News Briefs

The Class of 2009

At UVA’s 180th Final Exercises, 6,280 degrees were awarded. Finals remarks were provided by federal appeals court judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III (Law ’73), who said, “The greatness of this institution will depend not only on attracting marvelous students from our home state, but the best students from around the country and increasingly from around the world.”

Academic spending reduced

The University’s budget for this fiscal year is $2.25 billion, which includes a 0.1 percent decrease (or about $23 million) for the Academic Division. The cut is driven largely by a reduction in state support and—according to Leonard W. Sandridge, executive vice president and chief operating officer—is the first decrease since he arrived at UVA in 1977. Overall spending is slated to increase by 1.9 percent, driven mainly by the Health System, which plans to boost its spending by 4.4 percent.

Sullivan Award winners

Each year, the Algernon Sydney Sullivan Foundation sponsors the presentation of awards at 54 colleges in the southeastern United States to individuals who have served others, their institutions and their wider communities. This year’s UVA recipients were students Jason Michael Franasiak (Med ’09) and Tamira Dawn Roberson (Col ’09), and Carol Wood, assistant vice president for public affairs for the University.