Month: November 2009

UVA President John Casteen’s $800,000 salary may seem a significant sum, but for former George Washington University President Stephen Trachtenberg, that’s peanuts.

The Chronicle of Higher Education released pay surveys for private university presidents for 2007-2008. Trachtenberg, who is at the top, pocketed $3.7 million in salary and benefits. That’s $2 million more than any other leader of private higher education institution.

According to the Washington Post’s coverage of the Chronicle’s report today, salaries increased by 6.5 percent in 2007-2008. The median was $358,746.

By comparison, the Post revisited a survey on public university presidents. UVA President John Casteen is the third-highest ranking president of a public university, earning $800,000 between pay and benefits.

The survey also found that 23 presidents make more than $1 million. Shirley Ann Jackson, president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY makes $1.6 million in salary and benefits.

A Monday arts and culture reading outline—inspired by a local writer who knows from outlines:

• Janet Maslin reviews John Grisham’s first collection of short fiction, Ford County, in today’s New York Times. "[I]f the story winds up as less than a full-fledged drama," Maslin says of one tale in the book, "it also becomes much more than a well-wrought diversion. Mr. Grisham knows how to make himself eminently readable." Must be all the outlining, Mr. Grisham:

 "Well, I’ve tried everything else but poetry." Copies of Ford County are available starting tomorrow at New Dominion Bookshop.

• J. Tillman, a member of blog-buzz-and-face-fuzz folk act Fleet Foxes, announced a gig at the UVA Chapel slated for November 19. Listen to a Daytrotter session by Tillman here (I recommend "When I Light Your Darkened Door) and throw out your Bic, beardos.

• Speaking of shows, word has it that former C-VILLE music columnist/Eardrum NYC cofounder John Ruscher will join DBB Plays Cups tonight at The Box! (via Nailgunmedia) I’ve written before about DBB’s hyper-local approach to performances (no website, word o’ mouth, etc), and would advise you to catch tonight’s gig. Consistent fun from fluctuating lineups! Plus, DBB himself is a man of mystery, alternately identified as "David Benson Baker" and "David Baker Benson."

• Rob and Laura Jones’ ArtPark blog is a steady, enjoyable read on local art and the visual art market. Recently, ArtPark published a few posts about public art, including this bit about tree trunk sculptures. The entry earned a good response from local photographer Bill Emory, who commented about one trunk: "I see the profile of a dog. I see dogs everywhere." True enough.

Ours, it seems, is a community of winners. Not weiners, mind you, nor whiners (though sometimes we are winers, and happily so). Right here in Charlottesville, we play hometown to the Southern Environmental Law Center, an organization long admired by Green Scene and many other people for its success in courtroom-based planet protection, and now the winner of a 2009 Scenic Hero award from Scenic Virginia. Woo hoo!

There are a few things about Charlottesville that really make me proud to live here. Our community-wide availability of pricey stationery is not one of them, but this gang of smart, eco-friendly lawyers definitely makes the cut.

On to Albemarle County schools, which collectively tasted victory when the Virginia School Board Association recognized the district as a top prize winner in its Green Schools Challenge. Why? Albemarle schools have inventoried their greenhouse gas emissions, instituted composting, and sought LEED certification for building additions. In other words, they are setting a fine example for their students and other local districts. Say it with me now: Woo hoo!

Another score for the home team: Chickens, eggs, and all manner of leafy greens have propelled our own City Market to glory in the form of a record sales total in 2009. Try $1,085,646.11 on for size. That is a damn lot of carrots, my friends.

And our final local winner is Route 15, now officially called the Journey Through Hallowed Ground National Scenic Byway between Monticello and Gettysburg. Proponents of the byway designation say this will be good news for conservation and preservation, so let’s hope they’re right.

One rotten tomato: Unfortunately, the Rivanna River watershed is not a winner. The very cool organization StreamWatch documents that water quality, at many points in local streams and rivers, loses out to pollution from a number of sources, including homeowners who douse their yards with chemicals. A lush lawn at the expense of everybody’s water supply is a hollow victory, indeed.

Who would you nominate as a local green winner? Any other heroes out there?

As I was in the Scott Stadium press box on Saturday, packing up my laptop while staring at the rain pelting down, I thought: we’ve now lost to Duke and William and Mary in the same season. If anyone would have told me in 1995, or even 2005, that UVA would lose to a basketball school like Duke, and Thomas Jefferson’s alma mater in the same Autumn, I would have told them to call the doctor. Boy, times are tough.

How would you like to be Craig Littlepage, the Board of Visitors, or anyone that works for the Virginia Athletics Foundation? That’s a tough call to make for those fine VAF folks:

"Sir, we’d love to speak to you regarding your donation to Cavalier athletics for 2009. Would you like to help make a donation to pay for the shiny-new buyouts of Dave Leitao and Al Groh? We just finished the payment plan for former Coach Pete Gillen’s buy-out, so that’s good news. Sir? Are you still there, Sir?" Click.

Normally after a Virginia football game I wander over to the East lot and have a couple of ham biscuits and ice cold Budweisers with several of my long-time friends. Win, lose, or draw, we chat about our lives, the game we have just witnessed, and just generally hang out.

Saturday, all I wanted to do was get the hell out of there immediately! As the media van that takes us back to the lot was about to leave Scott Stadium, Danny Kanell, the former Florida State quarterback of the 1995 Seminoles that lost to UVA in on of the best college football games I’ve ever seen, ran up to the van and got in.

The van driver said, "Hey you’re that Florida State guy that we beat in 1995, aren’t you?"

Kannell replied, "Yep, I did not remember that game at all till I saw it in the ESPN notes as I was preparing for this game this week" (Kannell was the color guy for the ESPN-360 broadcast crew). He talked a little about his meal the night before at the Downtown Grille, that he had made a bit of video for his kids of the UVA band, and then we both got out of the van and were on our separate ways.

Danny Kannell doesn’t remember that game at all. BS! He was 32-67 for 454 yards and 3 TDs in that November, 1995, game in Charlottesville. But, all he wanted to talk about was the wonderfully good steak he’d eaten for dinner last night, and how UVA’s campus was incredibly spread out! www.youtube.com/watch

There is knowledge and wisdom to be gained from a very unlikely source here, Virginia football fans. Most Hoos fans I know view that Florida State game as one of the three most important in the annals of UVA football.* But even to the guy that threw for 454 yards, it was just another game, and just another loss. Take ’em with a grain of salt, and maybe a couple of ice cold beers, too. We (Virginia fans) take ourselves a bit too seriously, I think. We aren’t an important football school, and never have been.

The season rolls on and continues Saturday in Miami for the Hoos. My prediction Hoos 13 Miami 48. Yuck.

*The other two most important games: Georgia Tech, November 3, 1990 and New Years Eve 1984 against Purdue in the Peach Bowl.