Notes from Peabody: The UVA Application Process: 2005

Thursday, November 10, 2005

Stories that should make the front page

It's a little frustrating that the "good news" stories don't always make it to the front page...or even to the 10th page.

The Hook has a cute article about a UVA football player who visits one particular fan in the hospital every week (and calls him when he's on the road). What a great kid! We need to showcase more of these sorts of stories.

Wednesday, August 31, 2005

Feeling less helpless...UVA's response to Hurricane Katrina

All day long, I kept MS-NBC streaming at work, listening to what was happening down on the Gulf Coast. Just a few months ago, I was scurrying around NOLA with my friends during JazzFest, staying up all night (the grids!) and looking for a distant relative's art in antique stores. It was probably one of the best trips I've made in the last few years and I was certain that I'd be returning to NOLA each year for JazzFest.

Well, now I'm listening to the reporters saying that the Hyatt has no windows, that tourists are holed up in the Sheraton and the Ritz, that the Superdome is in horrible shape. Friends from the area are slowly checking in via text messages because for some reason, cell phones aren't working, but text messaging is. A friend who works as a DJ at a radio station in Baton Rouge has been on the air for 18 hours, comforting callers and also broadcasting pleas for help. When one local hospital was dangerously low on formula, she announced this on the air and Baton Rouge residents, who weren't affected as badly as those near the water, arrived with supplies within an hour.

Being so far away while watching this [sometimes] live footage and hearing these calls for help, the feeling of helplessness is overwhelming. Of course my first reaction was to send money to one of the relief agencies, but while that made many of us feel better after the tsunami, that didn't make me feel like I had made an immediate impact. By the end of the day, that changed.

At 5 PM, our Dean gathered all of us who were around and said that we were going to help in the way we were best suited to: giving NOLA students a temporary home.

Tomorrow morning, we'll start taking names of Virginians who were supposed to be starting school at Loyola, Tulane, Xavier and other NOLA schools. They'll be welcome at UVA until their schools reopen. We have housing, open spots in plenty of classes, and a campus full of people ready to welcome them.

It doesn't fix the massive, gaping wound down in New Orleans, but it feels so good to be doing something at this point.

Wednesday, August 24, 2005

What are fraternities all about?

According to one student, fraternities are about exactly what the stereotype indicates.

The Beta Theta Pi International Fraternity, Inc. had its charter revoked early in the summer by the General Fraternity, the fraternity's international governing body, for failing to comply with the General Fraternity's regulations.

The chapter subsequently lost its membership in the University's Inter-Fraternal Council.
...

Kennedy said Beta Theta Pi is dedicated to building its program called "Men of Principle."

"They want us to be a model fraternity with the best, gentlemanly guys with the most class and the least amount of drinking," Kennedy said. "It's almost like taking away what fraternities are about -- People getting together and having a good time, and most times it involves drinking."-The Cavalier Daily, 8/24/2005

Being new around here, I wasn't sure what to make of that quote, but I'm liking UVA's student newspaper for printing it!

They definitely gave me my first laugh of the day

Sunday, August 07, 2005

Here's how we get over 730 clubs at UVA

I started browsing the list of student clubs and organizations today and came across one that completely shocked me. The UVA Cornhole Club. Anyone with friends or family in Ohio knows what Cornhole is...it's an obsession there! Ohio's stadium parking lots are littered with games of Cornhole before concerts and sporting events (notice multiple games going on in this photo from a Bengals game). I've been known to play a game or two when I'm in the Buckeye state.

I started wondering how such a random club could exist (look at the membership page...only a couple members). I tried to see how easy it was to start a club at UVA. It looks like as long as you have two people willing to be officers, you have a club. There's a form to fill out that gets approved by the student organizations group and then the Office of Student Life. From there, a club can apply for funding and be officially recognized. Pretty sweet! Maybe I'll start a...Displaced Bostonian Club!

By the way, someone at The Today Show must be from Ohio because they did a story about the game. Perhaps Cornhole is going to travel now? Perhaps between The Today Show and our students, games will be popping up in other states? I'm crossing my fingers!

Friday, July 29, 2005

Here we go...

It's been one week of forgetting names, getting lost on campus (Grounds, excuse me) and being wilted by 8:30 AM. A week without seeing the ocean, eating a [good] bagel or seeing Red Sox highlights on the news.

But I like it here.

I'm the new Assistant Dean of Admission at the University of Virginia. I thought it might be interesting to record my experiences over my first year here. Feel free to comment, whether you're a student, colleague or just a random person who landed here through some surfing.