News briefs

U.Va. sends 912 applicants the ‘fat envelope’
The winter mailbox watch has ended for 2,410 early-decision applicants to the University, with 912 of them having received the “fat envelope” containing an acceptance letter and admissions materials. The rest will have to wait until the spring’s regular admissions cycle.

Actually, the mailbox ritual is fast becoming outmoded: about 55 percent applied online and were able to access their decisions as soon as they were mailed out.
Of the offers made for the 2003-04 year, 717 went to Virginia residents and 195 to out-of-state applicants. Early decision students constitute about 30 percent of those accepted to attend U.Va., Dean of Admission John A. Blackburn said.

U.Va. scientists discover key contributor to heart attacks
Scientists at the U.Va. School of Medicine have uncovered a key contributor to arteriosclerosis, or hardening of the arteries — often the main cause of heart attacks. Platelets activated in the blood, long thought a symptom of arteriosclerosis, in fact are major contributors to it, they report in a study published in the Dec. 16 online issue of the journal Nature Medicine.
“These platelets are time bombs in the blood,” said Dr. Klaus Ley, director of the Cardiovascular Research Center and professor of biomedical engineering, molecular physiology and biological physics at U.Va. “The hope now is that we can develop anti-platelet drugs to limit activation, which would be a beneficial, effective preventive measure against heart attack. These important observations could translate into improved therapies for limiting this extremely prevalent disease.”

Law teams up with business schools in new program
Two of America’s best law and business schools are separated by mere yards on U.Va.’s North Grounds, so it’s natural for them to collaborate. Last fall marked the first time in which the Law School has offered the Virginia Program in Law and Business, which draws upon the talents of both the Darden Graduate School of Business Administration and the McIntire School of Commerce to give prospective lawyers a firm grasp of business fundamentals.

Responding to the growing demand for business-savvy lawyers in corporate America, the Law School launched the Virginia Program in Law and Business, a wide-ranging curricular innovation that will educate students in the fundamentals of business analysis. As Dean John Jeffries explains, “the lawyer who is unable to think quantitatively, who cannot unpack and understand risk and valuation, cannot serve the business client effectively.”

Added Academic Associate Dean Paul Mahoney: “We will offer students the additional analytical and conceptual training typical of an MBA program, including quantitative analysis, accounting, and organizational behavior.”

U.Va. programs in Danville get local support
The Danville area will continue to benefit from U.Va.’s involvement, thanks to nearly $70,000 in new awards from a local charity. The E. Stuart James Grant Charitable Trust gave $47,500 to the Thomas C. Sorenson Institute for Political leadership to continue its program in political and civic leadership, and another grant of $22,000 to the Carter G. Woodson Institute for African American Studies to establish a new oral history project. The oral history project will concentrate on how black and white Danville residents understood citizenship and community from 1945 to 1975. Emma Edmunds, a U.Va. writer and longtime journalist who is a native of the area, is the research coordinator for the project.

The President’s Office also is receiving a $45,000 unrestricted award.

U.Va. Hospital stays in top 100 group
For the fourth consecutive year, Solucient has named the U.Va. Medical Center as one of the top 100 U.S. hospitals of 2002 — an honor conferred upon only one other hospital in Virginia.

The annual study recognizes national performance benchmarks across four critical areas: quality of care, operational efficiency, financial performance and adaptation to the environment.

Among the study’s other findings: Winning hospitals treat more and sicker patients than non-winning hospitals, maintaining higher patient-case mix than peer hospitals. The top hospitals provided more successful outcomes, helping patients survive life-threatening illness 10 percent more often than their peers.

Winning hospitals employ fewer staff but offer nearly $2,000 more per employee in annual salary and benefits than do peer hospitals. A recent related Solucient study indicated that benchmark hospitals tend to maintain higher ratios of registered nurses to inpatient days.

Total profit margins for winning hospitals are twice that of their peers.

Knight again a Wise man
You can take the man out of Wise, but you can’t take the Wise out of the man. Jim Knight, who served as chancellor of U.Va.’s College at Wise from 1988 until 1992, is returning to the school as vice chancellor for development and community relations beginning in March.

Between stints in Wise, Knight has served successfully as associate vice president for Health System development at U.Va.

Everson sees action at three film festivals
Kevin Everson, assistant professor in the McIntire Department of Art, captures glimpses of working-class black culture in his short documentary films. Several will be shown at three film festivals that open this month.

“Vanessa,” a film about loss and Michelangelo, will be screened in the short film line-up at the Sundance Film Festival. This is the third time Everson’s work has been shown there.

“True Stories,” the program for shorts at the International Film Festival Rotterdam, will feature a collection of 15 Everson films.

The Studio Museum in Harlem will show three films: “Sportello Quattro,” which Everson made while a 2001-02 Fellow at the American Academy in Rome, highlights issues of immigration, work and community among people of color in contemporary Rome; “72” focuses on a teenage taxi driver who has to multi-task to keep his job; and “Fumble” is an interpretation of a poem by Vincent Katz.

Wall gets NEH grant
Cynthia Wall, associate professor of English, is the sole U.Va. winner of a $40,000 research fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Last month, the NEH announced a total of $14.5 million in grants to support scholarly research, college curriculum-development programs, museum and library humanities programs, and public-television and -radio programs. Wall, whose research project is on “Poetics of Space, Prose of Things,” is one of five Virginia scholars awarded.

Among Wall’s publications are a 1998 book, “The Literary and Cultural Spaces of Restoration London,” and an article on “The Rhetoric of Description of 18th-Century Genres and Cultures.”

Poison center handles emergencies and more in new locale
The Blue Ridge Poison Center, affiliated with the U.Va. Health System, has a new home with state-of-the-art equipment and more space to help the staff better serve its region. The center recently expanded by starting a medical toxicology fellowship and the Center for Clinical Toxicology, which offers help with complex toxicological problems, including chemical terrorism. Founded in 1997, the Blue Ridge Poison Center is part of the Virginia Poison Center Network. The center serves 62 counties, plus the city of Virginia Beach, with information about poison prevention and advice in poison emergencies.

The 24-hour nationwide hotline is 1-800-222-1222.

Art Museum seeks docents
The University Art Museum is seeking members of the community to become volunteer docents. Applications are being accepted now for the new class, which begins Jan. 29. Docents lead tours for thousands of schoolchildren, university students and adults each year and are an integral part of the museum’s education program. Topics covered in the docent-training program include learning theories and art history, as well as tour themes and techniques. Call 924-7458 to apply and set up an interview.

Web site with a heart
The Children’s Heart Center has put its heart on the Web. With support from the Cove Point Foundation, the center features a new Web site of educational materials and information on every known congenital heart defect. By clicking on the appropriate area of the heart, physicians, clinical professionals and other visitors to the site can access a list of conditions affecting that particular area. See www.pted.org.

“There is nothing like it out there for patient education in congenital heart disease. It even includes animations and surgeries,” said Dr. Allen Everett, pediatric cardiologist at the U.Va. Health System.

The Cove Point Foundation lends financial support to programs addressing children’s educational and health-related issues.

Friday art receptions change
The University Art Museum is switching its spring 2003 receptions from the first Friday of the month to the fourth Friday and will follow this schedule in the fall.
Fourth Fridays receptions, held 5:30 to 7:30 p.m., are a benefit of museum membership; the cost is $3 for non-members, but you can join at the door.

The next event on Jan. 24 highlights the exhibits opening this month, “Treasures from an Unknown Realm: Shunzhi Porcelain” and “Honoring the Legacy of Lewis and Clark: Native American Art and the American West,” both on display until March 2.

Spring schedule:

• Feb. 28
New acquisitions: Collage boxes by Joseph Cornell

• March 28
“Political Humor: A Tribute to Herblock”
“Masterworks of African Art: Selections from the Collection”

• April 25
“Re-Imagining Ireland: Irish Art Today”

The museum is open Tuesday through Sunday, 1 to 5 p.m. For details, call 924-3592 or visit the Web site at http://www.virginia.edu/artmuseum/.

U.Va. women in international arena
The Women’s Center is holding a series of talks in 2003 on “Women in the International Arena,” focusing on the Virginia 2020 initiative in international activities. U.Va. alumnae and other guests will examine how women are transforming traditional power structures through work in legal, judicial and international areas. The first two speakers are Diane Johnston, a news consultant for Radio Free Asia, on “An American’s Journey in Asia” Jan. 30, and Azizah al-Hibri, a law professor at the University of Richmond, on “Gender and Marriage in Islam” Feb. 26.

See the Inside UVA calendar for details or visit http://womenscenter.virginia.edu.

Engineering creates faculty fellowships
The School of Engineering and Applied Science initiated the Faculty Fellows Program this year to recognize exceptional achievements of rising young faculty in the school. Those appointed as Faculty Fellows have proven their sustaining value through the tenure process and are involved in new educational and research initiatives, often in collaboration with colleagues in other disciplines.
“In many cases, these scholars are leading the creative breakthroughs that will define the future directions of their disciplines and their careers,” said Dean Richard W. Miksad.

Faculty Fellows receive a $2,000 discretionary stipend and may use “Faculty Fellow” as part of their title. They keep their appointment for a fixed term or until they are promoted to full professor, whichever comes first.

The first recipients are Scott T. Acton, electrical and computer engineering; Erik J. Fernandez, chemical engineering; Andrew C. Hillier, chemical engineering; Michael B. Lawrence, biomedical engineering; Jorg Liebeherr, computer science; Kathryn A. Neeley, technology, culture and communication; Pamela M. Norris, mechanical and aerospace engineering; Kevin J. Sullivan, computer science; and Giovanni Zangari, materials science and engineering.

Off the Shelf
Marion Roberts, art history professor. “Dugdale and Hollar: History Illustrated.” University of Delaware Press.

An evaluation of illustrations in Dugdale’s most important publications, “The Antiquities of Warwickshire,” the “Monasticon Anglicanum,”and “The History of St. Paul’s Cathedral in London.”

Richard Barnett, associate professor of history, editor. “Rethinking Early Modern India.” Delhi: Manohar.

Paula Findlen, Stanford Univ., Micelle M. Fontaine, Univ. of Arkansas, and Duane J. Osheim, U.Va. history professor. “Beyond Florence: The Contours of Medieval and Early Modern Italy.” Stanford Univ. Press.

Jessica R. Feldman, English professor. “Victorian Modernism: Pragmatism and the Varieties of Aesthetic Experience.” Cambridge University Press.

Sharon Hays, associate professor of sociology. “Flat Broke, With Children: Women in the Age of Welfare Reform.” Oxford University Press.

David Kovacs, classics professor. “Euripides: Bacchae, Iphigenia at Aulis, Rhesus.” Loeb Classical Library. Harvard University Press.

Stephen M. Dickey, assistant professor of Slavic Languages and Literatures, and Bogdan Rakic, Indiana University, translators. “How to Quiet a Vampire” by Borislav Pekic. Northwestern University Press.

First published in Serbian in 1977, this novel is a study of terror and intellect in the tradition of Joseph Heller and George Steiner.

Krishan Kumar, sociology professor. “The Making of English National Identity.” Cambridge University Press.

“The Shape of Change: Studies on La Fontaine and Early Modern Literature,” a book of essays in honor of Professor of French Emeritus David L. Rubin and drawing on his work, was recently published by Rodopi (Amsterdam and New York). The book is based on an international roundtable at the University of Kentucky on Rubin’s research and its influence.

In Memoriam
• Champ Clark, 79, of Ruckersville, who was appointed in 1996 by Gov. George Allen to the U.Va. Board of Visitors and served a four-year term, died Dec. 21. He was also a lecturer in newswriting.

• Hazel Turner, 58, of Charlottesville, died Dec. 22. For more than 30 years she was a nursing assistant in the department of urology and later the department of family practice.

• H. Gordon Larew, 80, who retired in 1992 as professor of civil engineering after 36 years, died in Charlottesville on Dec. 28.

• Harry Channing Ward, 74, of Charlottesville, died Dec. 29. He retired from Facilities Management.

• Ida Louise Jackson Lawson died Dec. 28 in Waynesboro. She retired from U.Va. in 1999 after 20 years of service.

• Ruth Ann Elizabeth Anderson, 50, of Charlottesville, died Dec. 28. She was employed at the department of nutrition services at the Health System.

• Gwendolyn Harlow, 77, of Charlottesville, died Jan. 6. She worked in housing from 1970 until 1987.

• Carol Quinlivan Napier, 47, of Charlottesville, died Jan. 8. She worked in Human Resources from July 1988 until October 2001.

• Charles A. Vandersee, 64, died Jan. 2 at his home in Charlottesville. Vandersee was an associate professor of English and had been dean of the undergraduate Echols Scholars Program from 1973 to 1997, enriching the lives of thousands of students. He is credited with building the program.

Before coming to U.Va. in 1964, Vandersee was a Danforth and Woodrow Wilson Fellow at the University of California at Los Angeles, where he completed his master’s and doctor’s degrees in English.

In 1973, he edited a modern edition of John Hay’s 1884 novel “The Bread-Winners.” In that same year, he was honored by the local chapter of Phi Beta Kappa for the best work of faculty scholarship at U.Va.

Known for his extensive writings on Henry Adams, Vandersee was associate editor of the six volumes of The Letters of Henry Adams, 1858–1892 and 1892–1918.
A prolific writer, Vandersee’s poems have been published in dozens of journals.

A memorial service for Vandersee will be held at 1 p.m., Jan. 25. at St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, Alderman Road.