Headines @ U.Va.

Post hails solar house
“The University of Virginia team handcrafted its long box as if it were a jewel, reshaping recycled materials as ordinary as wooden shipping pallets and as unusual as slate panels discarded from the terraces of Thomas Jefferson's Rotunda.”

— Washington Post, Sept. 28

A tribute from a high school 'thug'
“In an age of despair over the state of public education, Mark Edmundson's memoir serves as a testimony to the magic that can occur – even in the least inspired of school settings – when the right teacher meets a receptive student. At the moment Mr. Edmundson met teacher Frank Lears, however, neither appeared to be a likely candidate for a tale of academic redemption. …Yet that's precisely the path Edmundson chose, one that eventually led to a professorship at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville.”

— Christian Science Monitor,
Oct. 1

WHAT U.Va. Profs are SAYING

William Quandt, politics professor, Middle East expert and vice provost for international studies, on Congress’ move to recognize Jerusalem as the political capital of Israel despite Bush administration objections (Christian Science Monitor, Oct. 2): “[Congressional resolutions] cannot force the hand that does not want to be forced.”

Robert C. Turner, associate director of U.Va.’s Center for National Security Law, on the curtailment in civil liberties during the war on terrorism (Christian Science Monitor, Oct. 3): “We are so vulnerable. We cannot bulletproof this country. … It may well be that 10 people are having to spend a year or two in confinement in order to save 10,000 people from being murdered.”

Larry Sabato, politics professor and director of U.Va.’s Center for Politics, on prospects for Democratic Party gains in November’s mid-term elections (Boston Globe, Sept. 29): “It's a tough uphill climb for Democrats to take control. It's possible if a last-minute wave is moving in a Democratic direction. That last-minute wave could be generated by a bad economy, or public unhappiness at third-quarter receipts [from their pension plans] … A wave is invisible until you get 100 yards from shore.”

John C. Harrison, law professor, on the prospects of the U.S. Supreme Court taking up an appeal in the dispute between New Jersey Democrats and Republicans over the ballot in the U.S. Senate race (The Associated Press, Oct. 4): “You can't say we've got a constitutional crisis and somebody's got to bail the country out.”

R. Edward Freeman, professor of business administration, on business ethics (Entrepreneur magazine, Oct. 2002): “We’ve got it wrong when we say business is business and [it] has nothing to do with ethics. Adam Smith thought that markets wouldn’t work unless people wanted to do the right thing.”