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The University of Virginia was set to return to normal operations Wednesday after two days of modified schedules and activities caused by Monday’s surprisingly strong winter storm that brought a beautiful display – accompanied by headaches for those on Grounds and across the region. Facilities Management crews and other UVA personnel met the storm head-on, cleaning streets, sidewalks and other areas and assessing the damage to trees bent and broken under the heavy accumulation of wet snow.

“I’m extremely proud of our teams’ dedication to maintaining a safe living and learning environment here on Grounds during and after snowstorms, even when it means being out on Grounds throughout a storm and putting to the side whatever impact it may be causing back at their homes,” Roland Zumbrunn, director of operations for Facilities Management, said. “As is always the case, the past couple of days they’ve done an incredible job supporting the University and I greatly appreciate their hard work.”

Whether it’s helping coworkers and the community or revamping the financial system, University of Virginia employees put in myriad efforts over the year that contribute to the University’s aims to be “great and good.”

The award’s namesake, Leonard W. Sandridge, and current UVA leaders, President Jim Ryan among them, recognized 11 employees Monday with the Leonard W. Sandridge Outstanding Contributor Awards, the highest honor bestowed upon staff for their dedication and service.

In 2010, the Outstanding Contributor Awards were named for Sandridge, the former UVA executive vice president and chief operating officer who gave more than four decades of service to the University.

The UVA Police Department has received certification in law enforcement from the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies Inc., marking 10 years of continuous CALEA accreditation. CALEA accreditation is a competitive award signifying excellence in public safety and commitment to community. This is UPD’s fourth award of national accreditation.

University of Virginia President Jim Ryan welcomed Colette Sheehy, his senior vice president for operations and state government relations, to “Inside UVA,” his podcast on the inner workings of the University.

University of Virginia President Jim Ryan announced today that three properties in Charlottesville and Albemarle County owned by the University or the University of Virginia Foundation have been selected as the sites proposed for a new housing development initiative. The announcement follows careful analysis of land holdings and months of community engagement.

The University of Virginia Board of Visitors today approved tuition rates for the next two academic years. The decision to set rates for two years is a shift from the previous approach of setting rates annually, and is a key feature of the board’s initiative to make tuition decisions more transparent and predictable for UVA students.

WISE – State legislators, college board members and administrators gathered here Friday to discuss strategies and ideas supporting the University of Virginia’s College at Wise as an economic development engine for Southwest Virginia.

The walk along Upper Newcomb Road will soon look different, as the University of Virginia plans to replace aging catalpa trees and improve the pedestrian experience.

Recognizing top researchers and successful administrative leaders, the University of Virginia’s Thomas Jefferson Awards honored four recipients this year – two for scholarship and two for service – after the awards were cancelled last year due to the pandemic.

The honorees include: Dr. William A. Petri, a top scientist pursuing the secrets of the deadly new coronavirus and sharing the latest knowledge with anxious citizens; Colette Sheehy, a financial specialist who broke the glass ceiling for women after rising through the ranks of the UVA administration; Dennis R. Proffitt, whose contributions in research and teaching have helped to create a new approach to psychology that could continue to impact the field far into the future; and Carl Zeithaml, who as dean of the McIntire School of Commerce established programs to prepare students with rigorous skills and opportunities to work with business leaders to solve complex, real-world problems.

The University of Virginia has a workforce of approximately 30,000 people. The Grounds span 3,300 acres that must be maintained. And there’s even more to tend to by the office of Jennifer “J.J.” Wagner Davis, the University’s executive vice president and chief operating officer. “We provide and care for dining, facilities [management,] safety, security, paychecks … We really are the operational support to the teaching, research and patient care mission” of the University, Davis said in the fifth episode of President Jim Ryan’s podcast, “Inside UVA.” 

The University of Virginia is one of the nation’s most environmentally responsible colleges, according to The Princeton Review, scoring 93 of a possible 99 points in its methodology.

Student email and digital collaboration at the University of Virginia will shift from the Google platform to Microsoft Office 365 in a transition that is expected to be completed by the start of the fall 2022 academic semester. The shift is part of a larger, multi-year project to consolidate all UVA audiences and groups to Office 365 from the Google platform for the administration of email, calendars and files. Students are the final group for this conversion; faculty and staff members have been using Office 365 since 2017. 

The world is awash with data, and the University of Virginia’s School of Data Science will help sort it. UVA dignitaries, including President Jim Ryan, Vice Rector Robert Hardie and Data Science Dean Philip Bourne, donned hardhats and pitched ceremonial shovelfuls of dirt Thursday as they broke ground on the school’s new building in the Ivy Road entrance corridor, at the intersection of Ivy Road and Emmet Street. The 14-acre parcel eventually will hold the Data Science School, a hotel and conference center, a performing arts center and other proposed academic buildings. 

Amassive project seven years in the making comes to fruition Friday with the unveiling of the University of Virginia’s new, state-of-the-art Student Health and Wellness building. The 165,000-square-foot superstructure houses the four units previously located in the Elson Student Health Center: Medical Services, Counseling and Psychological Services, the Student Disability Access Center, and Health Promotion and Well-being. The new center is located at the sound end of Brandon Avenue, near its previous location. Read more.

Cloudy skies didn’t dampen the enthusiasm of University of Virginia leaders and guests Friday morning as they celebrated the groundbreaking of the Contemplative Commons in person and gave several standing ovations to the speakers. The ceremony took place on the site of the future interdisciplinary building at the Dell on Emmet Street. Read more.

...In another project, Adahlia Lewis, a building coordinator on the staff of Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Jennifer “J.J.” Wagner Davis, led a small team that painted rooms inside of the Piedmont Court Appointed Special Advocates’ Charlottesville office. “It was something our O’Neil Hall team felt capable of doing and it seemed a great way to lend our support to their mission,” Lewis said. “We love the idea of freeing up their time and energy so the Piedmont CASA team can focus on their critical work to support and advocate for children in our community.” 

The University of Virginia remains the fourth-best public university in the United States for the third year in a row in the 2022 rankings by U.S. News and World Report. The school also continued its move up in the overall rankings from 26 to 25, tied with Carnegie Mellon University, continuing an upward trend; last year, UVA moved up two spots. U.S. News ranked UVA the third-best-value public national university and 31st overall, moving up one spot in that category. 

It looked like a traffic stop, except for the camera crew. University of Virginia Police and a Charlottesville Police officer pulled over a black Scion sport utility vehicle carrying students on University Avenue, under the watchful eye of a Light House Studio film crew and student volunteers, who recorded the choreographed event. The mini-movie is part of the Youth, Blue & U Engagement Project, created by Brian N. Williams, an associate professor of public policy at UVA’s Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy, against the backdrop of the national Black Lives Matter movement that questions the role of policing in American society, and specifically the relationships between police and people of color. 

As students return to the University of Virginia, the University Transit Service, a fare-free bus system providing service around Grounds to UVA students, faculty and staff, will operate with some COVID-19-dictated limitations. “The bottom line is that transit operations are still being impacted by COVID-19,” said Rebecca White, director of UVA’s Department of Parking & Transportation. “It still affects our protocols. Academic routes were adjusted to emphasize connections from end points to Grounds.” 

What’s new under the roof? At Pavilion VIII, it is another roof. University of Virginia employees performing a renovation of Pavilion VIII found physical evidence of a roof designed by the pavilion’s second resident, Charles Bonnycastle, a professor of natural philosophy and mathematics. (The pavilion's first resident was mathematics professor Thomas Hewitt Key.) Project manager James Zehmer said the pavilion had originally been built with a Thomas Jefferson-designed serrated roof to give the building a flat-roof appearance. But Jefferson’s serrated roof leaked. 

If you’ve been past the corner of Emmet Street and Ivy Road in recent weeks, you may have noticed some new activity. That’s because the University of Virginia is beginning a phase of work designed to transform the area into a new gateway to the University and form deeper connections with the community. Known as the Ivy Corridor, the four-block long piece of University property stretches from the Ivy-Emmet intersection westward to Copeley Road.

Among students eligible to enroll in classes on Grounds at the University of Virginia, 85% have reported being fully vaccinated against COVID-19, as of Thursday. Additionally, 78.5% of Academic Division employees have reported being fully vaccinated. 

Faculty and staff members in the University of Virginia’s Academic Division must report their COVID-19 vaccination status no later than July 23 if they have not already done so. As University leaders outlined last month, all faculty and staff members must either provide proof of vaccination or agree to prevalence testing requirements, including at least weekly mandatory saliva PCR testing. Employees can update their vaccination status in Workday; required testing for those who do not report being vaccinated will begin Aug. 2. All faculty and staff are expected to be vaccinated unless they have a medical or religious reason not to get the vaccine.

There will be far fewer plastics in the future of the University of Virginia, as it cuts back on its use of single-use plastics starting July 21. Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam issued an executive order in March requiring state agencies to stop buying, selling and distributing plastic and polystyrene food service containers, single-use plastic straws and cutlery, disposable plastic bags and single-use plastic water bottles by July 21, and to phase out all single-use plastics by 2025. 

On Tuesday, the University of Virginia provided updated COVID-19 vaccination guidance for faculty and staff, stating that faculty or staff in the Academic Division will either need to provide proof of vaccination or agree to weekly prevalence testing requirements in the fall semester.