed in ominous clouds and sharks swimming through waterlogged suburban neighborhoods quickly spread through the service, as did word that power would be shut off for the entire city of New York and that the floor of the New York Stock Exchange had been flooded. Twitter says it cannot possibly regulate the millions of messages on its service, and that a bit of misinformation and mischief is to be expected. But in recent years, the service has become an indispensable funnel of information in critical times for many people, especially for those who lose access to power or cable TV. For them, it can be a crucial lifeline.” Source On how new apps help document our lives: “Timehop and Rewind.me … tap into my social media history and send daily reminders of my past postings, from pictures uploaded to Instagram, the photo-sharing application, to messages on Facebook and Twitter. At a basic level, these services serve as a cognitive crutch, excavating details about the past that I might not otherwise remember. They offer historical insight into a digital world that is in many ways ephemeral — full of constantly refreshing newsfeeds … They could usher in a much-needed dose of reality about the permanence of the digital Web, a truth that is hard to grasp when so much of what we post online feels so ephemeral, visible for only a few seconds. Behaving as if our digital data is fleeting can cause serious trouble, said [S. Shyam] Sundar, [a director of the Media Effects Research Lab at Pennsylvania State University] especially as our offline and online worlds merge. Our actions, documented through the content we share, can have very real effects on what colleges we get into, what jobs we qualify for and what people we meet. ‘We have to start taking seriously the idea of social media as self-representation,’ he said. ‘Social media is no longer just a mirror of the present, but also the past.’” Source Letting Go of the Network Reporter Jenna Wortham talks to writer and tech entrepreneur Anil Dash about the fear and joy of missing out when everyone else is still using their mobile devices. Alumni, Alumnae, Technology, 2013-02-18T17:54:56+00:00 http://uvamagazine.org/only_online/article/apps_grab_bag http://uvamagazine.org/only_online/article/apps_grab_bag#When:17:47:56Z As of January of 2013, Apple reported that there were 775,000 apps available to iPhone and iPad users. So it’s not surprising that a lot of entrepreneurs are hoping to build the next great app. Several of those tech-minded creatives are U.Va. students or alumni. We spoke with five about the apps they’re developing and/or have developed for smartphone users. Here’s the lowdown: {article_images_5}The Married App themarriedapp.com What it does: Allows guests to get directions, requests songs during the reception and even see all the pictures taken by others through the app and on a projector in real time. Who made it and why: Rose Blais Alexander (Engr '09) and her husband, Jared Alexander (Engr '09). They made a the first version of the app for their own wedding at the U.Va. Chapel in 2010. {article_images_1}HotelTonight hoteltonight.com What it does: Users can make same-day hotel reservations at a discount. ABC News named it one of the top travel apps right now. Who invented it and why: Sam Shank, (Col ’95), was looking for a super-simple way to book a room on his smart phone at the last minute, and was not impressed with the existing apps. {article_images_2}Antengo antengo.com What it does: Classified listings of 140 characters or fewer providing real-time messaging between buyers and sellers. Outside a concert venue trying to land a ticket? Go to Antengo and find someone selling one closeby. Who invented it and why: Hunter Jensen, (Col ’05) with co-founder Marcus Wandell. While attending a concert, Wandell thought that it would be nice to be able to see all of the beer vendors, and their deals, on his phone. They then refined the idea to capturing an entire mobile marketplace. {article_images_6}WalkBack walkback.me What it does: Users physically bump their mobile devices together, creating a connection between the two phones. Each friend can check on the other’s status and location and be automatically notified when the other safely arrives home. Universities can use the data it produces anonymously to make informed decisions to improve student safety. Who invented it and why: Duylam Nguyen-Ngo (Engr ’13) and Ashutosh Priyadarshy (Engr ’12), in response to several high profile crimes on campuses nationwide. {article_images_4}The U.Va. App http://www.virginia.edu/mobile/ What it does: Easy access to news, a Grounds directory, calendar events, library listings and athletics updates—even recorded versions of “The Good Old Song”—are available for iPhone and Android users. Who invented it and why: The application was developed by a group that included representatives from the Office of Admission, Student Affairs, Athletics and the Alumni Association. The University contracted with WillowTree Apps, Inc., of Charlottesville to help design and build the app, which includes two dozen subapplications. {article_images_3}Grounds Nav When third-year mechanical engineering and computer science major Dan Nizri arrived at U.Va. as a first year, he had trouble navigating Grounds. The New Jersey native thought how helpful it’d be if a college campus map app existed. This past summer, Nizri began developing an app to help U.Va. students maneuver around Grounds. Nizri launched the app for Android users in early September; to date, it’s had over 550 downloads. A student enters his start and end points and the app gives walking instructions. The difference between this app and other GPS apps, Nizri says, is that Grounds Nav “has all the specific locations on Grounds—buildings, fraternities, athletic fields—stored, so you can click on a place and it shows you where it is on a map and gives you step-by-step walking directions.” Since the app’s launch, he’s added several other features, including street view, which shows what a building looks like, as well as the ability to enter your class schedule. Nizri hopes to have the app, which is free, available by download to iPhone users by next semester. He’s expanded to eight campuses nationwide, including Penn State and Boston College, and plans to add more.   Alumni, Technology, 2013-02-18T17:47:56+00:00 http://uvamagazine.org/polls/article/do_you_agree_with_the_honor_committees_proposed_modifications_to_the_honor http://uvamagazine.org/polls/article/do_you_agree_with_the_honor_committees_proposed_modifications_to_the_honor#When:19:13:39Z 2013-01-21T19:13:39+00:00 http://uvamagazine.org/only_online/article/honor_committee_proposes_change_to_system http://uvamagazine.org/only_online/article/honor_committee_proposes_change_to_system#When:18:58:56Z On January 21, the Honor Committee endorsed a proposal to make two key changes to the Honor System. Students will vote on the committee’s proposal February 25-28. The committee believes its proposal—which introduces Informed Retraction and changing the composition of juries at Honor trials—will address many of the Honor System’s problems and ultimately restore the system as an integral part of the student experience. Here, we look at some of the ways that the Honor System has evolved over the years, challenges to the system as reflected in recent surveys gauging student and faculty attitudes about Honor, the proposal’s details and the Honor Committee’s rationale for proposing change. 1. Challenges and changes  {article_images_1}The high standards that the Honor System demands of students at U.Va. and the way the system itself functions have long been a topic of heated conversation and debate. Students are charged not only with the responsibility of governing and administering the Honor System, but also with ensuring that the principles of Honor are central to student life at the University of Virginia. Editors of the Cavalier Daily provide examples of the lengthy history of conversation about the vitality and viability of the Honor System, writing in 1958, “Is honor at Virginia a reality or is the Honor System a great hollow shell …?” In 1967, another Cavalier Daily editorial stated, “We do not know whether the spirit [of honor] can thrive in the University of tomorrow, so large and so diverse and so wrapped up in the exigencies of the modern world.” {article_images_2}2. Problems Persist A half-century later, the University community is still asking many of those same questions and raising similar concerns. A 2001 Honor System Review Commission composed of students, faculty, administrators, Board of Visitors members and others concluded, “We do not think all is well with the Honor System. We agree with many in the community that the system is in grave danger and that without substantial reform it may succumb in the relatively near future to pressure external, internal, or both. “We believe very strongly that students can be trusted to run a vital university system that is both aspirational and disciplinary. But we have concluded that many of the changes of the last 20 to 30 years have had the effect of loosening student accountability and have undercut the willingness of the students collectively to take charge of the system.” 3. The current state of Honor Honor Survey Results See an overview of the results of the 2012 student Honor survey See the 2012 U.Va. faculty survey results (Section VI of the report relates to the Honor System) More than a decade after the Review Commission report, the Honor System still appears threatened by the same challenges identified in 2001. Surveys of students and faculty in 2012 highlight some of the primary problems with the system: 74% of students feel positively about the Honor System, but 63% are hesitant to report violations, citing uneasiness with the single sanction. 42% of students say that they would report on Honor offense, but of those who think they actually witnessed an Honor offense, only 5% said that they reported it. 38% of faculty strongly support the Honor System. Another 35% support it, but with reservations. 80% of faculty feel cheating was very uncommon or uncommon in their own classes, but that opinion drops to 56% of faculty when considering cheating at the University as a whole. After faculty members refer a case to the Honor System, only 20% still strongly support the system. 4. The committee's proposal Infographic Follow two students as they go through both the existing and proposed Honor systems. Their journey illustrates the current problems and helps explain why the committee believes its proposal could strengthen the system. Recent survey results seem to clearly indicate that the Honor System at the University faces significant challenges. The Honor Committee believes its proposal will address the key issues that have created dysfunction within the system, thus alleviating many student and faculty concerns. The first part of the committee’s proposal introduces Informed Retraction, which builds upon the Honor System’s existing Conscientious Retraction policy. Currently, Conscientious Retraction provides the opportunity for students to come forward before they are aware that they are suspected of committing an Honor offense, admit to the act, make amends and remain a member of the Community of Trust. The proposed addition of Informed Retraction extends the opportunity for students to come forward immediately after they are made aware that an Honor report has been filed against them. The committee explains that this allows a student to take responsibility for his or her actions by admitting to the act, making amends with the Community of Trust, and leaving the University for two full academic semesters. A student would only be allowed to file an Informed Retraction once. While a student is away from the University, his or her transcript would read “Honor Leave of Absence.” The notation would be removed after a year, regardless of whether a student opts to return to U.Va. The second component of the proposal replaces randomly selected student juries with juries composed exclusively of elected Honor Committee representatives. “No other adjudicating body at the University uses random students as a jury panel, but instead utilizes formally trained student representatives as the most effective panel to fairly adjudicate matters and pursue the truth,” the committee states. {article_images_3}5. What does this mean for the single sanction? The Honor Committee “supports the single sanction and feels strongly that its proposal in no way changes the system’s policy of having only one sanction for students found guilty of an Honor offense. Accordingly, the committee notes that the constitutional language protecting that aspect of the Honor System is unaltered with this proposal.” “Since the inception of the Conscientious Retraction, the Honor System has long recognized that a student can behave in a way that reaffirms his or her place in our Community of Trust after committing an act of lying, cheating, or stealing,” the Honor Committee states. “The single sanction still exists now, and will continue to do so with this proposal, as the sole consequence for an individual found guilty of committing an Honor offense at a trial.” 6. Significant changes in the last four decades Retrace the history of the Honor System in this 2008 Virginia Magazine article, "The Evolution of Honor." {article_images_6} As the University and its students have changed over the years, the Honor System has consistently evolved to keep pace. The current Honor Committee believes that some of the changes have strengthened the system, while others seem to have eroded its effectiveness. 1970s: The Honor Committee is unsure of exactly when Conscientious Retraction (admitting to an Honor offense before any awareness of suspicion by another U.Va. community member) was introduced, but knows that it has been part of the system since the 1970s. 1980: Accused students have the option to choose a jury composed of both randomly selected peers and members of the Honor Committee. Ten years later, another referendum allows students to opt for a jury composed entirely of randomly selected peers. 1987: The Honor Committee creates a panel of student investigators to help prepare facts for trials. By 1993, randomly selected investigators are replaced with trained support officers. Today: The Honor Committee’s new proposal seeks to reverse the change to jury composition introduced in 1990 and, with the addition of Informed Retraction, expand the time frame for admission of wrongdoing that has been provided by Conscientious Retraction since the 1970s. 7. An evolving system, constant principles {article_images_4}For more than 170 years the Honor System has served three fundamental purposes at the University. The system’s core principles are: Foster a community of trust Pursue truth in an academic setting Promote student self-governance Although the system has undergone numerous changes and endured bumps in the road as the system has evolved and student attitudes have changed over the years, these principles have remained at the heart of the Honor System. The Honor Committee hopes that its current proposal will allow it to more actively focus on strengthening these three principles among the larger student body by solving the persistent procedural issues that have weakened the Honor System over time. “The Honor Committee has been encouraged by the widespread and enthusiastic support we have received so far from many University stakeholders,” Stephen Nash (Col '13), chair of the Honor Committee, says of conversations leading up to today's announcement. “Support officers, who work hard to administer our system each and every day, have expressed confidence that this proposal can serve as a comprehensive solution to fix the serious internal problems we too often encounter. Faculty and administrators have been excited for this proposal's potential to provide a system that would be most effectively administered and could lead to a reinvigorated spirit of Honor within student life. Additionally, many students we have spoken with also see this proposal as an opportunity to recommit to Honor by addressing these serious problems and bridging the current divide between positive support of the ideal and the lack of confidence with the current procedures.” {article_images_5}8. Why the Honor Committee believes its proposal will help The committee states: “This proposal aims to comprehensively address internal dysfunction within the Honor System that is weakening the culture of Honor at the University, while ensuring that a single sanction remains in place. There are two primary problems within the Honor System that combine to create this dysfunction. The first problem is that the current system incentivizes student dishonesty throughout the Honor process because a student who dishonestly participates has a better chance of receiving a not-guilty verdict than a student who proceeds honestly through the investigation and trial process. “This is compounded by the second problem of randomly selected jury panels. Often uncomfortable with the Honor System’s standards and bylaws, random students inconsistently determine standards such as “reasonable doubt” and often deliver not-guilty verdicts, even in the face of overwhelming evidence. “The components in this proposal are contingent on each other. We believe that each independently would not be sufficient in addressing the current problems. “In short, this proposal seeks to fix the Honor System’s internal dysfunction by re-aligning it with the positive ideals of the system and protecting its critical character—a single sanction for those found guilty at trial, student self-governance, and strong community support.” In addition to the comments section of this website, the Alumni Forum provides a place for discussion of issues related to U.Va. Additional reader discussion can be found on this related article and infographic about the proposed changes to the System. History, Students, U.Va. Tradition, Honor Code, 2013-01-21T18:58:56+00:00 http://uvamagazine.org/only_online/article/honor_committees_proposal http://uvamagazine.org/only_online/article/honor_committees_proposal#When:18:52:56Z FILLER U.Va. Tradition, Honor Code, 2013-01-21T18:52:56+00:00 http://uvamagazine.org/top_university_news/article/helen_dragas_u.va._board_rector_is_on_path_to_reappointment_after_committee http://uvamagazine.org/top_university_news/article/helen_dragas_u.va._board_rector_is_on_path_to_reappointment_after_committee#When:19:28:27Z Administration, University News, 2013-01-18T19:28:27+00:00 http://uvamagazine.org/top_university_news/article/u.va._students_suggest_improvements http://uvamagazine.org/top_university_news/article/u.va._students_suggest_improvements#When:19:19:24Z Administration, Students, University News, 2013-01-18T19:19:24+00:00 http://uvamagazine.org/top_university_news/article/faculty_share_hopes_concerns_during_strategic_planning_open_forum http://uvamagazine.org/top_university_news/article/faculty_share_hopes_concerns_during_strategic_planning_open_forum#When:19:07:15Z Administration, Faculty, Schools & Departments, University News, 2013-01-18T19:07:15+00:00 http://uvamagazine.org/top_university_news/article/12_insider_tricks_to_pay_for_college http://uvamagazine.org/top_university_news/article/12_insider_tricks_to_pay_for_college#When:19:03:58Z Schools & Departments, Students, 2013-01-18T19:03:58+00:00 http://uvamagazine.org/top_university_news/article/free_online_course_for_growth_seeking_entrepreneurs http://uvamagazine.org/top_university_news/article/free_online_course_for_growth_seeking_entrepreneurs#When:18:50:19Z Career, Schools & Departments, Darden School of Business, Technology, University News, 2013-01-18T18:50:19+00:00 http://uvamagazine.org/in_your_words/article/making_sense_out_of_cents http://uvamagazine.org/in_your_words/article/making_sense_out_of_cents#When:18:48:35Z If somebody had told me in high school that I would be in charge of $3.5 billion in revenue for one of America’s largest companies, I would have laughed. Many others who knew me at that time would also have been amused. Like most kids, I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life. When I started college, I majored in anything but studying, especially since my dad paid for it—the first time. That experience came to a rapid stop after the end of my first year, so I took some time off to contemplate the meaning of life, worked a full-time job, and attended community college. Once I had enough credits and was more serious about studying, I transferred into U.Va. because it was close to my home, Fairfax. Little did I know how much U.Va. would prepare me for my career in accounting and management. I was more serious about making sense of my life because it was on my dime, not my dad’s. I graduated from the McIntire School of Commerce with a B.S. in accounting, and I stayed another year to get my M.S. in accounting. {article_images_1}As part of my master’s program, I was one of eight students who taught undergrad accounting to first and second years. I was lucky that U.Va. professors selected me and felt I had something to contribute. U.Va. provided two important skills that help in my current role at Celanese. I learned how to work on teams, practicing diplomacy, negotiation, influencing, teamwork and conflict resolution. Second, I received excellent technical training in accounting and business. These skills enabled me to secure an accounting job with one of the Big 6 (now Big 4) accounting firms, which led to a job at another Big 6 firm. One bonus was meeting my future wife at the first firm. Who says that accountants can’t find love in the numbers? Then I took a tax manager role at Reichhold, a manufacturer of resins and composites, and advanced my career, eventually becoming the director of corporate finance. In 2008, I joined Celanese as vice president of global tax. Again, I expanded my career into treasury, transaction services and, presently work as the vice president and director of business planning & analysis for the Acetyl Intermediates business. We engineer and manufacture a variety of products essential to everyday living such as paints, adhesives, pharmaceuticals and plastics. Our division developed a new technology to produce ethanol from feedstocks that has the potential to lessen the global fuel shortage. My team and I are responsible for managing more than $3.5 billion in revenue in a highly complex and competitive arena. Even though I’m in Texas now where fellow Cavaliers are few and far between, I continue to appreciate the training I received at U.Va., and not just the exceptional technical skills but also the interpersonal skills needed to be an effective leader. Alumni, Career, Schools & Departments, McIntire School of Commerce, 2012-12-10T18:48:35+00:00 http://uvamagazine.org/polls/article/what_might_the_rotunda_be_best_used_for_in_the_future http://uvamagazine.org/polls/article/what_might_the_rotunda_be_best_used_for_in_the_future#When:20:32:15Z Grounds & Buildings, History, 2012-11-27T20:32:15+00:00 http://uvamagazine.org/alumni_news/article/our_survey_said http://uvamagazine.org/alumni_news/article/our_survey_said#When:18:25:08Z Earlier this year, a random sample of alumni were invited to participate in an email survey about their feelings toward the University of Virginia. Of the 9,699 invited to participate, 2,431 alumni completed the survey. {article_images_1}Ways to Stay Involved When asked about six of the available ways to stay involved with U.Va., at least two-thirds of alumni expressed interest in every one of them. Choices included news from Grounds; faculty talks or events with an intellectual or cultural focus; socializing with other alumni; job and career services; volunteering for U.Va.; and attending events organized around U.Va. sports. {article_images_2}Can You Rate Us? Alumni were asked if they have enough awareness of each of the six ways to be able to rate them. At the high end, 84 percent of alumni felt they had enough information to rate the job the University is doing providing news from Grounds. For the other areas, awareness dropped off significantly. {article_images_3}How Are We Doing? Among alumni with an opinion, 72 percent rated U.Va. excellent or good overall in serving their needs and interests, but only 11 percent rated the University’s efforts excellent overall. {article_images_4}Going Online The digital resources that alumni said they would be most likely to use are lifetime learning and career resources. Half of alumni were aware that U.Va. already offers online job and career networking resources, but only about a tenth knew about other available resources. Digital Resources For more information about the programs listed above, please visit alumni.virginia.edu. Online job and career networking resources Online library catalog Lifetime learning resources Podcasts and videos of faculty talks: iTunesU EBSCOhost research databases Alumni, 2012-11-26T18:25:08+00:00 http://uvamagazine.org/research_and_discovery/article/bottled_trouble http://uvamagazine.org/research_and_discovery/article/bottled_trouble#When:18:11:58Z {article_images_1}A chemical found in everything from soda bottles to store receipts could affect genes that play a role in social behavior across generations, according to researchers at the U.Va. School of Medicine. Bisphenol A, commonly referred to as BPA, was shown in a recent study to disrupt how those genes develop in the brains of fetuses through at least four generations of mice. According to Dr. Emilie Rissman, the lead investigator of the study, the chemical—given to the mothers in doses proportional to what humans ingest—left earlier generations of mice less likely to interact with others, compared to a control group that was not exposed to BPA. But by the fourth generation—the “great grandchildren” of those initially exposed to BPA—the chemical was shown to have the opposite effect, causing the mice to interact more with others when compared to the control group. “This shows that even teeny tiny doses of BPA can have a huge effect in development,” Rissman said. “While we can’t say for certain these effects would be the same in humans, mice are a good model of what to expect.” Rissman said that while her team found that different genes were affected by the chemical between the earlier and later generations, they were unsure what caused that change, but plan further studies in an effort to pinpoint the cause. BPA is used in the production of polycarbonate plastics and epoxy resins, which can be used in food packaging, where it has been shown to leach into food. The FDA last summer banned BPA from being used in baby bottles and cups. Where BPA can be found {article_images_2}In general, plastics that are marked with recycle codes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 are very unlikely to contain BPA. Some, but not all, plastics that are marked with recycle code 7 may be made with BPA. From U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services DON'T Do not put very hot or boiling liquid that you intend to consume in plastic containers made with BPA. BPA levels rise in food when containers/products made with the chemical are heated and come in contact with the food. DO Be sure to discard all bottles with scratches, as these may harbor bacteria and could lead to release of BPA. Research, Schools & Departments, Medical School, Science, Biology, Environment, 2012-11-26T18:11:58+00:00 http://uvamagazine.org/student_life/article/wet_paint http://uvamagazine.org/student_life/article/wet_paint#When:16:54:03Z A bead rattled at the bottom of Peter Chen's aerosol can, mixing up the red paint. It was music to his ears. Chen pressed the nozzle and unleashed a series of swooping red lines across the white wall of a Fitzhugh Hall common area. After finishing the outline, he sprayed orange for dimension and blue and black for the fill. Two hours and four cans of paint later, Chen had covered 10 feet of wall with the word "Peach" and given the dorm's first-year residents a piece of art for their living space. "Peach" is Chen's graffiti alias, his "tag." It's the name that he uses to sign all of his art and mark it, somewhat anonymously, as his own. It's not that he's looking to hide from anyone. Chen (Engr '13) is quick to distinguish between his art, which he places only in approved locations, and vandalism. He had permission from the housing administration to paint the Fitzhugh common area; the building will be torn down to make way for new Alderman Road dormitories, and the students have painted a few U.Va.-themed murals on its walls. When he paints, Chen participates in a long-standing University tradition. Students have been painting public spaces on and around Grounds for more than a century. {article_images_1}They scrawled sports scores across the train trestle at 14th Street and University Ave. on the Corner, a practice that began shortly after the trestle was built in 1901. Student society symbols—7s, Zs and IMPs—adorn many academic buildings and student residences. In 1926, the student newspaper College Topics documented the first painting of Beta Bridge, noting that students had splashed bright green paint over the city-owned railroad bridge on Rugby Road. Students began painting Beta Bridge more regularly in the late 1960s. Now, the bridge's appearance changes nearly every day, with students painting birthday messages to friends, advertising an on-Grounds charity event or stating political opinions. Trevor Kemp (Engr '06, '13) documents the ever-changing face of the bridge on his photography blog, Beta Bridge (Almost) Daily and sees the bridge as a "forum" for students. "It's an expression of the collective conscience of the University, and it's unique. I don't know of any other place that has something like this." Other student groups, such as the Aerosol Art Club, bring graffiti to other areas on Grounds. Chen established the club in 2009 as a community where students interested in aerosol art can develop painting techniques and, through artful and legal placement of the paint, champion graffiti as a legitimate form of artistic expression. Aerosol Art Club members always ask permission to paint a space—if they can't paint a wall, they paint large boards. {article_images_7}Unexpected but artful graffiti "gets people's attention," says Zaina Natour (Col '14). Natour maintains a website, Graffiti on Grounds, that showcases everything from Sharpie messages to stencils. "Every time I think there isn't any more left, I find more. People are actively out there" creating, she says, and students are on the lookout for more. While Chen and other aerosol artists favor the freedom of a large wall and cans of paint, other artists at U.Va. choose a different approach—stencils have been popping up all over Grounds, on the back side of Beta Bridge, under stairwells in the art building and on small billboards. An artist painstakingly plans and cuts an elaborate, usually small, stencil at home, but once the stencil is cut, the image can be placed quickly again and again. Natour is particularly interested in stencils and has even made a few herself. She says stencils are often political, like one featuring Thomas Jefferson and the word "OBEY" that has appeared in a few spots around Grounds this year. She overhears students pondering its meaning whenever they walk by. "It's really clever," she says, and it could be about so many different things here at U.Va. {article_images_4}Chen, Kemp and Natour hope that fellow students will continue to paint and document art in the future. The Aerosol Art Club isn't large enough to be recognized as an official student group this year; Kemp is finishing his master's degree and hopes someone will take over his blog when he leaves town. Natour has another year of classes, but she knows that the graffiti will continue long after she walks the Lawn. Graffiti artists agree that the purpose of their work is to make people think, to start a conversation about art, its creators and its environment. For more than 100 years, artists on Grounds have found untouched space or painted over older messages to spark new topics for discussion. "There are all of these layers of paint" on Beta Bridge and elsewhere, says Kemp, "and as soon as [a message] gets painted over, it's gone. But it's not really, because it's still there, underneath. Each layer holds a story." {article_images_5} {article_images_3} {article_images_6} Arts & Entertainment, Visual Arts, Students, 2012-11-26T16:54:03+00:00 http://uvamagazine.org/features/article/meet_the_machines http://uvamagazine.org/features/article/meet_the_machines#When:19:55:25Z Some are tiny. Others are massive. They’re helping doctors, students and researchers expand the limits of their fields. They’re U.Va.’s machines of science. Here’s a look at just a few. {article_images_1}The 3-D Printer Say you’re throwing a dinner party and find that you’re missing a salt shaker. What if you could go to your computer, download the design and “print” (create) one right then and there? Associate professor of engineering Gavin Garner (Engr ’06, ’09) says it won’t be too long before this becomes a reality. The recently opened Rapid Prototyping Laboratory in the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering building houses six 3-D printers, or fused deposition modeling machines, each about the size of an oven, and one larger one, about the size of a small storage shed. “Whatever you can draw in three dimensions these computers can print,” says Garner. {article_images_2}The printer uses spools of plastic and a support material to make models. The plastic is laid down in fine layers with a number of quickly moving nozzles, while the support material is built around it, effectively allowing an object to be created midair. When the process is finished, the object is dipped in a chemical bath that strips away the support material, leaving the finished item. “What we’re really doing with these machines is opening the doors to give our students and faculty the tools to be able to bring their dreams into reality,” says Garner. The Lab on a Chip It usually takes up to two weeks for scientists to decode a genetic fingerprint. The “lab on a chip” provides the same results within an hour. A typical procedure involves an extraction, for instance getting your finger pricked. Analyzing that blood sample involves multiple steps in multiple places. “Lab on a chip stitches all of those together in a very small space,” says chemistry professor Jim Landers. “You can automate those processes, linked together and in miniature, and you can do it very, very fast.” Under Landers’ guidance, students are creating labs on chips that they hope will one day be used in genetic and forensic testing as well as cancer prognoses. {article_images_3}Graduate student Dan Nelson extracts tumor cells from blood through micro channels on a plexiglass chip about an inch and a half wide and three inches long. The chip is etched with these channels, and then, using acoustic waves, the blood sample is pumped through them, traveling through various micro pipes and reservoirs where it can be analyzed and manipulated for results. “Let’s imagine that Mrs. Jones goes in to see her doctor, and her lump is getting larger and larger,” says Landers. “The doctor sends her down to phlebotomy, where they’ll grab a couple thousand cells.” It will be days if not weeks, then, before the results come in. “Fast forward: If you have this chip in the office with the instrument, the doctor takes the cells himself, pops it in and tells Mrs. Jones to go get a cup of coffee. You’re on it today, not two weeks from now.” The Gantry {article_images_5}Imagine you work for a car company and you’d like to test out a new color mix on an automobile, study how it appears in different kinds of light, without having to actually paint it and watch it drive around. This is where the Gantry, a “robot for illuminating objects in a controlled way,” might come in, according to Jason Lawrence, an associate professor in computer science. One of four devices in the country, and originally developed at Stanford, the Gantry consists of two mechanical arms that swivel around a central platform. An object painted with the new car color might be placed there, for instance, while the arms are fixed with different kinds of light. As they move around the platform, they simulate what the paint would look like on the car, providing “high-quality measurements of the appearance of an object,” says Lawrence, “and the way it scatters light.” The Gantry is also used to help develop more effective 3-D scanners. “There are technical limits to what 3-D scanners can do, and this type of device helps researchers devise new ideas of how to improve them,” says Lawrence. It can support research in industrial design, architecture, manufacturing and digital humanities, any area that could be served by “predictive rendering,” or a simulation of how something is going to look. The Tomo Linear Accelerator {article_images_4}Below U.Va.’s Emily Couric Clinical Cancer Center, in thick-walled underground rooms built with lead bricks and sealed with heavy doors to shield radiation, is one of the world’s most advanced cancer-fighting machines. The TomoTherapy Linear Accelerator can deliver doses of radiation to a tumor with such pinpoint accuracy that surrounding healthy tissue is unaffected. The patient slides into the machine and a CT scan is taken with a helical rotation x-ray beam that swivels 360 degrees around the patient. This scan is compared with previous scans to provide a 3-D image, highlighting any changes in the tumor that have taken place. The patient is positioned accordingly, and treatment can begin. “Twenty-five years ago you got two fields,” says Dr. Jim Larner (Med ’80), professor in the department of radiation oncology, “one from the front, one from the back.” One of the feats of engineering in this machine are the 64 tungsten leaves that block or unblock the radiation during treatment, depending on the size and shape of the tumor. The same helical rotation beam is used to create tiny beam elements, known as beamlets, that can better target the tumor. If a person is being treated for a tumor in his prostate, for example, the technology keeps the dose from affecting the bladder or rectum, usually a complication with this kind of treatment. Health, Research, Science, Technology, 2012-11-21T19:55:25+00:00 http://uvamagazine.org/features/article/the_way_of_the_future http://uvamagazine.org/features/article/the_way_of_the_future#When:19:48:25Z If it were a typical class, U.Va. physics professor Louis Bloomfield says he would need Scott Stadium to seat the students who’ve signed up for his “How Things Work” seminar this January. Bloomfield isn’t bragging: More than 20,000 students from around the world have enrolled in his course. Luckily, none of them will have to brave the cold to watch Bloomfield lecture on the Hoo Vision jumbo screen: His class will be taught on Coursera, a new online course system that gives universities the ability to reach more students than few could imagine just two years ago. {article_images_1}Bloomfield—one of five U.Va. professors who will teach a noncredit Coursera class next year—envisions an interactive class where thousands of students will watch videos of him explaining the physics of a bicycle as he rides one. “This will reach people who otherwise have very little exposure to science at all, let alone physics,” Bloomfield says. “I tend to get interested in new ventures and taking risks.” The move to Coursera, a for-profit company considered the leader in providing massive online open courses, or MOOCs, vastly expands U.Va.’s online reach. A total of more than 60,000 students have signed up for the University’s five courses. The university announced its agreement with Coursera in July, within days of President Teresa Sullivan’s reinstatement by the Board of Visitors. The board initially sought her resignation in part because some members believed Sullivan was not moving U.Va. fast enough into online education. The College of Arts & Sciences and the Darden School had for months been looking into ways to offer a sampling of U.Va. classes through MOOCs; however, their negotiations with Coursera seemed to come as a pleasant surprise to Sullivan and members of the Board. “I applaud the president, deans, and faculty members for their efforts and results,” University Rector Helen Dragas (Col ’84, Darden ’88) told the Washington Post after the Coursera partnership was announced. “I think it’s fair to say that work was going on that some members of senior administration may not have known about.” While the entrepreneurial spirit that led to the Coursera agreement is typical of how many new programs are introduced to the University, the late-breaking nature of the announcement illustrated for many how decentralized the efforts are to integrate emerging technologies into the classroom at U.Va. To create a more comprehensive picture and assess relevant efforts across Grounds, Sullivan asked the Faculty Senate in July to provide an overview of online education at U.Va. It found that online educational technology is being integrated into most traditional classroom courses, with professors using it for everything from group video chatting to digital media labs where they can work with students in creating 3-D animation. The senate also highlighted that U.Va., like many universities, has for years offered online degrees and classes. Graduate students can take online courses in everything from engineering to education, and there are a host of U.Va. certificate programs offered by the School of Continuing and Professional Studies, from project management to public administration. The faculty report listed numerous other initiatives, such as the Sciences, Humanities and Arts Network of Technological Initiatives (SHANTI), which works to promote ways information technology can support research and learning. There’s also the Institute for Advanced Technologies in the Humanities (IATH), which has been researching ways to develop information technology as a tool for scholarly humanities research since 1992. And there are various digital collaborative initiatives across Grounds that provide space for students and faculty to work together on projects digitally. “Instruction and scholarly activities at U.Va.—and I’m sure at any other large institution like ours—have become so tightly interwoven with the digital environment and online technologies that you cannot separate them anymore,” says biomedical engineering professor William Guilford, who chaired the faculty task force that compiled the report. “They are all one big, inexorably intertwined blob.” After her reinstatement, Sullivan also announced a grant program for professors to develop more “hybrid” classes that blend in-person interactions—such as class discussions, group work and lectures—with Web-based or digital technologies like online course materials and assignments, group websites and blogs. Ten professors each won a $10,000 grant. That means that this year, students in professor Malathi Veeraraghavan’s computer networking class have access to more online materials, including videos of Veeraraghavan working out problems herself and showing different techniques of dealing with network issues. And students in Emily Scida’s “Elementary Spanish” can take online grammar tutorials, which will free up class time for more practice in simulating real-life, in-person communication, an example of the “flipped” method of online teaching that Sullivan says she believes is most likely to change learning on college campuses. “The promise is that you have more quality time with your professor,” says Peter Rodriguez, Darden’s senior associate dean for degree programs and chief diversity officer. “You’re not sharing in monologue, you are engaging in dialogue.” Except in Christian Gromoll’s probability class. The math professor says he’s still giving the standard in-class lectures, but used his grant to create a software program that allows students to master concepts through repeated—and unique—quizzes throughout the semester until they are satisfied with their scores. The University’s partnership with Coursera, however, is the most controversial aspect of weaving technology into the U.Va. learning experience. Coursera’s founders and other proponents of MOOCs claim their model will revolutionize higher education. They envision a future where millions of people will become empowered through access to a world-class education—and the professors who provide it—for free. “This is helping professors teach their passion to a very large audience,” says Andrew Ng, one of the founders of Coursera. But skeptics say MOOCs carry significant risks to institutions like U.Va. MOOCs can require costly investments in their creation—one college is rumored to have spent millions creating a single MOOC course—and there is little financial return: The courses, after all, are tuition free. In addition, Coursera, like most companies offering MOOCs, has yet to develop a way to prevent cheating or plagiarism—a troubling hurdle for a school that prides itself on a one-of-a-kind honor system crafted out of Jeffersonian ideals. “We know these issues are on the horizon,” says Stephen Nash (Col ’13), chair of U.Va.’s Honor Committee. “They are ones we have to grapple with and think carefully about.” Students and administrators who are unconvinced about the initiative find relief in the fact that, for now, the University’s venture is experimental in nature. No credits or certificates will be offered, and administrators will be closely watching for the effect Coursera has on teaching methods and the the university’s bottom line. The first MOOC was held in 2007—light years ago in the world of cyberspace—as a graduate psychology course taught at Utah State University. Typically, the class had five students. As a MOOC, 50 enrolled. Not long after, professors at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology used a hodgepodge of computer programs such as RSS feeds, Moodle and Second Life to distribute content to thousands of students at once. MOOCS gained momentum last year when 160,000 students signed up for an artificial intelligence course run through Stanford University on what is now known as Udacity, a competitor to Coursera. Typical online courses differ from MOOCs because they are largely aimed at mid-career students, require an application process and charge tuition. Their enrollments are in the dozens, not the tens of thousands. Yet there’s very little research that shows online instruction can be as effective as face-to-face learning. Online education strips away the crucial dialogue between a student and professor, what U.Va. Professor Mark Edmundson opined in the New York Times as the “improvisation” of teaching. “MOOCs, as they are currently constructed, take the worst things about higher education and amplify them,” says Siva Vaidhyanathan, chair of U.Va.’s media studies department. “If you think that a lecture of 400 students is an imperfect learning environment, then you better believe a computer screen that’s going to connect 5,000 students is a much worse thing.” Coursera was launched in April of this year by Ng and Daphne Koller, both Stanford University computer science professors. The company has about $22 million in financing, including $3.7 million in equity investments from the California Institute of Technology and the University of Pennsylvania, according to several reports. The company received a major boost when several top-tier universities, including Stanford and Princeton, signed up for the program last summer. More than 200 courses offered by 30 universities are currently offered through Coursera, which boasts a student enrollment of more than one million. Part of Coursera’s draw for universities is that it provides a platform that many have struggled to create. To support so many students for a course, information technology departments would have to work around the clock to make sure videos and quizzes are posted in a timely manner and servers don’t crash. “It’s never been done on that scale,” Ng says. “A university would have to put in a lot of work into developing a system that would work.” But there are still costs for universities, even on Coursera. Robert Bruner, dean of the Darden School of Business, notes in his blog that online education “is more likely to spawn losses for the traditional not-for-profit colleges and universities—this stems from the cost of creating digital content and reinventing programs.” John Simon, U.Va.’s provost, believes it’s an investment worth making. “We do see technology playing an increasingly important role in the delivery of information,” says Simon. “We are convinced that technology can enhance learning, and we will have to experiment to determine how to use technology best.” Vaidhyanathan agrees that the experimentation with technology is necessary. But when it comes to MOOCs, he warns that should profit pressures increase for Coursera, academics—and U.Va.’s reputation—could suffer. “If they’re going to get into business with a for-profit company like Coursera, they better do so very carefully, with a strong sense of the academic mission and without any illusion that companies don’t have their own motives,” he says. “We [could] be encouraged to adjust our curriculum to maximize consumer response rather than any academic endeavor. To dumb down our courses to reach the largest base. They could ask us not to talk about anything controversial in fear of alienating consumers. Everyone is a potential consumer.” Terry Moe, a senior fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, a domestic policy think tank, says the questions being raised about MOOCs at U.Va. are common at many universities. “Look, these universities are thinking, ‘We need to get on board and we need to get involved and we want to be on the cutting edge of this thing,’” says Moe. “It’s providing some of the best content to the whole world at a very low to marginal cost. This has never been true in the history of the world. It’s a mind blower.” But for Gromoll, the math professor, what’s mind blowing is how the developing technology can directly affect student learning. “The most important element with what I am doing is making the technology provide a motivation for students to practice much more than they usually do,” Gromoll says. “That’s the secret in math, it’s work, practice. So the technology allows me to sort of turn exams on their head. As we know, students will go to great lengths to improve their scores.” TECHNOLOGY IN THE CLASSROOM {article_images_2}Colleen Kelly Associate Professor and Director of the MFA Acting Program Course: Acting I “I’ve created a series of behind-the-scenes videos for acting students to watch outside of class before they see a play the department is putting on. There are interviews I do with the costume designers, the lighting people, everyone who has a hand in the play but that acting students might not realize has an impact on acting. Then the students are required to dialogue with students from other sections of the class and come to their class prepared to have a discussion. I’ve found the videos add a depth of perspective for students. They understand that during the rehearsal process, things are different than how they might be in the play. They can see what that process is about, how a scene evolves. In the past they would have a dialogue about what they saw in the play, but not have access to see what it took to put it on. They would go see the play and then talk in class with a professor about their experience. This is opening up a new level of knowledge for them.” Christian Gromoll Associate Professor of Mathematics Course: Probability “In a traditional math class, a student works on homework and has some quizzes, and that all works toward a final. But students typically don’t invest that much time in practicing. One of the biggest challenges is to motivate a student to practice problems. So I designed software to facilitate that. For each unit they can take a quiz as often as they want. and we take their highest grade. It’s a great deal for the students, but the most important element is that it provides a motivation for them to practice much more than they do. The average student takes about four to five quizzes per unit, some as many as seven or eight. Traditional, one-time exams give partial credit to allow for mistakes that students make that are not gaps in their knowledge. Having multiple exams is sort of the replacement for that. It’s very early to see if it’s making a difference in how effectively the students are learning, but anecdotally the later quiz scores are higher than the initial ones.” Emily Scida Associate Professor of Spanish Course: Elementary Spanish “I am using technology to ‘flip’ as much of the typical class material to outside the class, leaving more time in class to apply more real-life scenarios of speaking Spanish. We actually began having hybrid courses 10 years ago, but there was no interactive part to the old software. We wanted something that could provide a more cultural and interactive experience. We still wanted the quizzing function, but we also wanted something that was rich in cultural interaction. We found one that provides a video that’s sort of a newscast on a cultural aspect, say family. Students watch the video and they get quizzed on it, but they also are asked to ‘help’ the reporter acquire more information by interacting with it, completing a series of tasks. It seems that students are better prepared in class, though it’s early to know for sure.” COURSERA COURSES OFFERED BY U.VA. {article_images_3}Foundations of Business Strategy Michael J. Lenox (Engr ’93, ’94) Students will explore the underlying theory and frameworks that provide the foundations of a successful business strategy. Lenox, who teaches at the Darden School of Business, was recently recognized as one of the top strategy professors under 40 in the U.S. Grow to Greatness: Smart Growth for Private Businesses, Parts I & II Edward D. Hess (Law ’71) This course focuses on common challenges faced by existing private businesses when they attempt to grow. Hess teaches at Darden and is an executive-in-residence at Darden’s Batten Institute for Entrepre-neurship and Innovation. His book, Smart Growth, was named a Top 25 book for business owners by Inc. magazine in 2010. How Things Work 1 Louis A. Bloomfield Designed for non-science students, this course is a practical introduction to physics and science in everyday life. It considers objects from the world around us, identifying and exploring the scientific concepts upon which they’re based. Bloomfield, a professor of physics, has been teaching at U.Va. since 1985. He is a former co-host of a television series on the Discovery Channel and has appeared on the National Geographic Channel. Know Thyself Mitchell Green The course is described as an investigation of the nature and limits of self-knowledge from the viewpoints of philosophy, psychoanalysis, experimental psychology, neuroscience, aesthetics and Buddhism. Green is a professor of philosophy. His research concerns the nature of cognition and emotion and the relation of both to communication in our own species and in others’. The Modern World: Global History since 1760 Philip Zelikow This class begins with the revolutions of the late 1700s, tracks the transformation of the world during the 1800s, and analyzes the cataclysms of the last century, concluding with the new phase of world history we are experiencing today. Philip Zelikow is a history professor and the dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. In 2003-04, he directed the 9/11 Commission. He currently serves as a part-time member of President Barack Obama’s Intelligence Advisory Board.   Administration, Students, 2012-11-21T19:48:25+00:00 http://uvamagazine.org/university_digest/article/rankings_roundup1 http://uvamagazine.org/university_digest/article/rankings_roundup1#When:18:06:54Z Forbes magazine America’s Top Colleges August 2012 Best Public Colleges 1. United States Military Academy 2. Air Force Academy 3. University of Virginia Best Research Colleges 18. University of Virginia America’s Top Colleges 36. University of Virginia U.Va. is just one of five public universities in the top 50 on the Forbes list of 650 top undergraduate schools. U.S. News & World Report 2013 Rankings October 2012 Top Public School 1. University of California-Berkeley 2. University of Virginia (tied with UCLA) Best Undergraduate Business Programs 5. University of Virginia (tied with NYU) Best National University 24. University of Virginia (tied with UCLA and USC)   The Economist 2012 Full Time MBA Ranking October 2012 1. Booth School of Business (University of Chicago) 2. Tuck School of Business (Dartmouth College) 3. Darden Graduate School of Business Administration (University of Virginia) This ranking marks the highest Darden has ever received, one spot up from its No. 4 ranking last year. Schools & Departments, University News, Rankings, 2012-11-21T18:06:54+00:00 http://uvamagazine.org/arts/article/the_modern_muse http://uvamagazine.org/arts/article/the_modern_muse#When:17:42:51Z "O Muses, O high genius, aid me now!" writes Dante Alighieri in The Inferno, the first section of his epic poem, The Divine Comedy. Invoking the muses at the start of a poem dates back to Homer and the Roman poet Virgil. Dante called on the Classical muses—the nine goddesses of artistic inspiration. But he also found new muses in Virgil as well as Beatrice Portinari, a childhood acquaintance. Both appear in literary form in The Divine Comedy to lead Dante through hell, purgatory and heaven. Dante was one of the first poets to invoke real people rather than mythical figures as muses. Though Dante barely knew Beatrice in the actual world, she became "the glorious lady of [his] mind." From Dante and Beatrice to Andy Warhol and Edie Sedgwick, artists and muses have maintained a mysteriously symbiotic relationship for nearly as long as art itself has been around. The artist draws inspiration from the muse, while the muse achieves fame, or even a kind of immortality, through the artist's works. {article_images_1}Two alumni are following in Dante's footsteps by taking as their muses people who exist (or once did) in the real world. Poet Kiki Petrosino (Col '01) uses Robert Redford as an inspiration in her book of poems, Fort Red Border (which is an anagram of "Robert Redford"). Petrosino is quick to clarify that the Redford in her poems is a muse and not the living Hollywood celebrity. "It was not really a conscious decision on my part. It was more like Redford wandered into some of my poems and seemed to want to stay," she explains. She realized she could explore certain elements of the speaker's emotions by putting the Redford muse in her poems. "My Redford represents a cure for loneliness," she says. Petrosino's appreciation of Dante and the relationship he shares with Virgil figured largely into this creative endeavor. She first studied The Inferno as an undergraduate at U.Va. "It was in this course that I first read the beautiful language that Dante uses to describe the bond that exists between the two figures," she says. Just as Dante knows Virgil only through his own poetic creation, so does the speaker of Fort Red Border know the actor Robert Redford: "The 'Redford' persona that I invent for the series is completely imaginary, and that project of imagination is essential to understanding the series," Petrosino says. {article_images_2}In these sometimes tender, sometimes funny poems, the beloved washes the speaker's hair, splits a serving of pommes frites with her and shares a series of domestic moments so comfortingly commonplace that the iconic name "Redford" creates a jarring juxtaposition. But Redford's fame is not the subject here. "The speaker is the real star of the poems," Petrosino says. "As I worked through the series, the Hollywood familiarity of 'Redford' became a kind of formal constraint—something to work against. I enjoy imposing constraints on my writing, just to see how far I can go. In this case, I wanted to 'invent' my own muse." Now an assistant professor of literature and creative writing at the University of Louisville, Petrosino credits her years at U.Va. with setting her on the path to a career in poetry. As a Jerome Holland Scholar and an Echols Scholar, she took classes with professors Gregory Orr and Jerome McGann. She can still remember receiving her acceptance letter into the Echols program, on which the late professor Charles Vandersee had handwritten a personal message: Your poems do you great credit. "To receive those few words of validation—to say nothing of the opportunities Echols presented—meant a lot to a 17-year-old Star Trek geek," she recalls. "Put simply, attending U.Va. helped me claim the writer's life as my own." Poet Paul Legault (Grad '09) has come to know the writer's life quite well since graduating from U.Va.'s MFA program. His first collection, The Madeleine Poems, was the winner of the 2009 Omnidawn Poetry Prize; his second, The Other Poems, was published in 2011. His third collection, The Emily Dickinson Reader, an "English-to-English" translation of Emily Dickinson's entire oeuvre, was published by McSweeney's in August. {article_images_3}Although Emily Dickinson is his most famous muse, she isn't his first. Legault's The Madeline Poems revolves around an imaginary woman named Madeline. "At that point in my life, the muse was a feminine figure of inspiration for me." It wasn't long before a new muse replaced Madeline. "Dickinson became my muse when I was in a Dickinson and Whitman class at U.Va., taught by Stephen Cushman," Legault says. "That class was really helpful, in terms of pushing me toward her." As the class was reading all of her poems in chronological order, Legault started to scribble marginalia about each poem according to what his classmates said—"the basic versions that they came up with"—and an exercise that began as an amusement turned into something bigger. The final result is a poem-by-poem translation of Dickinson's poetry to literal meanings. "I describe it as a joke that became serious," Legault laughs. As he fell deeper into his project, he found himself completely immersed in Dickinson's work, carrying the poems around with him constantly in order to find time to examine and translate every single one. "She was with me every day at lunch, and I would write in the margins—I would actually read the poems and respond to what they were saying." Ultimately, Dickinson became quite real to him: "Muses are generous and giving and inspiring, as muses should be, but they're also ghosts who are haunting you," he cautions, "and they won't leave you alone until you're done with the project that they set before you." {article_images_4}Even though his Dickinson volume is now complete, Legault's fascination with nontraditional poetry translations continues, primarily through Telephone Journal, a literary journal that Legault founded with his friend Sharmila Cohen. Each issue features four or five poems by a single foreign writer, which are then creatively "translated" by multiple other poets. "Every issue produces something original," he says, explaining the name of the journal, "which is what the game of Telephone illustrates." Recently the journal expanded to include a new publishing imprint, Telephone Books, which will publish its inaugural book this fall: an anthology of 154 poets, including literary stars such as Rae Armantrout and Ron Padgett, who have translated Shakespeare's 154 sonnets into new, original poems. Legault is now on the lookout for his "next obsession." Then again, perhaps Dickinson does have a few more things in store for him. "I started working on this Emily Dickinson biopic screenplay the other day," he admits. "I don't know if I'll pursue it, but I feel like she could come back. She's such a huge figure." Read their poetry > Poetry In Motion Poetry at the University is "thriving," says Lisa Russ Spaar (Col '78, Grad '82), professor of creative writing and director of the undergraduate Area Program in Poetry Writing (APPW), which she founded 11 years ago. Creative writing classes at U.Va. "serve a great many undergraduates from different schools and departments," she says. Both undergraduate and graduate poetry students take workshops and seminars with Spaar, Rita Dove, Greg Orr, Debra Nystrom (Grad '82) and the recently hired poet Paul Guest. "Paul brings fresh energy to the program," Spaar says. "The students really love him." Undergraduates in the APPW also have the chance to be mentored by graduate students in the MFA program, forming bonds that last far beyond graduation. Many poets who emerge from the MFA program have gone on to find publishing success. In the past year, eight alumni from the program published collections of poetry, including Katherine Larson (Grad '04), whose book, Radial Symmetry, was the 2010 Yale Series of Younger Poets competition winner. "That was a serious kudo," says Jeb Livingood (Col '86, Grad '00), associate director of the creative writing program. Other recent books include: Voodoo Inverso by Mark Wagenaar (Grad '10) Darkroom by Jazzy Danziger (Grad '10) The Curiosities by Brittany Perham (Grad '06) Weather by Dave Lucas (Grad '04) Makeshift Instructions for Vigilant Girls by Erika Meitner (Grad '02, '12) {pagebreak} Read their Poems China Clipper Excerpted from Ford Red Border by Kiki Petrosino (Sarabande Books, 2009). Redford & I are alone in the darkened galley of the Martin 130 flying boat that rests on the exhibition floor of the City Museum of Industry. We don’t have much room to move—just this narrow strip of tile between two moulded counters & a miniature drinks trolley with its wheels glued down. The cabinets above our heads shelter a permanent supply of gilt-rimmed fiberglass plates & Kirk Stieff silver welded into bristling thickets of service. I’m standing so close to Redford that the chemical taste of his aftershave mingles with the flakes of dust that peel down from the highball glasses. Redford presses my hand tightly into his chest. Darling— I could marry you in this goddamned airliner, built or unbuilt. His mouth tastes warmly of night mail & belted trenchcoats. On that breakfast approach to Midway at 160 mph, the Chief Engineer watched gooney birds thicken & glow above the island & grinned over the hydromatic rim of his coffee. As for me, I’ve crossed the International Dateline & felt so much older afterwards, as if my body had adjourned into hollow stalks of cane. Many times it was like that for me, alone. I could move in two directions at once—it was a broken kind of trying I could not tell the bottom of. It stirred with me in rooms, a frightened thing of glass & shifting wire. I didn’t tell about it. Only held with it & fevered nightwise over slanting countries of my thought—& then I knew there was no taking back that trying from me, & I was made for being this & this is how. This is how—in the half-dark, Redford, even closer. I kiss his jaw & say This is the maiden flight of harm, the green air above Manila. I slowly draw his collar open. I feel his ribcage lift against me: Tell me what thou art, wild. & then: What art thou, wild? The floor begins to sound & tilt; we quicken in the blackest way of engines. I tell Redford I want such days as days forgive. I flick my tongue across his bottom lip. How can I keep from singing? This Will Darken the Cabin Excerpted from Ford Red Border by Kiki Petrosino (Sarabande Books, 2009). Halfway through my plate of tiger prawns Redford returns from the cockpit tour. Such a face he says. Were you this soulful as a child? He tips my chin & slides my headset back. I’ve been listening to the pilots marking weather in their code talk. Right now we’re at two-five-five knots, heading straight into the soup above Las Vegas. Our pilot has a clean, grey voice— like creosote or silverware. He’s just said advise. He’s just said preparing. Redford eases into his seat, folding one knee over the other. He rolls his double brandy in a plastic snifter. The cuffs of his soft green shirt are pushed into his elbows. I had some soulful ways, I guess. I tuck into a small ramekin of green gage plums soaked in cream & rice vinegar. At the edge of my vision, Redford lifts his spoon, considering the loose pyramid of Asian jungle fowl on his tray. I pick up a tiny package of salt. Know what I used to do with this? I reach across Redford’s lap, taking a lengthy swallow of brandy from his glass. At night, I’d eat this. It was a thing. I’d pour a whole bunch in my mouth, & then I’d chew until my tongue opened. For the first time, I notice how it’s very quiet here in First Class. I drain the brandy, listening to the hum hum of the cabin lights against my gulps. Below us, Las Vegas is an orange watchglass someone shattered. I think about the neon people down there, the funny cowboy with tubes of brown light for a ten-gallon hat, & I think how hard it must be to make brown neon, & how we still need science. After a moment, I feel Redford take the snifter from my hand. He lowers it into the circular depression in his tray. The plastic hazes where my palm has touched. Redford reaches over, snapping my tray into the seatback. Then he finds the place where my safety belt catches. He gently pulls until the belt tightens, low & quiet on my hips. He keeps his palm on the buckle & I settle back. What made me, made me. Above our heads, the reading lights go out. Excerpted from The Emily Dickinson Reader by Paul Legault (McSweeney’s, 2012). 600. I love Elizabeth Barrett Browning. She is a really good poet. I want to have sex with her. I want to marry Elizabeth Barrett Browning and take her virginity in our honeymoon suite somewhere in Italy. 601. The meaning of life cannot exist before the life whose meaning is in question doesn't. 602. Certain deaths are fashionable. I heard death by childbirth is really in this season. 603. The sun wants to destroy the sky, but it can't. 604. You know who I'm talking about. She's the one who always wears velvet and that orange vest and instead of feet she has hands. She's kind of intense. 605. I am alive but only because I'm not dead. On another note, sometimes I want you to give birth to me. 606. It's always summer when you're a nymph. 607. I hate having to wait for a cab. 608. I don't know which I like more: happiness or sadness. I guess probably happiness. No, now I’m just lying to myself. 609. It is hard to distinguish night from day at the moment of their intersection. 610. Butterflies are really full of themselves. They like to fly around, looking good, pitying everyone. 611. I fell in love with my imaginary friend. And then she died. Or else I stopped imagining her. Or else she stopped imagining me? 612. Opposites attract. That's why I'm attracted to inexistence. 613. It was just an ordinary day until I suddenly apotheosized. 614. Dead people don't generate heat. 615. God likes to watch. 616. You can't kill me if I'm already dead. 617. I enjoy sitting on you, couch. Especially when it's cold outside. 618. You love me. You love me not. You will probably never love me, ever, for the rest of eternity. 619. Are you still a virgin? 620. Logic is a trap from which only crazy people can escape. 621. The wind came to visit me, so I let him in, but because he isn't familiar with the standard courtesies of a houseguest, and because he isn't comprised of solid matter. It was kind of awkward. 622. The sun is awesome. And sneaky. 623. Humans may only talk to God through a long tube connected to his ear. 624. Dead people don't really care about anything. Because they're dead. 625. I won't cheat on you, like those other tramps. 626. Imaginary food tastes better than food. 627. I went crazy but it was a good kind of crazy. 628. Trinkets turn me on. 629. I am a civil war. Sue is the new union I want to establish as an independent nation. 630. Souls enjoy space travel. 631. I am going to drown myself to prove how much I love you. You're welcome. 632. It's better to be homeless than to lack a system of belief. 633. This one time I touched the Universe, and it exploded, and then no one existed except me. I’m sorry about that. 634. I guess I'm pessimistic. 635. I wish I were rich so I could waste my money on a slut like you. 636. At every moment, I am being struck by lightning. 637. Someone please wake up that dead person so I can thank her for being so nice to me. 638. The future does what it wants. 639. Happiness requires hard work and a desperate sense of ownership. 640. The death of an artist makes his or her work increase in value because of the public's fascination with its own mortality. Its willingness to view the art in question outside of previous negative political connotations that might have arisen from the artist's counter-normative lifestyle stems partially from the particular work and partially from the particular artist but mostly from the subjects of mourning and their need to cope with a refreshed awareness of their own death and death's consequences. By collectively celebrating the deceased and his or her creative act, they are protecting the general idea of legacy, thereby protecting their own. 641. Shh, don't let people know that it is possible for me not to exist. Alumni, Arts & Entertainment, Books, Faculty, 2012-11-21T17:42:51+00:00 http://uvamagazine.org/retrospect/article/the_celestial_dome http://uvamagazine.org/retrospect/article/the_celestial_dome#When:17:04:36Z During the summer of 1818, 75-year-old Thomas Jefferson composed two remarkable pages of notes concerning his soon-to-be-constructed University of Virginia. At the center of his Academical Village, he envisioned a Rotunda dome room that would serve not as a library—as it would in the years after its construction—but as a planetarium for teaching astronomy, which he deemed the most important of the eight natural philosophies in his university curriculum. The dome's interior surface would be painted a vivid sky blue and be arrayed with constellations of gilded stars in the shape of half-spheres. Each star would be fixed to the dome's surface according to the most accurate celestial coordinates known to the best astronomers of the time. Jefferson envisioned that the dome's "concave" would serve as an oversized star chart to support this noble exercise in celestial cartography and be an integral part of the astronomy class lectures. {article_images_1}Just how would a professor be elevated 40 feet above the floor to position each of the gilded stars on the concave? Above his narrative, Jefferson drew a diagram of a hoisting mechanism that was simple if not inspired: a common horse saddle with stirrups fixed to the end of an oak boom that would be pulled by a series of pulleys and ropes. An operator would mount it and be elevated to the dome's apex. Dangling precariously from above, the operator could pivot anywhere across the inner surface of the dome. Imagine how vulnerable someone in this saddle would have been, fully exposed to the potential mischief of the students below. No one knows why Jefferson abandoned this idea. Perhaps the hoisting mechanism was too risky an invention to construct. His subsequent notes are silent on the question. By the fall of 1818, Jefferson began another architectural drawing for the Rotunda that depicted a library within the Dome Room. His planetarium vision would never be revisited. J. Jefferson Looney, editor of The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Retirement Series, writes that Jefferson's idea "grew out of his own abiding interest in astronomy and was central to his grand vision for the theoretical and practical study of natural philosophy at the University of Virginia. Astronomy in particular was seen by Jefferson and his peers as the culmination in the education of an enlightened man, the most direct way to perceive God … The placement of a planetarium at the highest point of the University's most imposing building would thus have had immense symbolic significance." As U.Va. embarks on the Rotunda's current renovation project, this may be a timely opportunity to explore creative ways to celebrate Jefferson's astronomical intentions. One can easily envision a Dome Room digital sky show, using the astronomy department's portable planetarium, depicting the known universe of the early 19th century. Or perhaps the architectural history and engineering departments could collaborate on a working model of the hoisting mechanism and celestial ceiling Jefferson envisioned. As his expansive notes reveal, the sky was never a limit in Jefferson's thinking. Harnsberger is a 2012 Jefferson Fellow at the Robert H. Smith International Center for Jefferson Studies. {article_images_2} {article_images_3} Architecture, Grounds & Buildings, History, Thomas Jefferson, 2012-11-21T17:04:36+00:00 http://uvamagazine.org/arts/article/new_notable17 http://uvamagazine.org/arts/article/new_notable17#When:16:50:35Z {article_images_1}The CIA's Greatest Covert Operation by David Sharp (Engr '56, '69, '73) In March of 1968, a Soviet submarine containing nuclear weapons sank in the North Pacific. This book tells the true story of the CIA's Project Azorian, the 1974 recovery of the sunken sub from a water depth of 16,700 feet. David Sharp was in charge of the recovery operations on the ship and provides the backstory of the program through his own recollections and personal records, declassified documents, conversations with team members and rarely seen photos.     {article_images_2}Fast Girl: Don't Brake Until You See the Face of God and Other Good Advice from the Racetrack by Ingrid Steffensen (Col '88) A successful art history professor with "a husband, a preteen daughter and a fluffy little embarrassment of a dog," Ingrid Steffensen's life was comfortable and staid. But when she decides to join her car-crazed husband on a trip to the racetrack and learns to drive her Mini Cooper "really, really fast," she quickly falls in love with the world of high-performance driving. In this memoir, Steffensen describes the addictive thrill of pushing her limits—and feeling liberated in a way she didn't know she needed.     {article_images_3}Petrochemical America by Richard Misrach and Kate Orff (Col '93) This book examines 150 miles of the Mississippi River, from Baton Rouge to New Orleans, an area of intense chemical production known as "Cancer Alley." Through Richard Misrach's haunting photographs and landscape architect Kate Orff's Ecological Atlas—a series of "speculative drawings" developed through research of the region—Petrochemical America provides analysis of decades of environmental abuse along the river. Orff and Misrach suggest that Cancer Alley may well be an apt metaphor for the impact of petrochemicals on humans worldwide. Alumni, Arts & Entertainment, Books, 2012-11-21T16:50:35+00:00 http://uvamagazine.org/arts/article/bestsellers_at_the_u.va._bookstore http://uvamagazine.org/arts/article/bestsellers_at_the_u.va._bookstore#When:16:39:35Z Fiction/Poetry Fifty Shades Trilogy by E.L. James The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins The Hunger Pains: A Parody by the Harvard Lampoon The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach (Grad ’04) Nonfiction To Engineer Is Human: The Role of Failure in Successful Design by Henry Petroski The Silenced Majority: Stories of Uprisings, Occupations, Resistance, and Hope by Amy Goodman and Denis Moynihan The Best Advice I Ever Got: Lessons from Extraordinary Lives by Katie Couric (Col ’79) Whistling Vivaldi: How Stereotypes Affect Us and What We Can Do by Claude M. Steele The Defining Decade: Why Your Twenties Matter—And How to Make the Most of Them Now by Meg Jay (Col ’92, Faculty) Alumni, Arts & Entertainment, Books, Faculty, 2012-11-21T16:39:35+00:00 http://uvamagazine.org/arts/article/required_reading15 http://uvamagazine.org/arts/article/required_reading15#When:16:22:35Z Meg Jay (Col '92) is a clinical psychologist at U.Va. who specializes in adult development, and in 20-somethings in particular. Her new book is The Defining Decade: Why Your Twenties Matter—And How to Make the Most of Them Now. What is going on in the brain developmentally for people in their 20s? We know the frontal lobe is the last area of the brain to develop and it does not fully mature until sometime during our 20s. This is the area of the brain where we tackle the tasks many 20-somethings struggle with: facing uncertainty, solving problems that don't have black-and-white answers, anticipating consequences, managing our emotions. Unfortunately, this fact about the late-maturing frontal lobe has been interpreted as a directive for 20-somethings to wait around until their brains grow up. But that's not how the brain works. We don't tell 3-year-olds who are in the midst of the critical period for language to go to their rooms and come out when they have perfect grammar. We say, "Read every day. Listen to books on tape. Talk at the dinner table." The same goes for young adult brain development. If you want to become better at managing your emotions and tolerating uncertainty and planning for the future, then now is the time to be practicing those skills. Your background is partially in gender studies. Do you have different advice for women vs. men in their 20s? {article_images_1}No, I don't have different advice for women and men. In fact, many young men would be happier and more successful if they felt the same urgency that many women do. We hear a lot about how young women are outperforming young men right now. Some of that is overblown but, to the extent that it is true, it happens because young women feel a greater sense of urgency about their lives. They are keenly aware that they need (and often want) to work and that they need to get somewhere with their careers in time to also add family into the mix. There is a great quotation by Leonard Bernstein that says, "To achieve great things two things are needed: a plan and not quite enough time." Men feel less rushed about getting started because they feel they have endless time to have children, and this can backfire in terms of focus and achievement. What do you say to a person in his or her 20s who is driven and focused but can't find a job in this economy? I once had a fortune cookie that said, "A wise man makes his own luck." The single best thing a 20-something can do to make his or her own luck is to look outside of his or her close circle of friends. The 20s are portrayed as a time when you mostly huddle together with your best friends, but that group of friends is usually a homogeneous clique. New information and new opportunities—even new people to date—almost always come from outside the inner circle. That career opportunity is not going to come from sending out hundreds of résumés and trolling websites but from emailing your aunt's neighbor or your old professor or that friend of a friend from high school. A lot of 20-somethings hate the idea of asking outsiders for favors, but those who won't do this fall behind those who will. That's how people are getting jobs in this economy. Alumni, Arts & Entertainment, Books, Science, Psychology, 2012-11-21T16:22:35+00:00 http://uvamagazine.org/sports/article/qa_with_lauren_perdue http://uvamagazine.org/sports/article/qa_with_lauren_perdue#When:16:07:10Z As a member of the U.S. Olympic women's free relay swim team, Lauren Perdue (Col '13) is the only current U.Va. student who won a medal in London this past summer. The 21-year-old anthropology major lit up Twitter this past summer before capturing gold when she tweeted that she declined NBA star LeBron James' invitation for dinner because of curfew. What she could not capture in 140 characters or less, however, was context: Perdue didn't mean to imply that James was looking for a date; she was simply trying to convey to her Twitter followers how surreal the Olympic Village experience was. Perdue was born in Charlottesville and raised in Greenville, N.C. {article_images_1} Where do you keep your medal? Is it in a bank vault somewhere? Let's just say I keep it in a safe place—and let's make sure we let people know that it's not real gold. I read somewhere before we got to London that it's actually made out of silver and then it's gold-plated. There's a little chip I have on it from showing it to someone [she lifts the medal out of its box]. See? It's silver underneath. How old were you when you first realized the Olympics might be a possibility? When I was 13 years old, making the Olympics was a lofty goal of mine. It was not until NCAAs my sophomore season at U.Va., when I finished second in the 200 free, that this lofty goal became closer in reach. I realized at that moment that my dream could become a reality in London 2012 if I worked even harder and kept my focus. How has Coach Bernardino and being a part of that U.Va. swim team contributed to your success? Coach Mark and the U.Va. team have helped to keep my love for the sport of swimming. Mark is a phenomenal coach and excellent leader for this program. What surprised you most about the Olympics? For me, qualifying for the Olympic team was my biggest surprise. I had had back surgery in the spring and had no expectations that I would make it. And what else surprised me was that once I met the team and found close relationships, it was just like any other meet. It didn't feel different at all. What was all that business about your LeBron James tweet? It was interesting about how big it got, but it was a good lesson for me. Before the Olympics it wouldn't have blown up like it did. But I am 21 and still learning the ropes about the impact of what you do on social media. I was embarrassed more than anything. He probably didn't even remember me. I didn't expect that people would think I was saying he asked me out. Four or five days later he came to watch the team and he sat two rows behind me. I couldn't even make eye contact with him because I was so embarrassed. If you were a fish, what kind of fish would you be? That's a tough one. I think a dolphinfish. Not a dolphin—a dolphinfish. I go fishing with my dad, and when you bring them out of the ocean they're this brilliant blue; they are so beautiful. But once they are out of the water for a short time, they quickly fade and become grayish. That's like me, I think. If I do anything else, any other sport, I just fade. I belong in the water. Sports, Swimming & Diving, Students, 2012-11-21T16:07:10+00:00 http://uvamagazine.org/sports/article/father_figure http://uvamagazine.org/sports/article/father_figure#When:15:29:19Z U.Va. basketball's all-time leading scorer had one major goal after four years as a Wahoo and 10 seasons in the NBA: to relax. "Working was not in my plans, I could tell you that," says Bryant Stith, 41. "I wanted to rehabilitate my body. It had broken down from the rigors of my NBA career, so I just wanted to go to physical therapy and make sure I'd be in good shape for the next 30 to 40 years." {article_images_1}After retiring from the NBA in 2002, Stith (Col '92) and his wife moved back to Lawrenceville, Va., where Stith had led the Brunswick High School Bulldogs to back-to-back state basketball championships in 1987 and 1988 and was class valedictorian. He began rehabbing his knees and ankles and started working with local youth basketball and football teams. Then officials at Brunswick High School came to him and asked if he would coach its basketball team, which had struggled in recent years. The decision wasn't easy for Stith. "When I was playing basketball, I never wanted to be a coach," he says. "I had some good coaches but also some not-so-good coaches, especially toward the end of my NBA career. That basically turned me away from the game." But after talking with his family, including his four children, Stith decided that the opportunity to return to the basketball court was too appealing to pass up. He became the Bulldogs' head coach in 2005—and led them to the Division III state championship game that season. "It was like a dream come true," Stith says. "The only thing that went wrong that first season was that we didn't win the championship." Nor did he win the next year, nor the year after that. In fact, Stith and his team made four consecutive trips to the state title game before they won the championship in 2010-11, a season in which the team finished 29-1. The Bulldogs repeated as state champions in 2011-12. Stith says he loves coaching in what he calls a "true basketball community." "I think that the community and the program were starving for a return to glory," Stith says. "I just happened to come along at the right time. I inherited some very good players and it was a perfect marriage." His players have rejuvenated his love for the game, and he's found he still thrives on the competition. He spends hours drawing up game plans and figuring out tactical advantages over his opponents, a strategy he likens to playing chess. {article_images_2}Stith's enthusiasm for the sport has carried over to all four of his children. His two sons, Brandon and B.J., start for the Bulldogs' hoops team. B.J., a 6-foot-5-inch junior point guard—ranked as the nation's 39th-best player by Rivals.com—will follow in his father's footsteps to U.Va. in 2014, having verbally committed to the Cavaliers last spring. Brandon, a 6-foot-6-inch senior forward, will head to East Carolina University to play basketball next fall. Stith's two daughters, Bria, 14, and Brooke, 13, play basketball and run track for local teams. "With B.J., it was U.Va. all the way," Stith says. "He had letters from some of the top programs in the country and he'd just let them sit on his desk, unopened. I asked him some tough questions to see if he was as committed to U.Va. as it appeared. Every question that I asked, he answered with a resounding 'yes.'" Since moving back to Virginia, the Stith family has attended at least one Cavalier football and basketball game every season, despite the two-and-a-half-hour drive from home. Stith also maintained close ties to the University as a member of the Alumni Association's Board of Managers for 2008-11. "My kids grew up wearing blue and orange—it's in their blood," Stith says. He also takes his Brunswick team to a U.Va. basketball game at least once every other season. Stith plans to continue coaching after his sons graduate from high school—possibly even outside of Lawrenceville. "I'm considering making that jump to the next level, it's just a matter of where I'm going to land," Stith says. "I'm going to start putting my name out there because I think I'd like to pursue coaching as a second career." For now, he's gearing up for another coaching season while also working as Brunswick's athletic director, a position he's held since 2009. The hoops team typically sells out their 2,000-seat gym, and Stith says he's "upgraded" their schedule to play some of the state's top teams. Relaxation, Stith says, will have to wait a few more years. Alumni, Sports, Men's Basketball, 2012-11-21T15:29:19+00:00 http://uvamagazine.org/sports/article/the_great_indoors http://uvamagazine.org/sports/article/the_great_indoors#When:15:17:35Z Looming above an old grease pit inside a former gas station stands one of the newest additions to U.Va.'s Outdoor Recreation Center: an indoor bouldering wall. Just over a year old, the wall is quickly gaining a following with students, who regularly fill up a wait list to chalk up their hands and scurry up and across the 400-square-foot wall. But the wall is more than rocks for jocks, says John McCall, assistant director of the center. Students come here to get a workout, sure, but the wall gives their minds just as much exercise. {article_images_1}"People who come here regularly are looking for new problems to solve," says McCall. "It's as much an intellectual challenge as a physical one. They try to solve for getting across one particular route, and then when they finally figure it out, they will try for another." That means McCall and Mark Voorhees, the center's director, have to keep switching out the dozens of the colorful faux rocks, or holds, every semester to create new paths for students to traverse. Bouldering differs from indoor rock climbing in that participants do not use any ropes. Bouldering walls are lower than indoor rock climbing walls and have steeper angles; the center's sharpest juts out 27 degrees. The flooring below is a mat nearly a foot thick, which rests atop a frame hovering inside the building's old grease pit. "So much of education is simply exposure, giving people a chance to learn something new," says Voorhees. "If you give them a basic skill set, show them what equipment they are going to need and let them meet some people with similar interests, it will be an opportunity to be able to think in new and different ways." Grounds & Buildings, Sports, Students, 2012-11-21T15:17:35+00:00 http://uvamagazine.org/features/article/time_after_time http://uvamagazine.org/features/article/time_after_time#When:21:06:01Z For nearly 80 years, the small skylights sat in perpetual darkness, slowly turning purple within the Rotunda roof. The skylights were part of the plan created by architect Stanford White, of the firm McKim, Mead and White. He redesigned the Rotunda after its near total destruction by fire in 1895, adding various classical details to the building that were characteristic of the Beaux Arts style popular at the time. Along the exterior base of the Rotunda’s dome were his skylights—20 concrete “windows” within arched frames, set with round glass panes. The idea was for the ring of skylights to refract light throughout the Dome Room, below the oculus. But there was not enough time or money to cut through the ceiling of the inner dome for the skylights to shine through, so they were covered with copper and remained, half-finished, within the roof for decades. In the mid-1970s when the Rotunda went through its next major renovation, workers uncovered the skylights and removed them, leaving the debris beneath the roof’s concrete steps. {article_images_1}On a fall day nearly 40 years after the last major Rotunda renovation was completed, Stephen Ratliff (Col '79), the acting academic division director of facilities management, holds a piece of a skylight glass, lavender colored from years in the dark, in his hand. Ratliff is overseeing the construction of Phase One of the current $51.6 million renovation of the Rotunda. When workmen removed the lower two steps on the Rotunda roof to facilitate repairs this summer, they found other relics from past restorations: pieces of tile from the White-designed dome that was constructed after the 1895 fire and soda bottles and beer cans left behind by workers who helped renovate the Rotunda in the 1970s. Like the changing architecture of the Rotunda itself, the debris from previous renovations tells a story. Part of the Rotunda's powerful presence stems from its history and age—it turns 200 in 2026. But there comes a point when the patina of history turns to deterioration. The roof leaks, the column capitals are crumbling, the window casings are pulling away from points of attachment, and rust is encroaching on the steel tension rings that senior historic preservation planner Brian Hogg (Col '83) says "help contain the thrust of the dome so the walls don't explode." Phase One of the current renovation, now underway, addresses the Rotunda's exterior: replacing the leaking roof, stripping and repairing windows, repointing masonry and stripping and repairing ornamental work. "Everything that we're doing is to maintain the structure—by that I mean both its historic fabric and architectural intent, but also the integrity of the structure as a physical edifice," says David Neuman, Architect for the University. "So you start with the roof … you've got to make sure the building isn't leaking before you can do anything else." The rub is that when a decision is made to start a major renovation, all questions of Jefferson's intentions for the Rotunda come head-to-head with modern construction techniques. The Rotunda is subject and symbol of the University's evolving ideals, going through a sort of architectural Darwinism over its almost 200 years of existence. {article_images_3}"There's been a lot of change," Neuman says. "A lot of people walk up [to the Rotunda] and they think this is all Jefferson. It's Jefferson's idea and spirit, but a lot of what you're looking at is not Jefferson." The roof provides a good example of the Rotunda's changing appearance. The original 1826 tin-coated shingles oxidized to a chalky white, but "very early on the roof started changing colors because it leaked so badly," says Hogg. "It was painted with a red oxide paint. It was covered with black tar." At different times cupolas were erected to deal with leaks over the oculus. Then came the 1895 fire that completely destroyed the original dome. The Stanford White-designed dome, as mandated by the Board of Visitors, had to be fireproof. It was constructed using what is called the Guastavino tile method, creating self-supporting arches through interlocking terra-cotta tiles, and covered with copper, which oxidized to green. The green copper roofing was replaced by white-painted steel roofing in 1975, although the Guastavino tiles remained. The current roof renovation will include replacing the existing steel roofing with copper roofing that will be painted white, as was originally intended by White in 1898. It also includes making minor repairs to the tile system beneath. "It's hard to say if there was ever a day when Jefferson's vision for this place, physically anyway, ever existed, because the change was so constant," says Hogg. "The roof on this building has been a problem from the day it was finished. One of our consultants said a couple of years ago that the one thing this current roof and Jefferson's original roof had in common was that they leaked from the day they were installed. And we're hoping not to repeat that." {article_images_2}One of the best resources that conservators have in their quest to avoid previous renovation missteps is the Historic Structure Report (HSR), a comprehensive history that begins with the Rotunda's construction, includes renovations throughout the years, and ends with an assessment of the building's current condition. The HSR is the result of an exhaustive study initiated in 2005 by the Office of the Architect, Facilities Management and U.Va. senior management. It is a story of evolution, guesswork and multiple points of view, with uncertainty and progress going hand-in-hand. The HSR (available here) may be the best way to share with the University community the blood, guts and heart of the venerable building because, ironically, once the current renovation is complete, most visitors will not be able to tell what has changed. The general external appearance of the Rotunda will be very similar to the 1976 renovation. Currently, however, the Rotunda is a work in progress. Scaffolding surrounds the drum, power tools whine, workers in hardhats appear and disappear behind the dark green plywood walls of the construction zone, and students and visitors follow winding paths through it all, especially on the east side, where the construction elevator and scaffolding stairways give workers access to the upper levels and roof. Neuman hopes students are excited rather than disappointed to live through the renovation. "During the school year we just have to say, in the end, I hope everybody feels that we're doing the right thing. They should feel—I hope—proud to be here at this point in time." Throughout the Rotunda's history, there's been a subtle yet persistent element of the unfinished, of unrealized potential. Take, for example, White's dormant skylights; the abandoned architectural drawings of the McDonald Brothers of Louisville, Ky., the architects first hired to restore the Rotunda after the 1895 fire, who were replaced by McKim, Mead and White; and Jefferson's plan to turn the ceiling of the Dome Room into a planetarium with a pulley-operated oak boom from which a daring astronomy professor would lecture the students below (see Retrospect). {article_images_4}This sense of unrealized potential remains perceptible to this day. The Rotunda plays a limited role in the activities of current students. Instead, it is home to Board of Visitors meetings, ceremonial dinners, doctoral defenses and administrative offices. It is a building that students walk past almost every day, but rarely enter. As the Rotunda renovation continues, many are considering ways that the building can play a larger part in academic life. "For Jefferson, it was the unification of all, the center of campus, the library, and as such, the Rotunda is the Mind of the University," says Richard Guy Wilson, a professor of architectural history and expert on the Academical Village. "The Rotunda is also, in a sense, [the University's] skull." Wilson and others hope to return a figurative "brain" to the skull, as it was in the days when the old Rotunda library buzzed with student activity. "The Rotunda has become the primary symbol and logo of the University, and in many ways that is appropriate," Wilson says. "The problem is that the damned thing isn't used for anything." Over the past year, Neuman chaired a committee related to programming alternatives that could be considered for the Rotunda after the renovation is complete. This fall, he presented possible future uses to the Board of Visitors Buildings and Grounds Committee. The draft possibilities for the Rotunda include more student class and study use, a Dome Room lecture series, extended hours of operation and opening the main door at the top of the stairs leading to the Lawn. "Certainly [we've thought about] having more class activities in here, as well as extended hours for study, or for 'flash seminars,'" Neuman says, referring to one-time sessions where students and faculty discuss current events and ideas. "And then there's been discussion about maybe a 'University Professors' lecture series in the Dome Room, four to six lectures a year that would be very well touted. To do that, though, you would want to improve the audiovisual capabilities in the Dome Room. The acoustics aren't good, one can't really project images well in there," he notes, "But we can solve those problems." {article_images_5}The concepts for future uses along with estimated costs will soon be presented to the full Board of Visitors. Until then, workers on the Rotunda roof are grinding masonry and concrete, noisily reshaping the exposed step pattern around the base of the dome and sorting through debris uncovered after the removal of the 1975 steel roof. The intact Guastavino tiles found under the steps will be reused in the repair of the inner and outer domes. White's skylights will be archived. Even the 1970s Budweiser cans found under the roof are set aside, not carted away with the rubble. The salvaged pieces will be stored in the Office of the Architect's warehouse space on Millmont Street, overseen by Mark Kutney, the University conservator. In the spirit of the HSR, the historic planners involved with the Rotunda renovation project, John G. Waite Associates, are keeping careful records of what's uncovered, what changes, and the differences between what was in the plans and what exactly happened in the previous renovations. But determining the exact fate of the archaeological salvage won't be Stephen Ratliff's job. He joins the line of those who came before him, overseeing the construction and working to preserve and to honor this building. As the latest efforts unfold around him, he works his way up the scaffolding to the dome roof. He picks through bits of mortar to find a purple pane, an ethereal remnant of renovations past, and holds it up to the sun, finally letting the light shine through. * Editor's note: We stated incorrectly that the skylights turned a lavender color “from years in the dark.” Instead, the glass was originally clear and darkened after being exposed to light due to its chemical content. Historians are unsure of how long the glass was exposed to light, but they presume it was for at least a year or so after it was initially installed, then again during the 1976 renovation. We regret the error. Next: A Timeline of Rotunda Renovation > {pagebreak} A History of Rotunda Renovation {article_images_9}1817 Jefferson writes to William Thornton, first architect of the U.S. Capitol, and to Benjamin Latrobe, who had been surveyor of public buildings during Jefferson’s presidency, soliciting sketches of “general outlines of designs” for a building at the north end of the Lawn. Both suggest a central, prominent building. Latrobe suggests the dome. 1823 The drum of the Rotunda is built in 1823 and allowed to settle for nearly a year before the dome is installed. 1826 Jefferson dies; construction of the Rotunda is nearly complete. {article_images_13}1851 The Annex is built on the north side of the Rotunda to provide more classrooms for a growing student body. {article_images_14}1867 The decorated public hall in the Annex. Paul Balze's copy of Raphael's "School of Athens" painting in the background was later lost in the 1895 fire, along with the rest of the Annex. 1895 The Annex and most of the Rotunda are destroyed by fire. The Annex is never rebuilt, but the wide terraces in front of the north portico are built over what is called the Ramparts—its ruins. {article_images_10}1896 A group of students pose in front of the south face of the Rotunda, which is covered in scaffolding during the McKim, Mead and White reconstruction in 1896 (from the Turner Family). 1897 {article_images_11} 1898 {article_images_12}McKim, Mead and White redesign the Rotunda in the Beaux Arts style, characterized by heavy use of classical detail and ornamentation. The firm adds a north portico and terrace, increases the height of the library by removing a floor, and adds steel walkways around the upper stacks, in part to accommodate the growing library collection. {article_images_15}1938 The library is moved to Alderman, and the Rotunda loses its main purpose. 1955 Professor of architecture Frederick Nichols begins working on restoring Jefferson’s interior plan. 1974 {article_images_16}Workmen on Dome Room scaffolding during the 1974 renovation. 1976 {article_images_17}Nichols’ plan eventually leads to a massive renovation that completely guts the interior and replaces the roof. “Nichols observed in a 1976 University of Virginia Magazine article that when he opened the debate in 1955, the University community had only known the Stanford White-designed interior. Nichols’ idea was to return to Jefferson’s architectural and philosophical ideas for the Rotunda as a center of student and faculty life. 2012 Phase One of the current Rotunda renovation project begins. Next: The Phases of the Current Rotunda Renovation Project > {pagebreak} The Phases of the Rotunda Renovation Phase 1 Projected completion date: May 2013 {article_images_6}Roof: The existing steel roofing, coated in an alloy of lead and tin called terne, will be replaced with copper roofing that will be painted white. The bottom two masonry steps on the Rotunda roof will be removed and later reconstructed to allow repair of a rusted tension ring from the 1890s. Minor repairs are being made to the Guastavino tile system on the dome roof. A new aluminum oculus will have more ribs of a narrower dimension and will be finished white, inside and out. The type of oculus originally installed is not known, but the Office of the Architect believes this new aluminum oculus is similar to the original one chosen by Jefferson. Masonry: Exterior brick walls and windows will be repointed and repaired. Ornamental work: All of the white ornamental work on the Rotunda, is actually made of copper. “We have precedent, historically, for painting copper. It’s a great metal because it doesn’t deteriorate the way that metal that has iron in it does, so it’s been used as architectural ornament for hundreds of years,” Brian Hogg says. The white paint has been stripped so the ornamental work can be repaired. Phase 2 {article_images_7}Porticoes: The leaking Rotunda roof and the 1970s HVAC system have caused the porticoes’ 1890s steel frames to rust. Each portico roof will need to be peeled off and repaired. Capitals: The Rotunda column capitals, currently shrouded in black netting to keep crumbling debris from falling on passersby, will be replaced. Jefferson’s column capitals were built from Italian Carrara marble, but the 1890s post-fire capitals were made of marble from New England because it was the least expensive option, though it was of inferior quality. Additional work: Stairs, balustrades and the Rotunda elevator will be repaired, and all the brickwork on the wings will be repointed. Phase 3 {article_images_8}Crews will repair and replace the mechanical, electrical, plumbing and HVAC systems. New fire detection and suppression systems will be installed, the air distribution in the Dome Room will be reconfigured, the Dome Room ceiling panels will be replaced with acoustical plaster that will create a seamless, more aesthetically pleasing ceiling, and the wood column cracks in the Dome Room will be repaired. Phase 4 Audiovisual improvements will be made in the Dome Room, including the installation of an oculus retractable blind to improve Dome Room video quality. Repairs will be made to the damaged north terrace. The north and south passageways through the north portico wing will be restored, and the courtyards will be improved. Grounds & Buildings, History, 2012-11-20T21:06:01+00:00