“It’s all a dazzle in my brain.”

—English professor and poet Rita Dove, on the experience of receiving a 2011 National Medal of Arts from President Barack Obama at the White House on Feb. 13, 2012.

Photo by Pablo Martinez Monsivais

No More Pencils, No More Books?

As part of a semester-long trial with nonprofit education group Internet2 and publisher McGraw-Hill, hundreds of students in the School of Engineering and Applied Science, the College of Arts & Sciences and the School of Continuing and Professional Studies received free electronic texts for select courses. Students and faculty will provide feedback to Internet2, which will use the input to determine how schools like UVA may ease into a more digital learning environment.

Waste Not, Want Not

During an October football game against Georgia Tech, the Scott Stadium crowd diverted 6,010 pounds of cardboard and 22,125 pounds of bottles and cans from the trash to recycling. Those totals were enough to nab UVA top honors in an Environmental Protection Agency recycling challenge. More than 70 students volunteered alongside Facilities Management employees to send paper and plastics to renewed life.

Business Is Booming

Dean Bob Bruner Photo by Jane Haley
For his savvy hires and his strong emphasis on global awareness, Darden Graduate School of Business Dean Robert Bruner was named Dean of the Year by business school online network Poets & Quants. The site, for which Bruner previously wrote an editorial calling for “globally confident and competent graduates,” praised the dean for increasing Darden’s applicant pool and for raising $100 million for the school.

VQR Builds Masthead

In December, the nationally acclaimed Virginia Quarterly Review hired two new staff members to oversee business development and editorial management. Jon Parrish Peede, former literary grants director for the National Endowment for the Arts, will serve as publisher at the award-winning journal. Donovan Webster, whose stories appeared in Vanity Fair and the New York Times Magazine as well as VQR, will work as the journal’s deputy editor. The journal, edited by Ted Genoways, will also work with a new, eight-person advisory board of publishing and UVA officials.

Valuable Rankings

After reviewing academic and financial aid ratings for more than 650 universities, the Princeton Review in February declared UVA second on its list of “Best Value Colleges.” The announcement came a month after Kiplinger’s named the University the third best value in the nation. Princeton Review evaluated universities based on tuition and fees as well as student perceptions of financial aid and academic rigor.