Author: burke-speaker

When Wayne Russell threw the switch that set aglow thousands of string lights across the UVA Lawn for the annual Lighting of the Lawn on November 30, his holiday decorating was officially over for the year. “This is my Christmas decorations,” he said, pointing to the lights. “Besides the tree, I’m not doing any more at home.”

Poetry, a cappella, Christmas lights: Who could ask for more? Those at the sixth annual Lighting of the Lawn on November 30 were treated to that trifecta of wholesome delights.

And who could blame him? For the sixth year in a row, Russell and four other UVA electricians spent about five days and close to 40 hours hanging up the lights display. And if you think untangling your holiday lights is a headache, consider this: Because the setup team reuses leftover lights each year, that means untangling a good chunk of the close to 100 strings used, from the Rotunda to Old Cabell Hall. “It’s tiresome, it really is,” Russell said. “But it’s really pretty, and we’re happy to do it for the students.”

And judging by last Thursday night’s crowd, it was well worth the effort. After the vocal stylings of several UVA a cappella groups and a humorous class poem read by music Professor John D’earth, the lights were ablaze.

Though this year was a perfectly timed lighting, it hasn’t always been so. The event began in 2001, as a way for the community and University to come together in the aftermath of 9/11, but the first year was a trial-and-error lesson for the electricians that delayed the timing of the lighting. Problems about how to display the lights were alleviated when, after first using an electronic lift, they realized a primitive set of strings and pulleys were more effective. By last week, work was complete save for testing the lights and putting up a few strings that had been torn down by either unseasonably strong winds or the late-night antics of some boozy Grinches.

The cost this year was $11,400, paid for by the UVA class councils, Parents Committee, and Office of the Vice President and Chief Student Affairs. Still, all those lights don’t mean too much extra on the electric bill for the University, according to Russell: The electrical cost of the vibrant display that stays up until January is roughly the same as running two coffee machines.

When UVA’s Darden School of Business announced last year that it would offer an M.B.A. for Executives program—an opportunity for those already in the business world to earn a degree in 22 months—it was putting its lofty reputation on the line. In an already saturated marketplace of schools with similar programs, UVA was getting an acknowledged late start. Nearby schools such as Virginia Tech and the University of Maryland have offered similar programs for years.

Don’t want to leave your job to get the M.B.A. you’ve always wanted? For a meere $96,000, you can bust your chops during the week, visit Darden on the weekends, and find yourself a graduate 22 months later (whether you still have a spouse is another matter).

But six months into the UVA program’s launch, it has established such success that its severely time-pressed students—who spend between 80 to 100 hours weekly on school and work—now hit the road with administrators to reel in potential recruits.

“All last year there was so much uncertainty,” says Barbara Millar, the program’s executive director. “I think [this] shows that we’ve delivered on the promises we’ve made. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be helping us.”

The program nabbed 85 applications and brought on 54 students, higher than the projected 45. It boasts recruits from AOL, Capital One and Philip Morris, and has snatched students from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, which offers three M.B.A. executive degrees.

“It’s so competitive,” Millar admits. “In Charlottesville, we needed to create something special.” That translated to a holistic approach to business in a case-study format. Students attend two- or three-day sessions every three weeks and engage in distance learning with faculty via teleconferencing, the source of the program’s only reported early hiccups.

“I found the program the most fun I’ve had and [the most I’ve] had to work in a long, long time,” says Jayson Rieger, a project manager for local biotech company Adenosine Therapeutics and now a Darden student. Rieger has a science background, and sees the executive M.B.A. as “a learning experience with priorities for career advancement.”

What certainly doesn’t seem fun about the program is the cost: UVA charges a cool $96,000 for tuition (the national average for Executive M.B.A. program tuition is $50,000). To dampen that shock, Rieger, like many participants, has help footing the bill from his company.

For more information, go to: www.darden.virginia.edu

When former Virginia Governor Mark Warner announced last month he would not seek the Democratic nomination for president in 2008, he left not only a hoard of disappointed supporters eager for somebody other than Hillary Clinton, but also roughly $9.8 million in political contributions. Those contributions to Forward Together, his Alexandria-based political action committee (PAC), were compiled mainly for Warner’s presidential exploratory efforts, with millions paying for public opinion polling, travel, catering at speaking events and staff payroll (though $1.45 million did end up in Democrat party coffers for this year’s midterm elections).

Now that he’s passed on a 2008 run, will Warner and Forward Together continue going, um, forward together? Warner will determine the PAC’s fate in the next several weeks, says Ellen Qualls, the group’s communications director. She says the 35-member staff is likely to be whittled down in the coming weeks and some of the remaining $2.4 million will be earmarked to support “like-minded candidates” in the Democratic Party in the coming year. One thing’s for certain, though: With no clear leadership objective, there’s less urgency to roll out new ideas or programs.

“He will be narrowing down a series of options for himself and what role the PAC will play,” Qualls says. Those options include a second run for governor in 2009 (something bloggers won’t stop chatting about) or even a U.S. Senate bid in 2008, when Republican John Warner’s term expires.

Mark Warner’s PAC donated $5,000 to newly elected Senator Jim Webb and $22,000 in total for Virginia’s Jim Moran, Rick Boucher, Phil Kellam and Robert C. Scott in their bids for the U.S. House, according to the Federal Election Commission. He also added $25,000 to the Commonwealth Coalition’s now-failed campaign against the Virginia marriage amendment.

With the newly christened addition of the $43 million Wilsdorf Hall, UVA isn’t just touting a brand spankin’ new engineering building. In what’s being seen as an already developing worldwide nanotech research scramble, the University is jockeying for a position as one of the county’s top nanotechnology institutes, with no intention of being left behind.

Across the globe, the field of nanotechnology, the ability to manipulate and create new materials on the smallest levels, has already created widespread technology such as stain-resistant clothing and smaller computer hard drives. Within the coming decade, nanotechnology could become a $1 trillion market, according to the federal National Nanotechnology Initiative.

“This is the root discovery of a whole new set of scientific discoveries,” says Robert Hull, professor of materials science and engineering and UVA’s director of their nanotech institute (abbreviated NanoQuest). “It will create new science, new engineering, new technology. …We want to be neck and neck with the top schools in our research work.”

Wilsdorf Hall will serve as a magnet for recruiting professors and graduate students. UVA currently has 70 professors and 150 grad students working on nano-related research, and last year they received $17 million in grants. Aneesh Chopra, the State’s secretary of technology, hails Wilsdorf Hall as being “built on the promise of collaborative research that will yield breakthrough discoveries for the global marketplace.”

Already, universities nationwide have centers devoted to nanotechnology research, at top-tier schools such as Harvard, MIT and Cal Tech, with millions flowing into them from the private sector and federal and state government.

Small Times, a business publication covering the field of nanotechnology, recently ranked UVA as sixth out of 50 participating universities in nanotechnology research, though Hull doesn’t believe that truly reflects the real positioning.

“While there is really no formal ranking, we’re just behind the leading universities,” Hull says. “In the next decade, we want to be in the top 10, though right now we’re not far off.”

Although “Victim Witness Specialist” may sound like the newest “Law & Order” series, it’s actually a real job title in the criminal justice system. And this year, the U.S. Justice Department honored Charlottesville’s Veronica Massie for her work in providing support, assistance and aid to victims of federal crimes.

One of two victim-witness specialists for the Western District of Virginia, Massie coordinates with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in working with victims from the beginning of cases through sentencing. That may mean anything such as helping them (or in the case of a homicide, friends or family) meet court appearances, aiding them in a temporary or permanent move for fear of retribution or even providing a shoulder to cry on.

“The toughest part is making the experience for every victim a positive one,” Massie says. “With so much they have to go through in the trial, or even with having a negative experience in court, you don’t have them to be revictimized.”

For Massie, the type of crime and type of person determines how tough her job will be. Speaking of bank tellers who’ve been robbed, Massie says, “I’ve had victim tellers break down and cry. And then others will not care and say that this is their second bank robbery and that once you’re robbed, it’s all the same.”

The eight-year veteran notes that one of the more important aspects of her role is helping with a formal statement during sentencing. That statement, read either by the judge or the victim, often provides an outlet for a victim’s anger.

There’s also a chance for monetary reimbursement: The State offers a criminal injuries compensation fund for victims—up to $5,000 for a funeral, $2,500 for counseling and even money for lost wages.

“Being a victim of a crime is a terrible thing,” says John Brownlee, U.S. Attorney for the Western District. “It’s important to make sure the victim feels like justice was done.”

It doesn’t take a psychologist to tell you child development is slower than most parents would like. But it did take one to find a way to speed things up a bit.

Want a child genius? Just say no to pop-up books, suggests UVA psych Professor Judy DeLoache.

In a study appearing in the November issue of “Developmental Psychology,” UVA psychology Professor Judy DeLoache concludes that children whose parents use color-photography picture books to educate them will learn better than those using cartoon imagery or black-and-white drawings. “We asked, ‘Does the nature of the picture make a difference in what toddlers learn?’ DeLoache says of the research. “And the answer is, very clearly, yes.”

The study involved more than 100 boys and girls ages 18- to 30-months-old. Deloache observed half at UVA; the other half were seen by her co-researcher Gabrielle Simcock in Queensland, Australia. In the study, some children were shown color-photo images of a child building a simple rattle and others were shown a series of drawings of the same rattle-building. The result? All age groups, especially the youngest, did better assembling a rattle after seeing the photographs than after seeing the drawings. DeLoache and Simcock surmised that toddlers need the incentive of having the book image clearly reflect the actual object.

“Often the hardest task for a child is learning symbols and relating them to the real world,” DeLoache says. “If you want to teach children the names of things, then picture books with color objects in photo form are best.”

Next for DeLoache are two ongoing studies. The first is research on the child phenomenon of scale errors, in which, for example, children will sit in a child-sized chair or car, have them replaced with tiny toy models, and then try to sit on the toy chair or get into the toy car. The second study is closer to the newly published work: the effectiveness of “manipulative” books (or pop-ups, as most of us would say). So far, DeLoache is discovering that the pop-up books actually distract kids from learning rather than helping them learn. Says DeLoache: “I’m not saying don’t ever use these books, but if you want to teach your child something, don’t use a pop-up book.”

In 1936, “Jefferson’s University” so wanted to maintain its segregated self that it implemented a unique admissions policy for dealing with black applicants. Its forward-thinking solution? The best and brightest African American minds were paid to go anywhere but UVA—”anywhere” usually being a blacks-only college, according to a new weekly tour of UVA’s African American history.

Though the University has advanced—racially speaking—by leaps and bounds, its history of slave labor, segregation and racism is a lasting stain. But rather than hiding from the past, students here are taking it on.

“When you think about the University, it’s very easy to forget who gave us all of this,” says Wallace Gundy, one of six students leading a weekly UVA African American history walking tour for students, residents, tourists and area schools. The African American tour began informally six years ago; although, until this semester, it was only available at specific times or by request.

“Had it not been for African Americans, the University would not exist,” says Gundy. “The University is clearly becoming far more diverse, but we still have a long way to go.”

The hour-long program bluntly follows the University’s segregated past, from when the Rotunda and pavilions were built by slaves to cater to white Southern males (Jefferson’s way of keeping all the smart kids from fleeing north) to the stories of trailblazers such as Robert Bland (the first African American to graduate in 1959) and Wesley Harris (the first African American to complete engineering honors at UVA). Tragic facts are weaved with the unintentionally hilarious: Jefferson had a policy that students weren’t allowed to own slaves, despite being the largest slaveholder in the county.

Of course, today’s facts are far more welcoming. Eleven percent of the student body is African American and UVA boasts one of the highest graduation rates, 87 percent, for African American students.

The tours meet Fridays at 4pm on the Rotunda steps.