U.Va. Top News Daily

Oral history project on Sen. Kennedy to begin at Miller Center

What can Sen. Edward M. Kennedy’s career teach about the U.S. Senate as an institution? This question will be among the many examined as the Miller Center of Public Affairs begins an extensive oral history project of Kennedy’s life and career. In early 2005, the center will begin conducting interviews with the long-serving Massachusetts Democrat, his colleagues, family, staff, associates, friends and adversaries. The Kennedy Project will take approximately six years to complete, and will mark the first time the center has memorialized a sitting senator. Upon completion, the archive arising from the project will be open to the public and available on the Miller Center’s Web site. It will enable scholars, students, writers and others to learn about American democracy directly from those who have been entrusted to govern it. (Dec. 8)

Working together to prevent sexual assault, spread of HIV/AIDS

An ambitious new collaboration between U.Va.’s School of Nursing, the School of Medicine, the College of Arts & Sciences, and hospitals and clinics in South Africa aims to slow the spread of HIV/AIDS and to help prevent sexual assault. The team’s goal is to reduce the incidence of sexual assault, which is pervasive in southern Africa and in turn exacerbates the spread of sexually transmitted diseases. This initiative is a part of the larger U.Va. South African and Virginia Networks and Associations project, which includes University faculty and students. Many African faculty visited the University last spring to receive Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner training. The Nursing School program plans to support exchanges with rural South Africa and learn from their prevention programs. (Dec. 7)

U.Va. gets grant to help ‘guide’ high school students to college

Thanks to a new grant issued to U.Va. last week, underprivileged high school students in Virginia will receive more encouragement and assistance to attend college. The University will receive $623,000, part of nearly $1 million in grants being made by the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation. The Guide Program, officially announced Dec. 9 in the Rotunda, will begin September 2005 and feature 20 recent U.Va. graduates — called guides — who will work with guidance counselors in 12 school districts. The guides will assist students with college admission forms, financial aid and scholarship applications. (Dec. 13)

Photos by Matt Kelly

At a ceremony on Dec. 9 in the Rotunda, Matthew J. Quinn, executive director of the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation (right), announced a nearly $1 million grant to help guide Virginia high school students to college. Also on hand were U.Va. Assistant Dean Nicole F. Hurd (upper left), who will direct the new program, and second-year student Samuel E. White, of rural Russell County, who was on hand to endorse the program. It will help students “reach their full potential,” said White, the first from his high school to attend U.Va. in 20 years.