Headlines @ U.Va.

U.VA. TOASTS A TOP CLASS

The University of Virginia celebrates another year of academic achievement today as thousands of students and their proud families create a pageant of gratitude and flowing robes from the Rotunda to Old Cabell Hall. About 5,000 students will receive diplomas as today’s celebrations mark a change in the rhythm of the Charlottesville area’s largest economic and cultural engine. A summertime pace and a few more parking places transform the University on Monday from today’s full roar to a pleasant hum of activity befitting an institution that functions as a city creating human capital. Today is an appropriate time to acknowledge U.Va.’s significance in the lives of Virginians and its role in this region’s health, wealth and welfare. Charlottesville without the University of Virginia would be a hive without half its honey, a library missing most of its books or a railroad station minus almost all its trains. The University drives the region’s economy and affects the payrolls, prices and availability of many goods and services for miles around. U.Va. is much more than a big spender with good table manners, however. It is a magnet for people who wish to improve their lives and the lots of others. It functions as a moveable feast of delicious options and finally invites more than merely 18-year-olds to the table to share in lifelong learning opportunities. Although known for toasting its own successes, the University community reaches beyond its walls and pillars to touch individuals and communities around the world. (The Daily Progress,May 21)

PREFERENCE, NOT SCORES, SHOW TEENS’ CAREER PATH

Teenage career preferences are a more reliable indicator than mathematical aptitude for predicting which students become scientists, suggesting a flaw in federal education strategies, a University of Virginia study found. The federally funded survey of 3,359 students who were in the eighth grade in 1988 found those who expressed interest in science yet made only average math scores had a 34 percent chance of graduating college with a science or engineering degree. Among those with aboveaverage math scores and no preference for science, only 19 percent of the college graduates earned such degrees, according to the study led by Robert Tai, an assistant professor of science education at the University of Virginia (Bloomberg News,May 24)

COX’S ARMY: U.VA. TEAM HAS WINNING COAST DESIGN

It’s been a big year for U.Va. architecture professor and ex-Charlottesville mayor Maurice Cox. Last November, Cox was invited to serve on the Mayors’ Institute on City Design for the Gulf Cities resource team, coaching dozens of Gulf Coast mayors on ways to rebuild their cities. In February, he and colleague Robin Dripps took their graduate students down to New Orleans to see the devastation close up and speak with other architects and government officials, collecting information in preparation for an upcoming design competition. In April, Cox got word that his alma mater, the Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture at Cooper Union, had selected him for their John Hejduk Award, an annual award given to alums who make an outstanding contribution to the theory, teaching and/or practice of architecture. Soon after Cox returned from the award shindig in New York City, one of his student design teams placed in the professional category of the Mississippi design competition, one of only three teams to receive awards out of 275 submissions, and the only team made up of grad students. Three other student design teams were also recognized in the competition. According to Cox, it was the trip his students made to the devastated regions that made the difference in the competiion. It gave them a much better idea of the realities on the ground, he says. (The Hook,May 25)