Milestones (August '00 - October '00)

• The University of Virginia regains its place as the best public university in the nation, tying with the University of California at Berkeley for top honors in U.S. News & World Report's newest rankings.
Overall, the University ranks twentieth among all national institutions, public and private. The magazine also puts U.Va. first among publics in the Best Value category. The University of Virginia's College at Wise is named the number two public college in the South for the second consecutive year.

Rotunda photo

• Boxwoods obscuring the Rotunda are taken down to provide better views of the historic building and are replaced with smaller plantings.

• The NIH awards U.Va. researchers $5 million to study Crohn's disease.

• An award of $1.9 million from an anonymous donor fuels innovation at the Curry School's Center for Technology and Teacher Education and carries the school past its $14.3 million Capital Campaign goal.

• The University donates surplus computers to local public schools and nonprofits, thanks to a new state law that enables state agencies to donate a percentage of their used property.

• The University Library makes 1,200 texts–including the Bible, works by Shakespeare, Dickens, Austen, Jefferson, and Twain–available online to the general public as free downloads.

• Nearly 3,000 first-year students move into residence halls and enter life as the Class of 2004. Twenty-nine percent of the new undergraduates were in the top 1 percent of their class.

• The University launches a program to distribute free personal computers to entering students with special academic and financial needs.

• U.Va. Library's Geostat Center posts historic maps of Charlottesville online, showing the city as it looked in 1920.

Scott Stadium photo

• The Cavaliers open their 111th season against Brigham Young in the dedication game at the newly expanded Carl Smith Center, home of David A. Harrison Field at Scott Stadium. Some 61,000 fans fill the stands, the largest crowd ever to assemble for a college game in Virginia.

• The University of Virginia School of Medicine receives $20 million for prostate cancer research from the estate of the late Paul Mellon. This is the largest gift in the medical school's history and the fourth largest for the University.

• Current student and swimmer Ed Moses (above, left) and former women's basketball player Dawn Staley (above, right) join eight other current or former U.Va. athletes competing in the Olympics in Australia. Breaststroke specialist Moses brings home silver and gold medals and Staley, a member of the 2000 U.S. Women's squad, brings home team gold.

• The Faculty Senate's annual retreat addresses enhancing the University's excellence through diversity.

• Student groups bring speakers to the University throughout the fall, including Gloria Steinem and Ralph Nader for perspectives on feminism and Green Party politics.

• Explorations in Black Leadership, an oral history project cosponsored by the University's Institute for Public History and the Darden School, kicks off with a discussion by history professor Julian Bond (left) and civil rights lawyer Henry Marsh.

• Electronics expert Vicki Coleman takes over as the new director of Clemons Library.

• L. Jay Lemons, Chancellor of U.Va.-Wise since 1992, announces his departure in 2001 for the presidency of Susquehanna University in Pennsylvania.

• Moody's Investors Service, one of the world's leading credit rating companies, upgrades the University's rating to "a gilt edged" Aaa, making U.Va. one of only three public universities in the nation so ranked.

Cornel West photo
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• Cornel West, Harvard professor and author of Race Matters, speaks to a standing-room only group on race relations in America at Old Cabell Hall.

• A study by the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia shows that U.Va. tops the list of graduation rates of state colleges and universities, with a 91.3 percent graduation rate within six years.

	• David T. Gies, former president of the Faculty Senate and professor of Spanish, is awarded the University's highest honor, the Thomas Jefferson Award, at Fall Convocation Ceremonies.
The award cites Gies's scholarship and involvement in University life.

• Halsey M. Minor (Col ‘87), founder and chairman of CNET Inc., gives the University $25 million to integrate digital technology with the humanities and social sciences in arts and sciences. This is the largest gift arts and sciences has received.

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• The University joins local constituencies to open the Connected Community Technology Center, providing technology outreach and training programs for area residents.