Student Firefighter Spearheads 9/11 Memorial0

Newcomb Hall is now home to a permanent 9/11 memorial, which includes a piece of steel from one of the World Trade Center towers destroyed by terrorists on Sept. 11, 2001, and a U.S. flag donated by the family of Glenn Davis Kirwin (Col '82), a U.Va. alumnus who died in the attacks. Evan Davis, a fourth-year government major and president of the Student Association of Volunteer Firefighters, EMTs, and Rescue Technicians at U.Va., led the effort to obtain the steel. "I hope future generations will see this flag and steel and realize there were U.Va. alumni ... who...

ROTC Cadet Nabs Truman Scholarship0

The Truman Foundation looks for "agents of change," students in their third year of college who seek to improve public or government services. This year, Joseph Riley (Col '13) was selected as just such an agent. Riley, an Army ROTC cadet, and an Echols and Jefferson scholar, studies the role of energy resources in international relations and foreign policy, and hopes to attend graduate school following his post-U.Va. tour of duty. During his Truman Scholar recognition, U.Va. President Teresa Sullivan described Riley as a person who "will not only be safeguarding our country, but also leading it...

News Briefs0

Spring 2012

Rita Dove receives National Medal of Arts; Students receiving free electrionc texts; Recycling at Scott Stadium; Darden Dean Bruner named Dean of the Year; VQR; Rankings

Bridging the Gap0

Spring 2012

Long slated for repair, Charlottesville’s Belmont Bridge awaits its next incarnation. Eduardo Arroyo, the 2012 Robertson Visiting Professor at the School of Architecture, led a University effort to meet the design challenges posed by a vital piece of Charlottesville’s transportation infrastructure. Arroyo, who heads an acclaimed architecture firm in Madrid, assembled teams of 10 students and faculty advisers for a two-week workshop called “Belmont Vortex.” The teams competed for the winning design and prize money. A team of U.Va. students, advised by professors Daniel Bluestone and W.G. Clark, won the people&rsquo...

Unleashing Their Inner Warriors0

Spring 2012

Studio art professor William Bennett’s January Term course hosted nearly a dozen U.Va. students who brought their own ideas of adversity into the classroom and, for two weeks, battled to realize their visions in clay. Using the Third Century, B.C., Chinese terra cotta soldier as guide and class symbol, Bennett’s students crafted clay warriors in small scale, then collaborated on a life-size figure. The full-grown warrior can wear a number of interchangeable heads, crafted by the students. Sculptors were encouraged to consider their own narratives of struggle when creating their warriors. One...

Revisiting Monticello’s History0

Spring 2012

Thomas Jefferson’s Albemarle County plantation, Monticello, has been restored in recent decades to better reflect the history of the site and its inhabitants. Not only are the lives of Jefferson and his family members integral to the story of Monticello, but the lives of the enslaved people who worked there are equally important. In January, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History unveiled “Slavery at Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello: Paradox of Liberty.” The exhibit follows the family lines of several of Jefferson’s slaves, as well as the...

Out of the Fire0

Spring 2012

Foreign affairs graduate Kimberly Dozier (Grad ’93) will join the ranks of news anchor Katie Couric (Col ’79) and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano (Law ’83) as a recipient of the Distinguished Alumna Award, which has been presented by the U.Va. Women’s Center for 20 years. An Associated Press and CBS News journalist, Dozier spent more than three years reporting from Baghdad before a car bomb seriously injured her, and killed the other journalists working alongside her. After documenting her experience in a memoir, Breathing the Fire: Fighting to Report—and Survive—the War...

Speaking for the Trees0

Spring 2012

In November, the Board of Visitors voted to remove a number of prominent, mature magnolia trees so the leaky Rotunda roof could be fixed. Some students objected to the trees’ removal, and more than 2,200 signed petitions requesting that they be preserved. “The Board members were informed that the magnolias are at the end of their projected lifespan and were planted too close to the building,” said U.Va. President Teresa Sullivan in November. “Arborists—our own as well as outside experts—believe that the repair work on the Rotunda will only exacerbate...