Dean: For teachers, fair pay trumps fair’s fare
This weekend, the Greater Richmond Convention Center will host what is being billed as the first statewide job fair for prospective teachers, with up to 1,800 people gathering and more than 100 of the state’s 132 jurisdictions represented. Student enrollment is on the rise statewide, but the ranks of teachers are thinning, particularly in some disciplines. David W. Breneman, dean of U.Va.’s Curry School of Education, hailed the fair, but said money would do more to address shortage areas. “If we were willing to pay more, we’d get all that we needed. It’s as simple as that,” he said.
— Washington Post, March 14

Holding back the stampede
With “March Madness” in full swing, images of jubilant students storming basketball courts to celebrate victories have become clichéd. Worse, the stampedes have led to injuries and property damage. Outnumbered ushers are powerless to stop the crowds, and barriers can lead to dangerous crushes. “At some point, you have to say this is no longer safe for the people rushing down if we’re physically trying to stop them,” said Jason Bauman, U.Va.’s associate athletics director for facilities and operations. “Short of putting up physical barricades that people can’t get around or can’t get over, there’s only so much you can do because you’re outnumbered.”
— Washington Post, March 10

Wanted: Data on same-sex parents
The debate over same-sex marriage, and especially parenting, is being conducted in an atmosphere largely devoid of data backed by large-scale research. U.Va. psychology professor Charlotte Patterson, recognized as a leader in the field, agrees that more study is needed. Still, she says the body of evidence gathered so far suggests that children raised by same-sex couples do not differ substantially from the children of heterosexual couples. “The point is that the studies yield the same results over and over,” she said. Others disagree. Stay tuned.
— Boston Globe, March 9

Ounce of prevention beats a pound of cure
Antibiotic-resistant infections are becoming an ever-greater problem in American hospitals. The answer to controlling them is not better drugs, suggests U.Va. epidemiologist Barry Farr, but better policies. He calls for more proactive screening of at-risk patients, rather than waiting for infections to occur before responding. That preventive approach is already paying off in other parts of the world, he says. “The reason I think they control it in Northern Europe is they look for it,” he said. “We routinely don’t look for it and it keeps spreading.”
— Lakeland, Fla., Ledger, March 15

Warner a winner in budget standoff
The protracted budget deadlock in the Virginia General Assembly has largely been an intramural affair, as both the state Senate and House of Delegates are dominated by Republicans. The squabbling has left Democratic Gov. Mark Warner largely unscathed, noted William H. Wood, executive director of U.Va.’s Sorensen Institute for Political Leadership. “You would think that by now the Republicans … would have been able to do some damage to him, but it hasn’t happened. He’s been very successful at keeping them at arm’s length,” he noted. “In fact, it’s the legislature that has
taken the hits.”
— Richmond Times-Dispatch, March 14