Headlines @ U.Va.

Reform Athletics
With time to reflect on his career as a head basketball coach and an athletic director, Terry Holland — now a special assistant to University President John T. Casteen III — is calling for major reforms in college athletics, including limits on the amount of class time missed for competition, a return to freshman ineligibility, and providing financial incentives for schools to recruit and graduate better students. “You’ve always had a certain percentage of kids who would find ways to be successful academically, too, and they are truly, truly unbelievable people,” Holland said. “But I think you have to protect the things those people value, as opposed to continuing to erode it. … At some point, all the kids are going to give up and say it’s not worth it. They’ll make a choice between academics and athletics. There’s no way you can do both. So I think we have an obligation not to make it tougher, but to make it easier.”
(Hampton Roads Daily Press, Feb. 8)

U.S. on sidelines in Haiti, for now
As political conditions continue to deteriorate in Haiti, the Bush administration is feeling rather ambivalent. The United States helped install Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide in 1994, and backed a series of democratic reforms. But Aristide has not lived up to Washington’s expectations, and President Bush has shown little inclination to help him maintain his grip on power, emboldening the opposition. Now, politics professor Robert Fatton Jr., a native of Haiti, wants to know if the United States will continue its noncommittal stance. “So what is the firm stand of the U.S. policy? Is it one that just looks at the situation deteriorate and hopes the opposition will take over?”
(Associated Press, Feb. 19)

Government’s interest in divorce is real
Government, both state and federal, has a legitimate interest in preserving marriage, argues sociology professor Steven Nock. “We know what the cause of poverty is in this country, and like it or not, it’s divorce and non-wedlock childbearing,” he said. “We know that for every three divorces, one family ends up below the poverty line. The federal government pays for part of that, but states pay the balance. Divorce, by itself, is a major economic issue.” Nock’s comments were included in an op-ed piece advocating a Georgia proposal that would extend the waiting period for a no-fault divorce from 30 to 180 days.
(Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Feb. 18)

Say it again, doc
Medical jargon adds a note of authenticity to TV shows like “E.R.,” but it can be confounding for patients in real life. A new American Medical Association program, the Health Literacy Project, trains doctors to translate med-speak into plain English. Dr. Claudette Dalton, an anesthesiologist at the U.Va. Medical Center, helped implement the program here and says it works. “When patients understand why a procedure is needed, exactly how it will be done and little things like which entrance to go to at the hospital, the efficiency of the treatment is much better.”
(St. Petersburg, Fla. Times, Feb. 10)

For-profit higher ed finds its market
For-profit universities like the University of Phoenix are finding a niche in higher education, enrolling students at “campuses” across the country to study business, information technology and human services. David W. Breneman, dean of U.Va.’s Curry School of Education and a higher-ed expert, praises Phoenix and its competitors for attracting new students, but balks at accepting them as full-fledged peers to more traditional institutions. “There’s a lot we traditional schools can learn from them,” he said, “but somehow, it ain’t education. It’s training.”
(Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Feb. 9)