Headlines @ U.Va.

AWARD CELEBRATES SPEECH PROTECTION
Freedom of speech is sacred at the University, especially to the members of the nonprofit Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression. On Dec. 16, the group awarded the William J. Brennan Jr. award to Georgetown professor David D. Cole, who is a lawyer,
author and commentator. Cole has litigated a number of major First Amendment cases and written “Enemy Aliens: Immigrants’ Rights and American Freedoms in the War on Terrorism,” among other books and articles. According to Robert O’Neil, director of the center and former clerk for the late Justice Brennan, the award honors the legacy of Brennan’s commitment to the principles of free expression, and
includes a $5,000 gift. The group gathered at the U.S. Supreme Court for the award ceremony. (Richmond Times-Dispatch, Dec. 16)

GRANT TO HELP DEPRESSED MOTHERS AWARDED
The Virginia Department of Health has won a grant to help health care providers identify women suffering from depression due to pregnancy and help find treatment for them. The department will team with U.Va., the Eastern Virginia Medical School and Virginia Commonwealth University’s Medical College of Virginia. The award money of $250,000 will serve to create an Internet-based program that doctors, nurses, social workers and others can use to identify signs of depression. (Hampton Daily Press, Dec. 14)

CROSS ON DISPLAY AT U.VA.
On display now in the new Harrison Institute for American History, Literature and Culture, is a cross that was burned on the lawn of a professor in 1956. It is part of an exhibit tracing America's turbulent journey from the time of Columbus to the 1950s. The burned cross, now behind glass, is a visceral symbol of the intensity of the civil rights movement and of the individual, unpopular stands made by an initially small number of white people. The cross was saved by Sarah Patton Boyle, a writer and the wife of a professor, and an early activist of desegregation. (Richmond Times-Dispatch, Dec. 26)