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U.Va. freezes state-funded jobs, braces
for more budget cuts
Staff report
Facing
bleak financial news from the state and the prospect of additional
budget cuts, the University’s administration has fine-tuned
the guidelines of a hiring freeze announced July 25 and asked vice
presidents and deans to prepare plans for the equivalent of a 7
percent reduction in their spending.
“We
fully expect to be asked by the governor to make additional reductions
to our operating budgets in this fiscal year and next, although
at this time we do not know the magnitude of those reductions,”
wrote Yoke San L. Reynolds, vice president for finance, and Colette
Sheehy, vice president for management and budget, in a memo distributed
Aug. 1. “We believe at this time that planning for a 7 percent
reduction will adequately cover what we might be asked to do.”
The
University anticipated receiving about $141.5 million from the state
in the 2003 fiscal year, which began July 1. That accounts for about
17 percent of the academic division’s budget.
The
freeze on state-funded hiring and discretionary spending came in
response to a request on July 23 from Gov. Mark R. Warner for immediate
action from state agency heads in light of a $237 million shortfall
in revenue. Warner also asked his staff to reassess the revenue
picture and said he plans to announce the revisions on Aug. 19.
Full story.
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American icon still shakes up
students of music and culture |
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Photo
by Rebecca Arrington
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| “Elvis
Presley is a lens through which we can look at large musical
and cultural forces,” says music professor and composer
Stephan Prock, who teaches a course on the late, great entertainer,
dead 25 years come Aug. 16. |
By Lee Graves
Twenty-five
years after his death, Elvis Presley still projects a riveting presence
on the stage of American culture. Whether in tabloid headlines,
sequined impersonators or recycled hits, the King commands attention.
“In
an image-laden culture, he’s the quintessential American image,”
says Stephan Prock, a lecturer and composer at U.Va.
Prock
teaches a course on the King called “All Shook Up: Elvis in
American Culture.” It examines the life, times, music and legacy
of Presley and how they provide insights into the national character.
The
25th anniversary of Presley’s death on Aug. 16 gives Prock’s
course special meaning and appeal this year. “I have a lot
of kids signed up, the most ever for a summer course.”
The
drawing power of Presley also is being felt on the music charts
this summer. According to Billboard magazine, “A Little Less
Conversation,” a refurbished Elvis song, became the No. 1 single
in the United States on its sales charts in early July. The same
tune had been No. 1 in England for weeks.
Prock
suspects some students enrolled in his course thinking it would
be no more demanding than a pop quiz. But “All Shook Up”
takes an in-depth look at the conflicts that existed in the 1950s
and how Presley embodied and exposed them. The country was yearning
for a sense of stability in the wake of World War II, but the racial
and sexual tensions that simmered in society bubbled to the surface
in Presley’s performances and recordings. Full
story.
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