To the point -- with Chen Jian

Campbell addition OK’d

Staff report

The Board of Visitors’ annual summer retreat is not typically a time for conducting
official business, but at its July 12-13 gathering on a James River plantation near Hopewell, the board approved plans for an addition to the Architecture School’s Campbell Hall and two items of proposed legislation for the 2003 General Assembly.

Discussion before the brief business session was wide-ranging, focusing chiefly on academic issues: faculty salaries, the role of graduate students as instructors, the demise of survey courses over the past three decades, and curriculum reviews currently under way in the undergraduate schools.

Board members William H. Goodwin Jr. and Thomas J. Bliley Jr. expressed particular concern about stagnating faculty salaries. “We as an institution have to be prepared to be fairly bold,” Goodwin said, urging that board members and the administration lobby the General Assembly for permission to raise tuition further. “We have to show them the reality.” Full story.

Bullying not inevitable part of growing up

By Anne Bromley

Having worked with teenagers for 27 years, U.Va. clinical psychologist Peter Sheras thinks it’s time to get tough about bullying.

“Bullying has been shown to create serious, lasting physical and emotional damage,” said Sheras, who has written a new book, Your Child: Bully or Victim? Understanding and Ending School Yard Tyranny.

It translates the latest research and clinical practice into information parents can use, while shattering some well-worn misconceptions about the behavior of bullies and victims. For instance, many people think some kids are born to be bullies and that ignoring them or fighting back are good solutions for a child who is being intimidated.

“There are no bully genes,” said Sheras. Full story.