Digest -- U.Va. Top News Daily

Mary Wood

Michael Klarman at the Law library.

Klarman wins Bancroft Prize
Michael Klarman, author of “From Jim Crow to Civil Rights: The Supreme Court and the Struggle for Racial Equality” (Oxford University Press), and the James Monroe Distinguished Professor of Law and professor of History at U.Va., is one of three authors to be awarded the Bancroft Prize for 2005, Columbia University officials have announced. James Neal, vice president for Information Services and university librarian at Columbia, administers the Bancroft Prize, which includes an award of $10,000 to each author. Bancroft jurors noted that “Klarman’s examination of this classic problem in American constitutional history is not only our best account of Brown, its antecedents and consequences, but also goes well beyond that important story to make a larger set of arguments about the role of the Supreme Court in helping to bring about social change.” (March 17)

Matt Kelly

Kate Willcutts

Good nutrition is elementary
Milk: It does a body good. So do whole grains, vegetables and exercise. But in a society of convenience, the focus on good nutrition and physical activity has become blurred, even within our schools. Statistics show that over a 20-year period, childhood obesity has doubled, from 8 percent to 16 percent. Poor diets and less activity are to blame, according to Kate F. Willcutts, a clinical nutritionist at U.Va.’s Medical Center. The parent of a school-aged son, Willcutts is lobbying for more nutrition education and healthier food choices in area primary schools. And she wants other parents to do the same. Willcutts, who gave a talk on her efforts at the Medical Center on March 8, wants more nutritional education in the classroom and healthier choices in the cafeteria, including more whole grains, low-fat and skim milk, less fried food and tastier vegetables. Her presentation was part of a series of talks at the Medical Center in celebration of National Nutrition Month. (March 21)

U.Va. to help clean up Ivy Landfill
Efforts to clean up organic contaminants that have seeped from closed trash cells in the Ivy landfill are projected to cost roughly $42 million. The University will pay up to $2.9 million of those remediation costs. In an agreement worked out with the City of Charlottesville, Albemarle County and the Rivanna Solid Waste Authority, U.Va. will contribute 7 percent of the roughly $42 million projected cost of cleaning up areas in the landfill that are contaminating ground water. The waste authority operated the landfill, which closed in 2001, and the city and county have seats on the authority’s board. The city and county are obligated, as the two wholesale customers who used the landfill, to cover the cost of remediation, but U.Va. has voluntarily agreed to assist the process. (March 17)