University of Virginia

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“We wish to establish in the upper and healthier country, and more centrally for the state, a University on a plan so broad and liberal and modern, as to be worth patronizing with the public support.”
Thomas Jefferson

The University of Virginia was chartered by the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Virginia in 1819. The University of Virginia is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges to award baccalaureate, masters, educational specialist, and doctoral degrees. Contact the Commission on Colleges at 1866 Southern Lane, Decatur, Georgia 30033-4097 or call 404-679-4500 for questions about the accreditation of the University of Virginia.

Professional degree programs at the University of Virginia hold the following accreditations. The Master of Landscape Architecture (M.L.A.) is accredited by the Landscape Architectural Accreditation Board. The Master of Architecture (M.Arch) is accredited by the National Architectural Accrediting Board. The Bachelor of Urban and Environmental Planning (B.U.E.P) and the Master of Urban and Environmental Planning (M.U.E.P) are accredited by the Planning Accreditation Board. The following Curry School of Education degree programs are accredited by the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation: Master of Teaching (M.T.), Administration and Supervision (M.Ed., Ed.S., Ed.D., and Ph.D. concentration), and Curriculum and Instruction-Reading Education (M.Ed.). In addition, the following agencies accredit degree programs within the Curry School: The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (M.Ed. in Speech Communication Disorders), the Commission on Accreditation of Athletic Training Education (M.Ed. in Kinesiology), Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (M.Ed. in Counselor Education), and the American Psychological Association (Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology). Degree programs in Accounting (M.S.), Commerce (B.S.C. and M.S.), and Management of Information Technology (M.S.) in the McIntire School of Commerce and the M.B.A. and Ph.D. programs in the Darden Graduate School of Business Administration are accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business. The J.D. in the School of Law is accredited by the American Bar Association. The following B.S. programs in the School of Engineering and Applied Science are accredited by the Computing Accreditation Commission or the Engineering Accreditation Commission of ABET: Aerospace Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Civil Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, and Systems Engineering. The B.S.N., M.S.N., and the D.N.P. in the School of Nursing are accredited by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education. The M.D. in the School of Medicine is accredited by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education. The M.P.H. is accredited by the Council on Education for Public Health. The Ph.D. in Psychology (clinical program) in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences is accredited by the American Psychological Association and the Psychological Clinical Science Accreditation System. In addition to these accrediting agencies, various University programs are certified by, or retain membership in, the American Chemical Society (B.S. in Chemistry), the Association of American Law Schools (J.D.), the University/Resident Theatre Association (M.F.A. in Drama), the Virginia Board of Education, and the Virginia Board of Nursing (B.S.N. and pre-licensure programs).

A member of the highly competitive Atlantic Coast Conference, Virginia fields twelve intercollegiate sports for men and thirteen for women.

Virginia Athletics 2012-13

Virginia’s first NCAA championship in men’s tennis capped another successful athletics season in 2012-13. The Cavaliers finished in the top 20 of the Leafield Sports Directors’ Cup competition for the seventh consecutive year as teams or individuals from 19 of the Cavaliers’ 25 intercollegiate athletics programs advanced to NCAA postseason competition. Other team highlights from the year included the rowing team’s fifth-place national finish, baseball’s fourth NCAA Super Regional appearance in the last five years and the men’s tennis team winning the Intercollegiate Tennis Association National Team Indoor Championship for the fifth time in the past six years. ITA Men’s National College Player and Senior of the Year Jarmere Jenkins and Mac Styslinger became the third men’s tennis duo in the past five years to win the NCAA Doubles Championship

UVA won five Atlantic Coast Conference Championships and now has won 56 in the last 11 years. Virginia’s total is the highest number of championships won among the ACC’s 12 member institutions. UVA won ACC Championships in rowing (13th in 14 years), men’s swimming and diving (sixth consecutive and 14th in 15 years), women’s swimming and diving (sixth consecutive), men’s tennis (seventh consecutive and ninth in the last 10 years) and women’s soccer.

Two Virginia coaches earned ACC Coach of the Year Awards in 2012-13, including Kevin Sauer (rowing) and Brian O’Connor (baseball). In addition, Mark Guilbeau was named ITA Atlantic Region Women’s Tennis Coach of the Year.

Women’s tennis player Julia Elbaba was named ITA National Rookie of the Year, All-American, All-ACC and ACC Rookie of the Year. Women’s soccer player Caroline Miller, a first-team All-American, was named the ACC’s Offensive Player of the Year. Field hockey’s Paige Selenski, the ACC Offensive Player of the Year, finished her four-year Cavalier career with 238 points, the highest career mark in Virginia and ACC history.

Other Virginia student-athletes earning some form of ACC Player of the Year honors in their respective sports in 2012-13 were Luke Papendick (men’s swimming and diving, Freshman of the Year), Courtney Bartholomew (women’s swimming and diving, Freshman of the Year), Brittany Altomare (women’s golf, Golfer of the Year), Tanner Scales (men’s lacrosse, Freshman of the Year) and Joe McCarthy (baseball, Freshman of the Year). The rowing team varsity eight crew of coxswain Sarah Jordan, Constanze Duell, Chandler Lally, Kristine O’Brien, Sarah Cowburn, Fiona Schlesinger, Susanne Grainger, Elle Murray and Lizzy Youngling was the ACC Crew of the Year. Lauren Perdue was named the Women’s ACC Swimmer of the Championships for the third time in her career.

A total of 11 individuals with ties to the University of Virginia competed in six different disciplines at the 2012 Summer Olympic Games in London. Matt McLean (Class of 2011, men’s swimming and diving), Becky Sauerbrunn (Class of 2007, women’s soccer) and Perdue earned gold medals. Perdue earned a gold medal with the United States in the women’s 4x200-meter freestyle relay, while McLean won gold with the U.S. men’s 4x200m free relay. Sauerbrunn and the U.S. Women’s National Team defeated Japan, 2-1, for the gold medal in women’s soccer.

Virginia’s intercollegiate athletics teams won 60.5 percent of their contests in 2012-13. UVA’s teams compiled an overall record of 233-151-5.

Academics

Virginia’s Ari Dimas (men’s soccer), Simone Egwu (women’s basketball) and Matt Snyder (wrestling) earned Weaver-James-Corrigan postgraduate scholarships from the ACC, and Lauren Perdue (women’s swimming and diving) received a Weaver-James-Corrigan Honorary Award.

Virginia’s Sarah Cowburn (rowing) and Snyder were named ACC Scholar-Athletes of the Year in their respective sports. Cowburn was a Capital One First-Team Academic All-American as selected by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA), and Snyder was a third-team Academic All-America selection for the second straight year. 

University Code of Ethics:

1. We perform our public responsibilities, services and activities ethically, competently, efficiently and honestly, in keeping with University policy and applicable law.
2. We expect that all necessary and proper controls safeguarding public resources are in place and observed, with periodic auditing of functions and departments by the State Auditor of Public Accounts and/or the University Auditor who shall report directly to the Board of Visitors’ Audit and Compliance Committee.
3. While in the service of the University, we conduct ourselves free of personal conflicts or appearances of impropriety, mindful that our exercise of authority on behalf of the University has been delegated fundamentally for the public good. Conflicting interests or influences are promptly disclosed to our superiors and appropriate steps are undertaken to promote the integrity of University business and other transactions.
4. We do not accept anything of value offered in consideration of performing our public duties, other than the compensation, benefits and reimbursement of expenses duly authorized by the University or otherwise permitted by law. We do not accept any favor, loan, service, business or professional opportunity from anyone knowing (or when it should be known) that it is offered in order to improperly influence the performance of our public duties, or when acceptance thereof may reasonably be perceived as an impropriety in violation of University policy or state law. University procurements of goods or services are undertaken only by authorized personnel and, when competitive principles apply, decisions are made impartially and objectively in accordance with established policy and state law.
5. We preserve and respect the confidentiality of University records, including patient and student records. We do not externally disclose confidential records or other nonpublic information without appropriate authorization, and any confidential record or information we access as a result of our position or duty is neither exploited for personal benefit nor misused for any unauthorized purpose.
6. We are committed to the principles of federal and state law guaranteeing equal opportunity and nondiscrimination with respect to University services, programs, activities and employment, and we support an environment that respects the rights and opinions of all people which, in the words of our founder, promote “the illimitable freedom of the human mind.” Complaints of discrimination, harassment and retaliation are investigated and when warranted appropriate corrective action is taken and disciplined in accordance with University policy and applicable law.
7. Our communications on behalf of the University with all persons, including co-employees, clients, customers, patients, students, guests and vendors, are conducted professionally and with civility.
8. We do not condone dishonesty in any form by anyone, including misuse of University funds or property, fraud, theft, cheating, plagiarism or lying. We encourage and expect reporting of any form of dishonesty, and our managers and supervisors to appropriately investigate such reports. We also expect that the police and/or State Auditor of Public Accounts will be notified when circumstances reasonably indicate fraud or theft of University funds.
9. We strive for continuous improvement in our performance of public duties for the University, mindful of the public cost to our activities which must be reasonable and appropriately authorized.
10. We bring to the attention of supervisors and managers, the University auditor or other responsible University office, any violation of these principles or circumstances reasonably indicating that a violation has occurred or may occur. Such reporting in good faith in order to promote the ethical integrity of operations is expected and encouraged by the University, and retaliation by any University employee as a result against the person making such good faith report shall be subject to disciplinary action. We appropriately investigate all such reports and, when warranted by the facts, require corrective action and discipline in accordance with University policy and state law.

The University offers graduate and first-professional degrees through ten of its 11 schools and one interdisciplinary institute. Of the nearly 24,000 students enrolled at the University, 6,500 are students in a graduate or first-professional (law and medicine) degree program. UVA offers 91 master’s degrees in 64 fields, 55 doctoral degrees in 53 fields, five education specialist degrees, and first-professional degrees in law and medicine. UVA is one of the top universities in the nation, ranked twenty-fourth overall and tied for second among public institutions by U.S. News & World Report, with 30 fields, departments, or schools ranked in the top 25 for graduate study. In 2016 the University conferred 1,802 master’s degrees, 315 doctoral degrees, and 520 first-professional degrees.

Promoting excellence in graduate programs is a consistent point of focus across all schools and departments. In the last year alone, the University announced two major awards totaling $11.2 million in support of graduate education in the School of Engineering and Applied Science, and the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. In addition to these school-specific investments, a number of programs have also been developed to support interdisciplinary graduate student research and to encourage cross-disciplinary collaborations. Beginning in 2014 with the creation of the University’s Data Science Institute, the University has announced the creation of three additional interdisciplinary institutes: The Virginia Brain Institute, the UVA Environmental Resilience Institute, and the Global Infectious Diseases Institute. Building research opportunities in conjunction with the development of these institutes has been a high priority. Exemplary of these efforts are the Presidential Fellowships in Data Science, Collaborative Neuroscience, and Environmental Resilience and Sustainability Fellowships, all of which provide graduate and professional students with the opportunity to collaborate closely with other student and faculty across disciplines in the pursuit of research in areas of major social impact. Other programs developed to support graduate student research include the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences summer research awards, which provide up to $5,000 each for students conducting preliminary or exploratory dissertation research, and the External Fellowship Supplement program which provides necessary tuition support for students who have been successful in receiving federally funded grants, such as the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship.

The University also offers a number of opportunities for undergraduates to partner with graduate students conducting original research. Aforementioned programs in Environmental Resilience and Data Science have both offered funding for undergraduate students to join research projects. In 2016 the University successfully revamped its Double-Hoo program, which offers research awards for graduate and undergraduate student pairs who proposed joint research projects across all fields. Through this innovative program student teams receive up to $6,000 and work with a faculty member on a project of their own design. 2016 also saw an expansion of USOAR, Undergraduate Student Opportunities in Academic Research, which provides paid research opportunities for undergraduates across all disciplines.

Additional resources in support of graduate education can be found in the University’s Office of Graduate and Postdoctoral Affairs. With a commitment to the career and professional development of graduate students, this office houses Ph.D. trained personnel with expertise in a wide range of career and professional development opportunities for graduate students and postdoctoral trainees. The Office provides students with support and advice in decision-making and planning for career pursuits within and beyond the academy. Through one-on-one advising appointments and services including workshops, speaker panels, departmental presentations and up-to-date electronic and print resources, the Office strives to prepare students for a wide variety of careers. The office also partners with the University’s Center for Teaching Excellence in support of programs such as an annual teaching workshop for graduate students, and Tomorrow’s Professor Today, a successful and long-running program designed to prepare the future professoriate with pedagogical training and professional development in a wide variety of areas.

As part of the university’s ongoing commitment to diversity in graduate education, the Office of Graduate and Postdoctoral Affairs also works to enhance the diversity of the graduate student body by fostering a welcoming environment for all students, and serving as a resource for administration, faculty, staff, and graduate students on matters of diversity. The office supports a vibrant mentoring institute intended to help facilitate the transition from undergraduate to graduate school, and serves as a resource for graduate student organizations focused on diversity. The office also serves as a liaison between UVA and minority-serving institutions. It participates actively in the recruitment of students from diverse backgrounds through efforts such as graduate student recruitment weekends, the creation and coordination of summer research and education opportunities and by representing the university in a variety of external networks and recruiting opportunities. 

More detailed information about graduate studies at the University is available on-line from the Office of the Vice President for Research, http://gradstudies.virginia.edu, by e-mailing gradstudies@virginia.edu, or by calling (434) 243-4014.

The University of Virginia, at the beginning of the twenty-first century, is animated by the forward-looking spirit of its founder, Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson’s powerful convictions–the idea that the university exists to train citizens for public service and the belief that the liberal arts constitute the foundation for any education–continue to inspire its students and faculty and guide the development of its programs.

Jefferson was a man of many talents, and he expressed them fully in founding the University of Virginia in 1819; he outlined the institution’s purpose, designed its buildings, supervised construction, and planned its curriculum. He also directed the recruitment of its initial faculty.

When classes began in 1825, with sixty-eight students and a faculty of eight, the University of Virginia embodied dramatic new ideas in American higher education. In an era when colleges trained scholars for the clergy and academia, Jefferson dedicated his University to the education of citizens in practical affairs and public service. The innovative curriculum permitted the student a broader range of study than was available at other colleges and universities of the day, and Jefferson implemented novel ideas concerning student self-governance and religious freedom.

Information Technology Services (ITS) (its.virginia.edu) provides a full range of central information technology services for most sections of the University, as well as the network infrastructure and telephone system for the entire University. ITS supports UVA’s instructional, research, and administrative activities by facilitating communication and transmission of information for all University departments.

ITS provides services to faculty, staff, and students including: access to the Internet and the UVA network; centralized email, calendaring, and other computing accounts; file storage, including UVA Box cloud storage for those who are eligible; UVaCollab, the on-line course management and collaboration system; the UVa Hive, a virtualized software delivery system; high-performance computing for support of computational research; and Web servers supporting user-published content. ITS also supports the Integrated System for Finance, Human Resources, and Student Information.

Collaboration spaces in many University buildings include features such as comfortable chairs, wireless/wired Internet access, multiple power outlets, and loaner computing accessories to enhance collaborations; ITS supports the software available in several computing labs located on Grounds, offering access to specialized academic software packages that are not available virtually. For-fee printing around Grounds is provided by Printing and Copying Services. Wireless access is provided in all student residence complexes, in the libraries, on the Lawn, and in most classrooms.

Faculty, staff, and students may download software, most at no cost, including licensed, self-updating antivirus software, from its.virginia.edu/software. Undergraduate and graduate students may also purchase the latest version of the Microsoft Office® suite and the Windows operating system at a substantial savings through UVA’s Campus Agreement with Microsoft (its.virginia.edu/software/mslicenses/compare.html).

The UVA Help Desk (434-924-HELP; its.virginia.edu/helpdesk/) provides technical computing support at no cost to members of the University community 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. Additional information about services provided by ITS, may be found on ITSWeb (its.virginia.edu/services).

The University of Virginia is a public institution of higher learning guided by a founding vision of discovery, innovation, and development of the full potential of talented students from all walks of life. It serves the Commonwealth of Virginia, the nation, and the world by developing responsible citizen leaders and professionals; advancing, preserving, and disseminating knowledge; and providing world-class patient care.

We are defined by:

• Our enduring commitment to a vibrant and unique residential learning environment marked by the free and collegial exchange of ideas;
• Our unwavering support of a collaborative, diverse community bound together by distinctive foundational values of honor, integrity, trust, and respect;
• Our universal dedication to excellence and affordable access.

The University of Virginia’s mission extends beyond the lives of its students, faculty, and staff to the surrounding community, the Commonwealth, the nation and the world. From professional development for elementary and secondary school teachers to leadership training for local governing bodies across Virginia, the University is committed to sharing its resources of expertise and scholarship in ways that improve the well-being of individuals and communities.

Through a bachelor’s degree program designed specifically for part-time, adult students in Central, Northern, and Eastern Virginia and educational seminars, short courses and graduate degree programs offered through regional centers across the state, the University continues to expand access to higher education while maintaining its tradition of academic excellence. Telemedicine programs and screening clinics provide residents in rural areas of the Commonwealth with access to both basic and specialized health care. Mentoring and tutoring programs help area youth gain enhanced educational opportunities. Programs in all of UVA’s Schools reflect a similar dedication to enhancing the quality of public life in Virginia and beyond.

Students and employees exemplify the Institution’s commitment to service. As an example, in 2015-2016, over 3,100 students in Madison House – the University’s volunteer center – engaged in weekly community service during the regular academic session, giving over 107,000 hours of their time, representing $2.5 million in service value. Through the Jefferson Public Citizens program, about 57 students completed local or international academic public service projects spanning eight different countries. About 1,000 UVA employees contributed hours of service through the 2016 United Way Laurence E. Richardson Day of Caring, a community-wide effort to foster volunteer service in Charlottesville and surrounding counties. In 2016, more than 2,300 UVA employees contributed over $1M to the Commonwealth of Virginia Campaign to support charitable organizations in the Commonwealth and around the world.

U.S. News & World Report consistently ranks the University of Virginia as one of the nation’s top institutions. Since U.S. News began ranking public universities as a separate category, UVA has ranked either No. 1 or No. 2. UVA remains tied for second among all public universities and is tied for twenty-fourth among all universities, both public and private. U.S. News also ranked the McIntire School of Commerce fifth nationally.

In the U.S. News graduate rankings for 2014, several UVA graduate schools and graduate programs are among the nation’s best. The School of Law led the University’s rankings at No. 7. The law school’s tax law program tied for No. 7. The international law program ranked No. 10 in 2012, the most recent report in that category. In the “law firms rank schools” category, UVA tied for 6th. The School of Medicine was ranked No. 26 for research and No. 18 in primary care. The Engineering School came in tied for No. 39, and its biomedical engineering program ranked No. 23. The Curry School of Education tied for No. 22 and had four programs highlighted: special education (No. 5), secondary education (No. 9), education policy (No. 10) and administration/supervision (No. 10).

In March 2013, Bloomberg Business Week magazine ranked the McIntire School second among the nation’s best undergraduate business programs and the No. 1 MBA feeder school.

The Princeton Review and USA Today ranked the University first among public institutions in its 2013 list of “Best Value Colleges.” UVA consistently tops the list of highest African-American graduation rates, compiled by the Journal of Blacks in Higher Education. 

Noted for its world-class research capabilities, the University of Virginia is engaged in a wide range of research in medicine, engineering, and the arts and sciences. Cutting-edge research and scholarship by the University’s outstanding faculty bring opportunities to learn about the latest advances in the classroom as well as the ability to become involved in research work in many fields.

Research is an integral part of the educational process at the University. Opportunities to participate in research are available for both graduates and undergraduates and may result in published papers for graduate and some undergraduate students.

Since 1946, students and faculty of the University of Virginia have benefited from its membership in Oak Ridge Associated Universities (ORAU), a consortium of colleges and universities and a management and operating contractor for the United States Department of Energy (DOE) located in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Through the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education, undergraduates, graduates, postgraduates, and faculty enjoy access to a multitude of opportunities for study and research. Students can participate in programs covering a wide variety of disciplines including business, earth sciences, biomedical sciences, nuclear chemistry, and mathematics.

A distinct feature of the University’s research community is the extent to which it fosters interdisciplinary research. A number of research centers and institutes have been established in recent years to facilitate collaboration among faculty from different academic units who have common research interests and objectives. One outcome of this interdisciplinary emphasis has been the growth of joint academic programs leading to joint degrees.

Exciting research is undertaken jointly by faculty from both engineering and medicine in the Department of Biomedical Engineering and the Program in Engineering Physics. Other engineering faculty members have research ties with faculty in environmental sciences, physics, and other fields. Faculty in medicine and biology work closely on a variety of research projects, as do those in physics and chemistry.

Research collaborations are common among non-scientists as well. Faculty members from the schools of law and business have launched a center jointly with faculty in psychology. Professors in business and various humanities departments bring their separate viewpoints and research strategies to bear on common issues. Interdisciplinary research provides opportunities for shared use of facilities and for synergism in research efforts and augmented funding.

In fiscal year 2015-2016, research at the University was supported by over 1900 separate awards totaling over $337 million dollars from federal and state agencies, industry, and foundations.

The University demonstrates its commitment to research by providing internal financial funding in certain circumstances. The University provides funding for particularly meritorious research which might otherwise have brief funding interruptions, thus maintaining continuity in important, ongoing projects. Through the Bankard Foundation endowment, year-long research grants support research in political economy. Another program provides grants for faculty research in the humanities and social sciences.

The knowledge being disseminated and the technology being developed today at the University of Virginia will play a vital role in how we live in the future. More detailed information about research and funding at the University is available on-line from the Office of the Vice President for Research, www.virginia.edu/vpr.

The quality of the student body is evident in numerous ways, including the awards and honors many students receive. The University has graduated forty-eight Rhodes Scholars, among the highest number for state universities nationwide. The University is attracting some of the very best students in the country through the merit-based Jefferson Scholars Program. Jefferson Public Citizens is a comprehensive academic public service program that integrates students’ service and research experiences throughout their time at the University, and opportunities for undergraduate research abound.

The Class of 2013 included one Rhodes Scholar, one Udall Scholar, one Goldwater Scholar, and two winners of Davis Prizes for Peace. Six of our scholars received Fulbright awards to study abroad. During their time here, these students and their classmates participated in a rigorous education in what Jefferson called “the useful sciences” that nurtured their academic growth while also fostering their personal maturation with opportunities for self-governance, service, and leadership. This process of education and maturation produces broadly informed, well-rounded graduates who are ready to assume positions of leadership on the day they leave the Grounds.

The arts programs at the University are dedicated to building on innovative research and fostering inspired expression that equips the School for the future. The University contributes to Charlottesville’s lively arts scene with a wide range of events sponsored by academic departments and student groups.

Music events include concerts by faculty and student groups and performances as well as master classes by visiting artists in music styles ranging from classical to bluegrass.

In its seven years of operation, John Paul Jones Arena has hosted performances by Dave Matthews Band, Bruce Springsteen, Cirque du Soleil, Elton John, the Eagles, Jimmy Buffett and many others.

The Betsy and John Casteen Arts Grounds comprises The Fralin Museum of Art; Campbell Hall for the School of Architecture; the UVA Department of Drama building, which includes the Culbreth, Helms and the brand-new Ruth Caplin Theatres; Ruffin Hall for studio art; Fayerweather Hall for the McIntire Department of Art; the Fiske Kimball Fine Arts Library; the Hunter Smith Band Building; and Culbreth Road Parking Garage.

The Fralin Museum of Art houses fine art collections from ancient to contemporary times that are supplemented by innovative and changing exhibitions. Ruffin Hall features student and faculty shows every month, and the McIntire Department of Art sponsors public talks and presentations by visiting artists.

The UVA Department of Drama presents productions year-round in the Culbreth, Helms and new Ruth Caplin Theatres, including dramatic works, musicals, workshops, and dance performances. During the summer, the Heritage Theatre Festival provides entertainment for drama fans with a blend of musicals, comedy and classic drama.

In late fall, the Virginia Film Festival offers a four-day celebration of the art of filmmaking, featuring first-run features, classic cinema, documentaries and shorter works.

During early spring, the Virginia Festival of the Book, supported by the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, features readings, signings and talks by novelists, poets, nonfiction writers, journalists, editors, scholars, and representatives of the publishing industry.

Each year, the area attracts hundreds of thousands of tourists who come to see the Grounds of the University, visit the homes of Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and James Monroe, tour local wineries, and hike through the Shenandoah National Park, just 20 miles west in the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Charlottesville has long-standing traditions, including spring’s Dogwood Festival and New Year’s Eve’s First Night Virginia. Foxfield Races take place in the spring and fall, and every spring, runners in the Charlottesville Ten-Miler rush through town toward the finish line at University Hall.

A pedestrian-friendly downtown mall offers locally owned restaurants and shops, art galleries, movies and live theater, and a steady line-up of live music performance in a historic section of the city. Fridays After Five is a series of free summer concerts at the nTelos Wireless Pavilion at the east end of the Downtown Mall, and nationally known groups also perform there. Saturdays April through November find crowds at the nearby City Market, where local fresh food and crafts are on sale.

In the Court Square area, lawyers and business people occupy offices in buildings dating back to the 1700s.

Charlottesville is located 120 miles from Washington, D.C., and 70 miles from Richmond. The Charlottesville-Albemarle Airport (CHO), a non-hub, commercial service airport, offers more than 50 daily non-stop flights to and from Charlotte, Philadelphia, New York/LaGuardia, Washington/Dulles, Atlanta, and Chicago. CHO is served by Delta Connection, United Express, American Eagle, and US Airways Express. Major highways convenient to the city include Interstate 64 and U.S. Route 29. Nationwide bus and railway service for passengers and freight is provided by Greyhound, Amtrak, Norfolk Southern, and the CSX Corporation. The Charlottesville Area Transit service and the University Transit Service provide bus service on Grounds and around the city, free for University students, faculty, and staff. Visitors to the University are always welcome. On-street parking is limited, so visitors are encouraged to park at the paid hourly Central Grounds Parking Garage off Emmet Street.

Maps of the University are available for visitors on-line at www.virginia.edu/Map/.

The University relies on faculty for strong intellectual and creative leadership. The world looks to higher education, with its scholarship, research, and innovation, for solutions to the complex issues society faces now and in the future. The research and discovery process, which is central to UVA’s educational initiatives, is guided by faculty whose common goal is to add to the store of knowledge and advance the research enterprise, for the benefit of all society.

Our faculty members distinguished themselves in many ways in the 2012-13 academic year.

Astronomer John Hawley, associate dean for science in the College of Arts & Sciences, and former UVA astronomer Steven Balbus, now at the University of Oxford, were named co-winners of the 2013 Shaw Prize in Astronomy. The prize is considered Asia’s equivalent to the Nobel Prize and is awarded in some categories – like astronomy – that the Nobel does not specifically include.

The French government named French professor Marva Barnett a chevalier, or knight, of the Ordre des Palmes Académiques (Order of the Academic Palms) in recognition of her work on French language and literature, especially on the writer Victor Hugo.

History professor Sophia Rosenfeld of the College of Arts & Sciences was awarded a Guggenheim fellowship to conduct research for her upcoming book, “The Choices We Make: The Roots of Modern Freedom.” Historian James Loeffler plans to write the history of human rights and international law, with the help of a Mellon Fellowship.

School of Engineering and Applied Science professor Mary Lou Soffa was awarded for her work on computer security with the Association for Computing Machinery-IEEE Computer Society’s Ken Kennedy Award.

The Environmental Sciences department continues to expand its Global Water Games initiative, produced with Philippe Cousteau’s Azure Worldwide. Along with a Chesapeake Bay watershed simulation, numerous national and international collaborations, its latest project, in cooperation with the Nature Conservancy Texas Program, focuses on a Texas watershed.

University of Virginia

“We wish to establish the upper and healthier country, and more centrally for the state, a University on a plan so braod and liberal and modern, as to be worth patronizing with the public support”

Thomas Jefferson

The Honor System has been a defining dimension of life at the University for more than 170 years. Under the Honor System, University students have pledged to act honorably, that is, not to lie, cheat, or steal. This ideal of Honor is not imposed upon students; rather, by choosing to enroll at the University of Virginia, students commit themselves to a community with this common ideal. Specifically, each student at the University signs a pledge to abide by the Honor System as part of his or her application for admission. Students also commit themselves to governing the system; the Honor Committee (together with its support officers and jurors) is composed entirely of students. The Honor Committee and its policies and procedures are governed by the committee’s Constitution and By-Laws, which can be found on the committee’s website at www.virginia.edu/honor.

In Spring 2013, students approved an “Informed Retraction” component to the system. The cornerstones of the Informed Retraction are the decisions by the submitting student to take responsibility for his or her alleged Honor offense and to make amends therefor, both by admitting such alleged Honor offense to all affected parties and by taking a two-semester leave of absence from the University community. Details about the availabilty of the Informed Retraction in particular cases are set forth in the By-Laws of the Honor Committee.

Although the University of Virginia has expanded to encompass more than one thousand acres, it retains the intimacy that characterized the Academical Village. Jefferson, a skillful architect, a consummate builder, and an inveterate tinkerer, chose an undeveloped plot of land on the edge of Charlottesville on which to build his University. His belief in public service, his respect for the achievements of the past and his sense of balance and proportion are expressed in the buildings he designed for his “Academical Village.”

This educational community was built around a rectangular, terraced green — the Lawn — flanked by two continuous rows of identical, one-story student rooms. These rows are accented by larger buildings — the Pavilions — each designed in a different architectural style. Both the rooms and the Pavilions open onto colonnaded walkways fronting the Lawn. Behind the Lawn Rooms and Pavilions are public gardens delineated by serpentine brick walls and backed by yet another set of rooms. The Rotunda, a half-scale model of the Roman Pantheon, dominates one end of the Lawn, while the south end was originally left open to a vista of the mountains.

The genius of Jefferson’s design integrates housing for students and faculty as well as classroom and library space into a single unit. Students lived on the Lawn and in the outer two rows of rooms, known as the Ranges. Faculty members lived in the Pavilions, while the Rotunda housed the library and classroom space.

Although the University has grown since Jefferson’s time, the Lawn remains the intellectual and spiritual heart of the Academical Village and serves much of its original purpose. Select students are awarded Lawn rooms in their fourth year; senior faculty and their families live in the Pavilions, where classes are also held; and graduate students live in the Ranges. The Rotunda’s oval rooms and the Dome Room are still used for meetings of the Board of Visitors, dinners and other ceremonial occasions, as well as for a host of student activities.

The special grace and character of Jefferson’s design are widely recognized. Pulitzer Prize-winning architecture critic Ada Louise Huxtable noted in The New York Times, that the University “is probably the single most beautiful and effective architectural group of its kind in the country, or in the history of American building.” In 1976, the American Institute of Architects proclaimed it “the proudest achievement in American architecture in the past 200 years” and in 1987, the area around the Central Grounds was named to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s list of World Heritage Sites.

As the physical expanse of the University has grown with enrollment over the years, University planners have preserved open space for study and contemplation while adding modern facilities and preserving historic structures, for each of the seven undergraduate schools.

The University of Virginia Library is central to the research, teaching, and learning priorities of the University and plays an integral role in UVA’s ability to maintain its standing as a top-ranked public institution of higher education. The Library provides access to a rich array of physical and digital scholarly materials that includes more than 19 million manuscripts and archives, close to 5 million printed volumes, more than 200,000 journal subscriptions, and millions of non-text materials such as images, audio, video, data sets, etc.

Ten facilities and a sophisticated online environment (http://www.library.virginia.edu) serve the entire University community and support all academic programs. Alderman Library houses materials in the social sciences and humanities as well as the Library’s depository collections of state, federal, and international documents, and is home to the Scholars’ Lab, a technology center for the digital humanities. The Charles L. Brown Science and Engineering Library, open 24 hours a day/5 days a week, and its satellites (Astronomy, Mathematics, and Physics) serve the research needs of the University’s scientific community. The University’s world-renowned collection of manuscripts and rare books is located in the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library, in the same building where public programs and exhibitions are hosted by the Mary and David Harrison Institute for American History, Literature, and Culture. Clemons Library, also open 24/5, contains video materials and provides advanced technology and digital media services in the Robertson Media Center. Beginning in the fall of 2017, Clemons will also house the Dathel and John Georges Student Center, a space with academic, professional, and personal advising resources for students. Additional collections and services supporting Art, Architecture, Music, and related disciplines are available in the Fiske Kimball Fine Arts Library and the Music Library. The Library also maintains Ivy Stacks, an off-Grounds shelving and preservation facility containing over 1 million items available for retrieval.

In addition to the University Library system, the Claude Moore Health Sciences Library, the Camp Library in the Darden Graduate School of Business Administration, and the Arthur J. Morris Law Library serve the University’s professional schools.

The Library provides access to extensive collections and varied spaces for research and study, but the heart of the Library system is the knowledgeable and experienced staff who contribute daily to the academic endeavor, from helping students manage research to building innovative programs for the digital humanities. Librarians with subject expertise are available to collaborate on research and teach students how best to use and evaluate information, and the Scholars’ Lab, Robertson Media Center, and Research Data Services offer specialized expertise and tools for technology-intense scholarship. In addition to face-to-face services, the University Library provides virtual services that maximize access to web-accessible content, and ensure the preservation of born-digital material. Virgo (http://search.lib.virginia.edu/) can be used to search the Library’s collections as well as online article content. The research portal (www.library.virginia.edu/research) connects scholars with resource databases, subject guides, and online help and instruction. Libra (http://libra.virginia.edu) is the University’s scholarly repository, where faculty and students deposit their theses, dissertations, and articles.

The Library is open to all, and all are welcome.

Appointed by the Board of Visitors at the recommendation of the president, University Professorships are conferred on a small number of accomplished faculty who are distinguished in more than one discipline. They report directly to the president and have considerable freedom to teach across disciplinary and administrative boundaries university-wide.
Current University Professors are:

• Donald Black, B.A., M.A., Ph.D., Arts and Sciences
• Mr. Robert F. Bruner, B.A., M.B.A., D.B.A., Business Administration, Distinguished Professor of Business Administration
• John T. Casteen, B.A., M.A., Ph.D, English
• James F. Childress, B.A., B.D., M.A., Ph.D., Religious Studies, John Allen Hollingsworth Professor of Ethics
• Mark W. Edmundson, B.A., Ph.D., Arts and Sciences
• Robert E. Freeman, B.A., Ph.D., Philosophy, Elis and Signe Olsson Professor of Business Administration
• K. Ian Grandison, B.S., M.L.A., Architecture and Arts and Sciences
• Harry Harding, Jr., B.A., M.A., Ph.D., Public Policy
• Mr. Alan F. Horwitz, B.A., Ph.D., Cell Biology, Harrison Distinguished Teaching Professor of Cell Biology
• Donald F. Hunt, B.S., Ph.D., Arts and Sciences
• Jagdish K. Kumar, B.A, M.S. Ph.D., Sociology
• Jerome J. McGann, B.S. M.A., Ph.D., English
• Mr. R. Jahan Ramazani, B.A., M.S., M.S., Ph.D., English, Edgar F. Shannon, Jr. Professor of English
• Larry J. Sabato, B.A., D.Phil., Arts and Sciences, Robert Kent Gooch Professor of Government and Foreign Affairs
• Michael Suarez, B.A., M.A., M.S., Arts and Sciences
• Elizabeth H. Turner, B.A., M.A., Ph.D., Arts and Sciences
• Sarah E. Turner, B.A., Ph.D., Education and Economics
• Haydn N. G. Wadley, B.S., Ph.D., Engineering and Applied Science, Edgar A. Starke, Jr., Research Professor of Materials Science