Comeback kids? On August 4, UVA announced that move-in and the beginning of in-person classes will be delayed by two weeks, meaning face-to-face instruction will start on September 8. University President Jim Ryan released a video August 7, explaining that the decision to delay was made in response to a rise in Virginia’s coronavirus transmission, […]
By Claudia Gohn University administrators around the country have expressed concern about whether students would show up for a non-traditional school year (and, accordingly, pay tuition). UVA’s incoming freshmen have shown that they’re so eager to begin their halcyon college years, they’ll do so even during a pandemic. According to Dean of Admission Greg Roberts, […]
Closing the loop The Rivanna Trail has encircled Charlottesville for more than 20 years. Earlier this month, the trail became a little more complete, when a 140-foot-long pedestrian bridge was lowered into place over Moores Creek, closing one of the few remaining gaps in the trail’s 20-mile loop. Local environmentalists expressed enthusiasm about the bridge, […]
By Sydney Halleman Amy has a lot of school spirit. A third-year at the University of Virginia, she’s been active in the UVA community since her first year. She holds leadership positions in multiple clubs. “I go to all the football games,” Amy says. “And I love wearing my UVA gear.” But her [...]
When the pandemic struck, “it was like somebody just snatched a chair from under us,” says Jeanetha Brown-Douglas, owner of JBD Event Catering & Soul Food. “It was like having a business one day, and having no business the next day.” Inspired by her grandmother, Brown-Douglas first got into [...]
Two weeks ago, when Kate (who asked that we not use her real name) learned that there was a Twitter account exposing sexual predators at the University of Virginia, she was “really glad.” “A lot of the initial names, specifically men, we had already been talking about, within the survivor [...]
Tenure trouble UVA’s “Great and Good” strategic plan lists “recruiting and retaining excellent and diverse faculty” as a central goal. But this year, two black scholars who have been denied tenure claim the decision process was significantly flawed, possibly due to racial bias. Paul Harris has [...]
When rising fourth-year and singer-songwriter Merritt Gibson heard the news that the University of Virginia would be moving classes online for the rest of the academic year, she was devastated. She missed her friends—an integral part of her UVA experience, Gibson says. Then she began to mourn [...]
Rad grads Charlottesville’s 2020 high school graduates imagined they’d be walking across a grand stage right about now, with “Pomp and Circumstance” blaring as an auditorium applauded. That’s gone, of course, but the virus hasn’t stopped our schools from showing love for their seniors. [...]
By Claudia Gohn The postponement of this summer’s Olympic Games in Tokyo (moved to 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic) has disrupted the plans of athletes around the world—including several right here in Charlottesville. Ella Nelson, a University of Virginia swimmer and rising second-year, [...]
COVID-19 has stripped the pockets of businesses all around Charlottesville, including one of the city’s biggest: The University of Virginia Health System. Since the onset of the pandemic, the health system has lost $85 million per month due to a sharp decrease in surgeries and clinic visits. To [...]
Deadly disparities While the COVID-19 pandemic has affected people of all backgrounds across the globe, statistics show that it has had a disproportionate impact on black Americans. Data is limited, because only about 35 percent of U.S. cases specify a patient’s race, according to the CDC. But [...]
Creative worship in the age of corona Pastor Harold Bare was met with an unusual scene when he stood in front of his congregation on Easter Sunday—a barrage of car horns during a Facebook-streamed drive-in service, which welcomed congregants to decorate their vehicles and watch Bare’s sermon [...]
By Sydney Halleman When Cece Cowan first heard about Aramark Dining Services, the company that contracts with UVA to staff its dining halls, she was impressed. Cowan liked the global reach of the company and its potential relocation opportunities, especially Georgia, where she wanted to buy a [...]
By Lisa Speidel What is the right way to talk about human sexuality? This debate is as timely and fiercely contentious as ever. Whether sex education is coming from parents or schools, many disagree on what is appropriate content. In the United States, each state mandates what is acceptable for [...]
Since last week, when health officials warned that Americans should prepare for the inevitable spread of the coronavirus here in the U.S., at least 12 Americans have died and new cases have been emerging almost daily. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has warned that Americans [...]
For most of her life, Margaret O’Bryant has called the library home. After receiving a master’s degree in library science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, she worked in libraries at Ferrum College, Lenoir-Rhyne College, and UVA, later moving to the reference department at [...]
Robin Felder sees connections. For instance, when he installed the 250-gallon solid copper still at his and his wife Mary’s hilltop home near North Garden, he knew that the high-tech machine would need a considerable water source to cool and condense the evaporated alcohol into the final, [...]
The couple was living in Boston when they started looking for an architect to build their house on a mountaintop in Albemarle County. It would have to be a unique design, one that meshed with their reverence for nature and rigorous commitment to personal fitness (he’s a serious hiker and [...]
Barefoot is history The executive director of the Albemarle Charlottesville Historical Society has resigned less than two years into his tenure. Coy Barefoot, a well-known local author and media personality, was hired in March 2018 after his predecessor Steven Meeks resigned amid questions of [...]
Monticello not pleased The website of Ronnie Roberts, independent candidate for Albemarle sheriff, used one of the county’s most iconic images—Monticello—in its background. The only problem is, the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, which owns the mountaintop manse, does not allow images of the house [...]
Beto shows up—again Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke made a second visit to Charlottesville August 31. O’Rourke, who is trailing in the crowded Dem field, hit Champion Brewing to support former School Board chair Amy Laufer, who is running to unseat state Senator Bryce Reeves. He [...]
Why Charlottesville was targeted by a white supremacist rally, ostensibly to protest the removal of a Confederate statue, has led to several theories. That was the starting point for a panel sponsored by the UVA library August 12, two years after the Unite the Right rally. “Beyond the statues: [...]