University Digest

Verbatim

For 20 years, our state has put essentially every other priority ahead of education. It has done this for so long that most people simply take it for granted now that the state can dodge this most basic of its obligations.

Fresh Art

The University of Virginia Art Museum reopened after a $2 million summer renovation.

Breaking Through, Looking Back

More than two dozen alumni recently returned to Grounds to commemorate their role in desegregating the University of Virginia during the 1950s and ’60s.

Bookmarked: UVA on iTunesU

The University of Virginia channel is now up and running on iTunes U—the higher education portion of Apple’s iTunes store.

Floating Ideas

The Learning Barge has gone from concept to classroom.

Story Genius

Short story writer Deborah Eisenberg was awarded a MacArthur Foundation “genius” grant in September.

Small Town, Big Acts

Renovated venues have helped bring an impressive assortment of musical headliners to Grounds.

Space-Age Eraser

Conservators used a laser to clean 180 years of grime from the column capitals of Pavilion II.

Celebrating Service

Madison House grew from the efforts of UVA volunteers to help storm victims.

Campaign Hits $2 Billion

Against the backdrop of the deepest recession since the 1930s, the University announced on Sept. 14 that it had reached the $2 billion mark in its $3 billion fundraising campaign.

Holding Steady

This year’s U.S. News & World Report’s rankings of America’s best colleges yielded a familiar outcome for the University.

The Campaign for the University of Virginia

More than 77,000 alumni have contributed to the campaign. Here are the five largest gifts to UVA.

Minding Manners

Lack of respect and courtesy constitute a serious national problem, according to a study conducted in 2002, and most people interviewed saw the problem as getting worse.

Sports

Sports Shorts

A Study in Leadership

Everything about UVA guard Monica Wright’s game seems effortless and natural.

Laying a Foundation

Coach Tony Bennett discusses philosophy and goals.

Confidence Game

Whitney Neuhauser stood over her second shot in a playoff for the state championship and committed the golfer’s ultimate sin. She doubted.

Arts

Bestsellers at the UVA Bookstore: July through September 2009

The Philosopher Mechanic

Crawford argues that physical labor that offers tangible results—a motorcycle that starts, a plumbing system that doesn’t leak—provides satisfaction, both intellectual and psychic, that office work often lacks.

Couture Construction

Two alumnae, an urban planner and an artchitect, formed Chromat Garments. They make fashion that borrows heavily from architecture.

Do You Hear What I Hear?

Michael Rasbury is a sound designer, a composer and a professor of drama at UVA, and he co-wrote a play inspired by his son, a musical about a boy with autism named Max.

New & Notable

Required Reading: R. Jahan Ramazani

Professor R. Jahan Ramazani (Col ’81), chair of the English department, edited the Norton Anthology of Modern and Contemporary Poetry, co-edited the 20th-century volume of the Norton Anthology of English Literature and published a book of poetry.

More Departments

The Kennedys at Virginia

In March 1958, then-Senator John F. Kennedy, his wife, Jackie, and his brothers Robert and Ted attended Law Day at UVA.

Art and Science

Saving Green

During the month of August, it cost $21,769.85 just to cool Newcomb Hall. The University is making eye-opening numbers like these available on its online “Building Dashboard,” which displays energy use in Newcomb Hall.