E-NEWSLETTER UPDATE: UNIVERSITY NEWS
U.Va. reaches out to Virginia Tech
Largest gift in University history will create new school
Single sanction on shaky ground?
U.Va. Holds Candlelight Vigil to Honor Virginia Tech Victims
At a candlelight vigil honoring those who were killed and injured at Virginia Tech in Monday's shootings, University of Virginia President John T. Casteen III told members of the U.Va. community Tuesday night that the world can be unpredictable and inscrutable. But Casteen also exhorted the students to continue moving forward to change the world.
"Tonight we come together as a community to talk, meditate and mourn," Casteen told the crowd that overflowed McIntire Amphitheatre. Students, many of them dressed in Virginia Tech's maroon and orange colors, carefully held candles that were guttering in the evening breeze.
While the deadly shootings occurred in Blacksburg, Casteen said the event affected the U.Va. community in profound ways. One of the slain Tech professors has a daughter attending U.Va., Casteen said. A professor who had moved from U.Va. to Tech in 2003 was among the dead. One U.Va. student lost her sister, while another lost a cousin.
Universities are protected places with a commitment to openness, he said, and because of the permeability of their borders, they are virtually impossible to seal off, especially if they value open inquiry, discovery, teaching and learning.
Despite the grief the U.Va. community is feeling, Casteen said there are practical matters to address. While university populations are inevitably vulnerable, U.Va. and many other institutions around the country will re-assess their procedures in light of the Tech situation. U.Va., he said, has been exploring ways to notify the University community in times of emergency.
Casteen urged students to talk to one another, as well as faculty, staff and parents. He told students to stay in touch with loved ones and not to be embarrassed by their grief.
And he urged then to report anybody they thought to be suspicious, irrational or threatening.
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Largest Gift in University History: Frank Batten Sr. Gives $100 Million to Create New School of Leadership and Public Policy at U.Va.
On the eve of University of Virginia Founder's Day, University President John T. Casteen III and Frank Batten Sr., one of the University's most loyal supporters, announced today that Batten is giving $100 million to create the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy.
Batten's is the largest single gift in the history of the University and brings the total raised in the current $3 billion Campaign for the University of Virginia to $1.290 billion. His unparalleled generosity will fund an ambitious new venture that has been on the drawing board for the past several years, Casteen said, and it is expected to enable the University to address critical policy issues in Virginia, the nation and around the world. The primary goal of the new school -- in both its undergraduate and graduate programs -- will be to supply the nation with visionary leaders who can drive the policy innovation process, energize organizations, build inclusive coalitions and translate good ideas into action.
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Banishment remains only punishmentStudents elect to keep the "single sanction" for honor violations
By Will Goldsmith
The UVA student body has opted to save “single sanction,” referring to the only punishment for honor code violations: permanent expulsion. Critics of the system got a referendum on the ballot for spring elections, asking whether single sanction should be abolished in favor of tiered consequences. Though the resolution would be nonbinding, it would have brought a formal change to the ballot next year for referendum.
But supporters of single sanction won by the slim margin of 62 votes after the results were tallied: 50.5 percent of the 6,476 votes were cast against the multitier system. Turnout in the election tilted toward undergrads, of whom 42 percent cast ballots compared with only 21 percent of grad students.
Source: C-VILLE Weekly issue #19.11
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