Digest — U.Va. News Daily

Photo by Tom Cogill

Christine and Olivie Zunz don their medals.

Olivier and Christine Zunz honored for their work
Jean-David Levitte, French ambassador to the United States, presented the Chevalier of the Ordre National du Mérite to Olivier Zunz, U.Va. Commonwealth Professor of History, and his wife, Christine M. Zunz, director of the University’s French House, at a Dec. 15 ceremony in the Dome Room of the Rotunda. Olivier Zunz, who was very pleased with the award, said they received the medals for their work in cementing Franco-American academic relations. About 125 people attended the ceremony.
(Dec. 19)

Sweeney invites faculty to join $3 billion campaign
As U.Va. nears its next capital campaign, its top development official urged faculty members to become partners in the $3 billion effort. “The time is now,” Robert D. Sweeney, senior vice president for development and public affairs, told the Faculty Senate. “The choice is extraordinarily clear: We create this new model, or we move from being arguably the top public university in the nation to some point
in the next decade where we will be an important Southeastern public institution.” (Dec. 8)

Medical Reserve Corps formed
One of the many ways that the University intends to reach out to the community is through the Medical Reserve Corps, a joint student-faculty project designed to strengthen local communities’ public health initiatives and emergency response capabilities. Formed by U.Va.’s psychiatric medicine department and the School of Medicine, the project has received a three-year federal grant for $49,744 per year. (Dec. 23)
Surgeons perform one of first robotic procedures
Robotic technology is taking cancer surgery into a new dimension. Surgeons here recently performed a cystoprostatectomy — removal of the bladder and prostate gland — during a laparoscopic procedure using U.Va.’s new da Vinci robotic surgical system. Patients who undergo robotic surgery lose 10 percent of the blood they would lose in conventional surgery and enjoy shorter recovery times, doctors say. (Dec. 10)

Health System reaches out to uninsured patients
Illness can strike anyone at any time. For many Virginians, health insurance is unaffordable, and they are not financially able to pay for necessary medical treatment. It is those patients who can seek assistance through U.Va.’s Indigent Care Program. In 2002, 27,000 indigent patients were treated at U.Va., with the state and federal government contributing $42.6 million of the $53.7 million cost. The remaining $11.1 million was paid by U.Va. (Dec. 12)