July 24, 2012 — Kathryn Thornton is a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at the University of Virginia. She is a former NASA astronaut, with more than 975 hours in space, including 21 hours of extravehicular activity. In 2010, she was inducted into the Astronaut Hall of Fame.

She responded Monday to questions about her late NASA colleague, Sally Ride, who died July 23 of pancreatic cancer.

You and Sally Ride were in NASA around the same time. How well did you know her and did you work together on projects/flights?

Sally joined the astronaut program six years ahead of me, and I looked up to the first shuttle astronauts selected in 1978 as our first-year students look up to upper classmen. I thought they knew everything. My first assignment in the Astronaut Office was to assist Sally with flight crew equipment for space flights.

Ride is known best as the first woman in space. How else should she be remembered?

Rather than making a ton of money doing endorsements, which she could have done, Sally dedicated her post-NASA years to inspiring young women to study math and science. She did more than contribute her name, she was a very hands-on leader of Sally Ride Science. Each Sally Ride Science Festival was kicked off by a keynote speaker, and when Sally couldn't be there herself she recruited a suitable replacement who was carefully observed by her sister, Bear. I did keynote addresses for several Sally Ride Festivals so Bear's initial report back to Sally must have been positive.

How major was it in the '80s for girls and young women to see you and Sally as astronauts?

I think it is just as important today as it was in the '80s, maybe more so, for young people to have positive role models and aspirational goals that Sally represented.

In the United States, only 13 percent of Native Americans have earned a bachelor's degree or higher, well below the national average of 27.9 percent. At the University of Virginia, less than 1 percent of the student population is Native American.

Now Virginia colleges, in collaboration with the Virginia Indians Pre-College Outreach Program based at Virginia Tech, are trying to recruit more Native Americans to institutions of higher education.

As part of that effort, the U.Va.'s Multicultural Student Services program has compiled a two-phase video series to inform American Indian youth about college life and admissions.

The first phase of videos, divided into six parts averaging about four mintues in length, has been posted online and focuses on student life in college. Through interviews with American Indian students at several different Virginia colleges and Valerie Gregory, associate dean of admission at U.Va., the videos seek to give Virginia Indian youth an idea of what to expect from institutions of higher learning.

Julie Roa, multicultural student services coordinator in the Office of the Dean of Students, said that the video series was conceived at the Virginia Indian Nations Summit on Higher Education, an annual meeting between college representatives and tribal leaders held at U.Va., Virginia Tech or the College of William & Mary.

"The idea came up that it would be good to show and not just tell what life is like at college," Roa said, "and so we put the videos and interviews together."

Rising second-year student Aaron Lu, a multicultural program intern, designed and edited the videos under Roa's direction. Over the course of last winter, Lu contacted Native American student organizations at several Virginia colleges to help him record interviews with Native American students, who answered questions such as "How do you feel about the community in college?" and "Why did you choose a college education?" Lu presented the final product in March at the higher education summit, held at U.Va.

The videos have been shown throughout the summer at powwows and camps hosted by the Virginia Indians Pre-College Outreach Initiative, where tribal leaders, college representatives and current college students encourage Native American youth to consider applying to college.

"We have set a very clear goal of this video initiative at the very beginning of the project, which is to send a message of welcome and provide essential college-preparation information for Native American high school students and their parents," Lu said in an email.

The second phase, set to be completed by the start of the new school year, will include interviews with tribal leaders, parents and university professors explaining why it is important to receive a higher education degree. It will also explain the admission process in greater detail, elaborating on Gregory's earlier video, which went over basic admissions information.

U.Va. is also stepping up its effort to lure top American Indian students to Grounds.

The University is revitalizing the Oliver Linwood Perry Jr. Scholarship, to be awarded each year to one incoming student. The four-year scholarship, originally awarded to Native American students, was shelved after a Supreme Court decision rendered race- and ethnicity-based scholarships illegal, said Megan Raymond, director of academic community engagement. The newly amended scholarship language designates it specifically for U.Va students who have "demonstrated a history of service with Native American communities" and will be awarded according to the following order of preference: first to students from Virginia, then those on the East Coast, and last within the United States, Raymond said.

U.Va admission counselor Jason Puryear said the scholarship honors Perry's intent and maintains the values of the original scholarship by awarding those who serve the community Perry cared about so much.

"Mr. Perry wanted to do all that he could to help Virginia's Native Americans," Gregory said. "One of the best ways to improve the community is through higher education, and the best way to encourage that is through financial support."

The amended scholarship is broader, but still emphasizes tribal connections and improvement of the Native American community, she said. It can also continue to encourage young American Indians to pursue higher education. "Even people who are involved in service with the tribes can also help us to recruit more Native Americans," she said.

Currently less than 1 percent of the U.Va student body is Native American, Roa said, a statistic the video initiative and the return of the Oliver Linwood Perry Jr. Scholarship hopes to change.

"As a Virginia institution, we want to make sure we serve the entire commonwealth," Roa said. "Diverse perspectives enrich the environment, and just as we value other students' origins and beliefs, the Native American perspective is one we want to make sure we bring to the University."

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Countless people walk the brick path every day that winds in front of the University Chapel. Now if they pause, they see a plaque installed there that recognizes a fixture of the University of Virginia community in its first century: Henry Martin, the University's bell ringer from 1847 to 1909.

A project installed this summer by Facilities Management staff and the Office of the University Architect, the plaque was sponsored by a new group formed to support diversity efforts at U.Va., the IDEA Fund.

Placed in its permanent spot this July, the plaque reads, in part:

“Henry Martin rang the bell at dawn to awaken the students, and rang it during the day to mark the hours and the beginning and ending of class periods. He was beloved by generations of faculty, students, and alumni, and he remembered them all when they returned for visits.”

The U.Va. IDEA Fund – which stands for “Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Access” – is an organization, founded in 2010, of alumni and friends dedicated to supporting the University’s overall mission related to those four words and the Office for Diversity and Equity in particular.

Martin has been recognized on Grounds this year in several ways, especially as a focus in U.Va.’s two-week commemoration of Martin Luther King Jr.

“In a real sense, Henry Martin was the hub of the wheel for the University community and for Charlottesville,” said Coy Barefoot, a 1997 alumnus, local radio host and author of “The Corner: A History of Student Life at the University of Virginia.”

Barefoot participated in a January panel discussion on the role of enslaved laborers in the University’s early history. University of Virginia Magazine published an article about Martin, also in January.

Although Martin was born into slavery at Monticello on July 4, 1826 – the day Thomas Jefferson died – and was freed sometime after starting work at U.Va., around 1847. Before the 1895 fire, he rang the bell hourly, starting at dawn, in the Rotunda. Afterward, the bell was relocated to the University Chapel.

When the IDEA Fund Board of Trustees meets on Grounds Oct. 13, its members will walk to the chapel and stop to read and reflect on Henry Martin and his place in the U.Va. community.

“They told us that there have been astrochemists who work their whole life and never find new molecules, and we did this in our first experiment of the summer,” said David Vasquez, a student in the Virginia-North Carolina Alliance for Minority Participation, based at the University of Virginia.

Vasquez, a biochemistry student at Virginia Tech, attended the alliance’s summer research program at U.Va. this year and was one of four students on a team that discovered a new interstellar molecule, called cyanomethanimine.

That kind of experience demonstrates the alliance’s success and led the National Science Foundation to recently award the program a second five-year grant for $3.5 million.

U.Va. initiated and leads the alliance, a multiple-school consortium whose goal is to increase the quantity and quality of underrepresented minority students who pursue degrees and careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics – collectively known as the “STEM” fields.

The VA-NC Alliance, comprising eight colleges and universities in its first phase of five years, recently added Piedmont Virginia Community College to its group. Along with U.Va., the seven original partner schools are Bennett College for Women in Greensboro, N.C.; Elizabeth City State University in the N.C. system; George Mason University in Fairfax; Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte, N.C.; St. Augustine’s University in Raleigh, N.C.; Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond and Virginia Tech in Blacksburg.

Kristin Morgan, U.Va.’s program director, provided data from the first five years that shows progress: The total number of underrepresented minority students graduating from VA-NC Alliance partner institutions with STEM degrees increased by 67 percent, from 488 to 815. The number of Hispanic/Latino students who obtained STEM degrees almost doubled in five years, from 124 to 238.

During the same time period, minority student enrollment in STEM subjects at the allied schools rose from 3,469 to 4,837, a 39 percent increase. The number of underrepresented minority students in STEM fields who participated in alliance activities – including symposia, tutoring, professional conferences, summer research programs and graduate school preparation meetings – increased by 93 percent, from 911 to 1,763.

The National Science Foundation provides funding to the VA-NC Alliance through its national Louis Stokes Alliances for Minority Participation program. There are currently more than 40 alliances nationwide. The NSF grants are awarded for three levels: new, mid-level and senior.

In the mid-level phase, the VA-NC Alliance has several goals, Morgan said.

“Our goals for the mid-level phase include boosting the enrollment of underrepresented minority students in STEM subjects by 60 percent. The baseline from year four was 4,244, so the goal is 6,790,” she said. “We also propose a 60 percent increase in the number of underrepresented minority students in STEM receiving their baccalaureate degrees, from 641 in 2011 to 1,026 in the next five years.

“A third goal is to surpass the national average of underrepresented minority students entering STEM graduate degree programs,” Morgan added.

Each of the institutions in the VA-NC Alliance offers individually tailored recruitment, retention and enhancement activities to support their students. These activities include annual symposia, bridge programs, stipends, tutoring, mentoring, research programs, workshops, faculty exchanges, opportunities for professionalization in the disciplines and U.Va.’s annual summer research program, created specifically for alliance students. A program such as this enables students from the smaller institutions to visit a major research university and to conduct hands-on research in state-of-the art laboratories.

“A hallmark of the proposal to NSF was the VA-NC Alliance Summer Research Program that for the past three years has brought underrepresented minority students to U.Va. for interdisciplinary and collaborative research experience,” said Dr. Marcus Martin, U.Va.’s vice president and chief officer for diversity and equity, who oversees the project and heads the management team.

The summer research program is an intensive eight-week session during which students work with either the Center for Chemistry of the Universe or the School of Engineering and Applied Science’s Department of Systems and Information Engineering.

The students who found the new molecule, for example, conducted experiments in the astrochemistry lab of Brooks Pate, a chemistry professor in U.Va.’s College of Arts & Sciences, and used data from the National Radio Astronomy Observatory’s Green Bank Telescope in Green Bank, W.Va., to verify their finding.

In addition to support from NRAO, the Va.-N.C. Alliance and the Department of Chemistry, the students were supported by a grant from the Jefferson Trust.

The diversity and equity office co-sponsors the alliance program with the University's Center for Diversity in Engineering. The center’s director, Carolyn Vallas, assistant dean for diversity, and Linda Columbus, assistant professor of chemistry and of molecular physiology and biological physics, fill out U.Va.’s alliance team.

Vallas said the VA-NC alliance is successful due to the devoted mentors and advisers who work “day-in and day-out” with the students.

“These persons motivate, encourage and provide guidance for alliance students, so that they can successfully pursue their dreams of becoming a future STEM professional,” she said.

Morgan lauded the collaboration between the partners, their commitment to the common goal of graduating more underrepresented minorities in the STEM fields, and “the creativity it takes to develop new research opportunities and pathways for students’ professional development.”

In the future, with the third phase in mind, the alliance intends to gain commitments from corporate partners and its nine colleges and universities in order to sustain progress beyond the NSF grant, Morgan said.

“This is important work, and the stakes are high,” Martin said. “The United States is falling behind other nations in the number of men and women earning college degrees, especially those who receive training in the STEM fields. The alliance is creating opportunities by helping students earn degrees in these fields while building strength for the nation.”

The American Indian Student Union at the University of Virginia presents several events to celebrate Native Heritage Month this month.

The movie, “The Only Good Indian,” a Sundance Film Festival selection, will be screened Nov. 14 at 7 p.m. in Newcomb Hall Theater. The movie, set in Kansas during the early 1900s, looks at the past practice of white people taking American Indian children from their parents to distant “training” schools, aimed at purging them of their native culture and forcing them to adopt white American society. 

An “anti-Thanksgiving” Thanksgiving potluck dinner will be held Nov. 19 at 5 p.m. in Minor Hall, room 125. Bring a dish and share free food. Attendees will discuss Thanksgiving from a Native American perspective. 

Finally, on Dec. 1, the second annual American Indian Fair will be held from noon to 6 p.m. at Random Row Books. The event features crafts, seminars, independent films, workshops, traditional dress and fry bread.

The Rev. Joseph E. Lowery, who co-founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and fought for black civil rights alongside the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., will be the keynote speaker in this year’s commemoration of King at the University of Virginia.

With the theme, “Montgomery to Main,” the 2013 Community MLK Celebration spans a month of events, beginning with the 28th Annual Martin Luther King Community Celebration at Mt. Zion First African Baptist Church on Jan. 13 and concluding with a screening of “Walk On: the Rosa Parks Story” on Feb. 8 at the Paramount Theater.

Other special guests include Julian Bond, the comedian Akintunde and historian James Patterson. For information about all the events, click here.

In addition to the Rosa Parks film, several others are on the schedule. The recent documentary, “Julian Bond: Reflections from the Frontlines of the Civil Rights Movement,” will be screened and followed by a conversation with Bond Jan. 30. U.Va. President Teresa A. Sullivan and other distinguished guests will also make remarks.

The University Library will present a selection of oral histories from the William Elwood Civil Rights Lawyers Project on Jan. 23 at 2 p.m. in the Harrison/Small Auditorium.

The William Elwood Civil Rights Lawyers Project tells the legal history of the civil rights struggle. The online interviews, which filled 273 tapes left to the library, are available through the library's Virgo service. Elwood, a former College of Arts & Sciences administrator who died in 2002, worked with students through the 1980s to capture the interviews for a documentary film, “The Road to Brown: The Untold Story of the Man Who Killed Jim Crow,” which aired on public television in 1990.

The film, “Slavery By Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II,” based on the 2009 Pulitzer Prize-winning book by journalist Douglas Blackmon – now the moderator of the forum series at U.Va.’s Miller Center– will be screened and followed by a panel discussion on Jan. 22 at 6 p.m. in Nau Hall auditorium.

Other panel discussions will focus on topics such as workplace equality and disparities in access to health care. Guest speakers also will talk about education, war and history.

The Miller Center presents speakers at two of its forums, Kimberley L. Phillips and James Patterson.

Phillips, dean of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at Brooklyn College, will give a talk Jan. 24 at 11 a.m. about her most recent book, “War! What Is It Good For?: Black Freedom Struggles and the U.S. Military From World War II to Iraq.” The book examines how blacks’ participation in wars and their struggles for equal citizenship galvanized an antiwar activism that reshaped their struggles for freedom.

Patterson will speak about “The Eve of Destruction: How 1965 Transformed America” on Jan. 28 at 11 a.m. His 30 years of research includes books on political, legal and social history, as well as the history of medicine, race relations and education.

On a lighter note, Akintunde, dubbed “the Minister of Comedy,” will appear Jan. 26 at 7:30 p.m. at Piedmont Virginia Community College’s performing arts theatre. He has written for “It's Showtime at the Apollo” and comedians Monique and Chris Tucker. Akintunde has appeared on The Word Network, TBN, The Gospel Music Channel and the Stellar Gospel Music Awards..

U.Va.’s Black Voices Gospel Choir and other choruses will provide music at a few of the events, including Lowry’s speech.

The MLK Celebration is a collaborative effort involving the University’s Office of Diversity and Equity, several U.Va. schools and offices, community partners, Piedmont Virginia Community College and the Paramount Theater.

The University of Virginia’s Office for Diversity and Equity is accepting nominations for the 2013 John T. Casteen III Diversity-Equity-Inclusion Leadership Award. The honor recognizes a student, faculty or staff member who has demonstrated a deep commitment to diversity in the U.Va. community.

Nominations are due by 5 p.m. on Feb. 1. A luncheon to honor the recipient will be held March 22 in the Newcomb Hall Ballroom.

Specific criteria for the award include playing a leadership role in increasing diversity, equity and inclusion at U.Va. and making a sustainable and quantifiable impact in these areas.

The award was established in honor of the accomplishments of Casteen, the former president who was the award's inaugural recipient in 2010.

The second award went to Angela Davis, special assistant to the vice president and chief student affairs officer and former director of residence life for 30 years. Curry School of Education professor Bob Covert received it in 2012. For more than 20 years, Covert has taught what has become his signature class, “Multicultural Education.”

An award selection committee, chaired by Dr. Marcus L. Martin, vice president and chief officer for diversity and equity, will review the nominations and select the recipient.

Nominators should complete and submit the nomination form available on the diversity office website; submit a letter describing how the nominee has exemplified the award-related criteria; and coordinate the submission of three additional letters of support, one of which must be from outside the nominee’s department or school.

Nominations can be submitted via e-mail, with supporting materials attached, to gip8w@virginia.edu, or mailed to the attention of Gail Prince-Davis, Office for Diversity and Equity, P.O. Box 400881, Charlottesville 22904-4881. For information, call 434-243-4311.

Black History Month at the University of Virginia this year features events, all free and open to the public, that highlight black history and community through different media of artistic expression and entertainment. They range from an Australian artist’s interpretation of Thomas Jefferson and slavery to U.Va.’s step team giving a performance that pays homage to black achievement in the arts.

The complete schedule is available here.

When Judy Watson, an Australian Aboriginal artist, visited U.Va. in October 2011 as an artist-in-residence at the Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection, she was inspired by Thomas Jefferson’s architectural drawings of the Academical Village. What resulted: her exhibition, “experimental beds”– six etchings that explore the shared experiences of African-American people in Virginia and Aboriginal people in Australia. The prints incorporate Jefferson’s drawings of the Rotunda and pavilions and Watson’s sketches of artifacts unearthed at Monticello’s Mulberry Row and vegetables grown in Jefferson’s “experimental beds.”

Watson’s exhibit is displayed in the South Gallery of the Mary and David Harrison Institute for American History, Literature, and Culture in the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library through May 11.

Henry Wiencek, author of “Master of the Mountain: Thomas Jefferson and His Slaves,” will discuss Watson’s perspective on Jefferson and slavery on Feb. 18 at 5:30 p.m. in the auditorium of Harrison Institute/Small Special Collections Library.

Through the artistic forms of stepping, dancing, acting in skits and oral poetry, U.Va.’s step team, “Step It Up” and several other student groups will give performances Feb. 22 at 6 p.m. in the Student Activities Building. The event’s theme is African-American contributions in the arts that have had tremendous impact throughout the world.

On another evening, Feb. 21, spoken-word artists from U.Va. and the Charlottesville community will display their talents at the “Just Lyricz Open Mic and Poetry Jam.” To be held at 7 p.m. in Newcomb Hall Ballroom, the event features Joshua Bennett, a 24-year-old, award-winning performance poet from Yonkers, N.Y., who has recited his original works at events and venues such as the Sundance Film Festival, the NAACP Image Awards and the White House. In addition to film and television, Bennett has also performed alongside former U.S. poet laureates Billy Collins and U.Va. English professor Rita Dove.

Sponsored by the Office of African-American Affairs’ Luther P. Jackson Black Cultural Center, the month’s events were selected “to attract individuals to programs that serve as media for academic exchange and continue to resist the ideological approaches traditionally used to illustrate blacks in America,” Dion Lewis, the center’s director, said.

Other co-sponsoring groups include the Black Student Alliance, Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, University Dining, Black Leadership Institute, U.Va. NAACP Chapter, Office for Diversity and Equity and Student Council.

Lewis said he hopes this year’s theme, “Creating and Defining the African-American Community,” will demonstrate the importance of a cultural education, which in many ways speaks to an imbalance in ethnicity, class and gender in American society.

Other events include a “Jeopardy!”-style black history bowl on Feb. 15, “Who Wants to Be Enlightened,” to be held at 5 p.m.in the Newcomb Hall South Meeting Room. University students will participate in the game about facts relating to black history in Virginia and the world.

U.Va.’s Black Voices Gospel Choir will host a winter benefit concert on Feb. 23, from 4-6 p.m., at the First Baptist Church on Main Street to support a Charlottesville community charity.

A closing ceremony Feb. 28 will include the sixth annual Image Awards at 7 p.m. in Newcomb Hall Ballroom. Fashioned after the NAACP Image Awards, the ceremony celebrates outstanding achievements, as well as individual or groups who promote social justice through their creative endeavors. Students, faculty and staff will be honored for their commitment and service to the black community at U.Va.

Spoiler alert: At the end of the recent documentary, “Julian Bond: Reflections from the Frontlines of the Civil Rights Movement,” Bond, emeritus professor of history in the University of Virginia’s College of Arts & Sciences, tells the interviewer that he firmly believes people will come forward to continue the civil rights work that needs to be done, just as he and so many others rose up to fight for civil rights in the 1960s.

Wednesday’s 30-minute film screening and discussion at the Paramount Theater, part of U.Va.’s Community MLK Celebration, honored Bond – named “A Living Legend” by the Library of Congress in 2008.

The Martin Luther King Jr. celebration, comprising about 30 events, is a collaborative effort involving the University’s Office of Diversity and Equity, several U.Va. schools and offices, community partners, Piedmont Virginia Community College and the Paramount Theater.

U.Va. President Teresa A. Sullivan, Sen. Henry Marsh (D-Richmond), Del. David J. Toscano (D-Charlottesville) and Dr. Marcus Martin, U.Va.’s vice president and chief officer for diversity and equity, also made remarks to honor Bond, who taught more than 5,000 students at U.Va. over 20 years about the Civil Rights Era, drawing from his firsthand knowledge.

Interspersing Bond’s personal story with news footage and photographs, local filmmaker Eduardo Montes-Bradley’s documentary encapsulates the history of African-Americans and the Civil Rights Era. Bond’s great-grandmother was a slave whose master took her as his mistress. His grandfather walked from Georgia to Kentucky during Reconstruction to attend Berea College. Bond’s father also took the road to success via education and became president of Lincoln University in Chester County, Pa.

Bond met many historic figures at his parents’ house, including poet Langston Hughes and historian W.E.B. DuBois. As a student at Morehouse College in Atlanta, he became a leader in the Civil Rights Movement and a spokesperson of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, and took part in the March on Washington, where King gave his “I Have a Dream” speech.

When Bond was elected to the Georgia House of Representatives in 1965, its members initially prevented him from taking the seat because of his opposition to the Vietnam War. He went on to serve four terms in the House and then six more in the Georgia Senate.

After the film, Bond, 73, sat down with Phyllis Leffler, a U.Va. history professor who heads the Institute for Public History for a short interview. Bond and Leffler co-produced an audio series over the past 13 years, “Explorations in Black Leadership,” but Bond always did the interviewing. Wednesday night, he took the other seat while Leffler asked him questions – what he learned from being in SNCC, the significance of President Obama’s elections, what’s needed to improve race relations and what he thought about the film.

Bond said he hoped to interview Obama for the oral history project, but had not heard back from his administration since sending an invitation. He and Leffler will publish a book in 2014 based on interviews with almost 50 black leaders.

Leffler mentioned the film’s depiction of black life in America and asked if Bond thought racism is still an ongoing problem in America.

When he responded, “Yes, I do,” he said W.E.B. DuBois talked about a “double consciousness” that black Americans had – “a consciousness built on a racial divide ... a separateness from other people and a closeness with other people.” Bond said, “That’s what I’ve felt all my life. The feeling has begun to diminish as I’ve grown older, as time has passed.”[

Asked if Obama’s election made a difference, Bond said that it seems to have made things worse in terms of racial enmity, according to public opinion polls, despite “all the hopes and expectations that this would create a racial nirvana in the United States.”

“On the other hand, I do think Obama’s election is important, and his reelection is even more important,” he said. “The first occasion was a great milestone – to do something that had never been done before and that most people thought could not be done ... and the fact that he did it a second time is a greater accomplishment.”

Thus, Obama’s elections are both good news and bad news, Bond said; “Good news that it happened twice; bad news that it made things worse. How both of those things could be true, I do not know.”

Asked what he would advise Obama if he could, Bond said he thinks the president is a different person now from his first presidential run and doesn’t need any encouragement from him. He did encourage young people to join forces and work for social justice.

Sullivan lauded Bond’s influence at U.Va. and discussed the campaign to establish an endowed professorship of civil rights and social justice in his name, saying it is important for students to know about and understand the Civil Rights Movement.

“Endowing a chair in Julian’s honor will enable future generations of students to study civil and human rights,” she said. “I can’t imagine a more appropriate tribute for a man whose character and influence have touched so many lives over the last half-century.”

In conjunction with the University of Virginia’s celebration of Black History Month, the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center in Charlottesville is presenting its inaugural exhibition, which will run through March 24.

“Civic Meditations” consists of three video installations by Jefferson Pinder, an acclaimed Washington, D.C.-based video artist: “Passive/Resistance” (2008), on view now through through Friday; “Afro Cosmonaut/Alien (White Noise)” (2008), which will be on view Saturday through March 1; and “Elevator Music” (2012), which will be on view March 2 through 24.

On Feb. 8, at a well-attended lecture in the Heritage Center Auditorium, Pinder shared the narrative of his artistic career with insightful anecdotes and powerful imagery.

Andrea Douglas, curator of the exhibit and executive director of the center, moderated the presentation, which was its inaugural event.

Pinder’s experimental videos explore black identity through minimal performances that reference pop culture, physical theater and African-American history.

Inspired by the connection between music and the moving image, Pinder’s work provides personal and social commentary utilizing hypnotic rhythms and surreal performances to underscore themes dealing with blackness.

“Afro Cosmonaut/Alien (White Noise)” is an escapist video reflection on Cold War space travel featuring NASA color footage, underscored by a speech from the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and American jazz poet/musician Gil Scott-Heron’s “Whitey on the Moon” as the soundtrack.

In the video, the protagonist in a white-faced, Butoh-inspired performance plummets back to Earth after a mystical space journey – an Icarus metaphor for the civil rights legacy. Utilizing time-lapse animation, “White Noise” consists of more than 2,000 photographs, each frame an individual pose that cumulatively forms a continuous narrative flow.

Inherent in this work is the idea of space, Pinder said, where as a youth he imagined all things could happen. As with all of Pinder’s work, “White Noise” contains a prominent biographical element – the Saturday afternoons he would spend as a boy with his family watching the televised groove of “Soul Train,” followed by “Star Trek.”

Regarding “White Noise,” Pinder reminded the audience about the role of Nichelle Nichols as Lt. Uhura on “Star Trek,” one of the first black women featured in a major television series. As Uhura, Nichols famously kissed white actor William Shatner as Capt. James T. Kirk in a November 1968 episode, “Plato’s Stepchildren.”

This episode, Pinder observed, is often cited as the first example of an interracial kiss on United States television and a groundbreaking moment in television history. For Pinder, it represented the idealized fantasy of space as a place where anything could happen.

A member of the MTV generation, Pinder discussed how he witnessed firsthand a video revolution that changed the way people looked at culture. “I spent my youth watching music videos on Friday night,” Pinder said. “I instinctively connected music with the moving image.

“There is a wonderful sense that music has to nostalgia, a feeling of a particular time, place and personal relationships. Music has allowed me to creep into that space – it’s kind of like the heartbeat of most of my work.”

The first installation of the center’s Pinder exhibit is “Passive/Resistance,” evoking Gandhi and King’s social doctrines of nonviolent action.

The controversial video shows a physical exchange that demonstrates the essence of the passive-resistance techniques used in the Civil Rights struggle of the 1960s, as fellow artist, Matt Ravensthal, a white man, repeatedly slaps Pinder. As Pinder endures the brutality and the confrontation intensifies, the viewer, by the video’s end, becomes aware of a voyeuristic complicity.

“Elevator Music,” the third installation of “Jefferson Pinder: Civic Meditations,” depicts a comical examination of the common experience of riding an elevator with a stranger in silence, as composer Dave Grusin’s “Sun Porch Cha Cha” on the soundtrack tempers anxieties often experienced in close quarters.

The video’s title takes its name from the unobtrusive – sometimes catchy, sometimes annoying – melodies often heard in small and large public spaces.

In this confined environment, Pinder’s figure stares directly at the viewer; the viewer, in turn, stares back at the figure, blurring the distinction of who is a fellow passenger in which elevator.

At the lecture, Pinder described his current art project. To mark the anniversary of the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham, Ala., in 1963, Pinder is working with two choirs – one bluegrass, the other gospel – in a once-segregated Birmingham theater, the Lyric.

The black singers will be situated in the balcony, while the bluegrass ensemble will be in the orchestra pit. The audience will be present on the stage to witness the event.

“The groups will be working together in two different spaces with two different genres of music that exemplify a connectivity – in essence, recreating a phenomena that is representative of an American experience,” Pinder said.

Pinder received his master of fine arts degree in painting and mixed media and bachelor’s degree in theatre from the University of Maryland, College Park. His work has been featured at the Studio Museum, Yale University Art Gallery, High Museum of Art, the National Portrait Gallery and the Wadsworth Athenaeum, among others. Pinder is currently an associate professor at the School of the Art Institute Chicago.

Hundreds of people from the University of Virginia and surrounding communities gathered at more than 30 events over several weeks in January and early February to discuss and celebrate the legacy of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Beginning Jan. 13 with the 28th Annual Martin Luther King Jr. Community Celebration at Mt. Zion First African Baptist Church and concluding Feb. 8 with a screening of “Walk On: The Rosa Parks Story” at the Paramount Theater, guest speakers, panel discussions, workshops, film showings and musical performances commemorated King’s influence in a variety of arenas from public service to health care.

Dr. Marcus Martin, U.Va. vice president and chief officer for diversity and equity, attributed the success of the King celebration to “the strong collaboration between community and University, the enthusiastic planning committee members, the Office for Diversity and Equity staff members’ diligence and the support of President Sullivan.”

More than 100 individuals, including members of student, academic and civic organizations, participate each year in planning the celebration, Martin said.

The theme for the 2013 Community MLK Celebration was “From Montgomery to Main,” referring to the impact of King’s work here in Charlottesville on our own Main Street, he said.

Black leaders extended King’s messages to present-day issues, featuring Kweisi Mfume, former president and CEO of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People; Robert M. Franklin Jr., visiting scholar in residence at Stanford University’s Martin Luther King Jr. Research and Education Institute and former president of Morehouse College; and Julian Bond, professor emeritus of history in U.Va.’s College of Arts & Sciences and one of the foremost leaders of the Civil Rights Movement.

On Jan. 30, Bond was honored at an event in the Paramount Theater, which included a screening of “Julian Bond: Reflections from the Frontlines of the Civil Rights Movement,” a film by Eduardo Montes-Bradley, followed by a conversation between Bond and U.Va. history professor Phyllis Leffler.

Sullivan lauded Bond’s influence at U.Va. and discussed the campaign to establish an endowed professorship of civil rights and social justice in his name, saying it is important for students to know about and understand the Civil Rights Movement.

“Endowing a chair in Julian’s honor will enable future generations of students to study civil and human rights,” she said.

On “Shadow a Health Professional Day,” U.Va. undergraduates followed physicians in clinical settings, while high school students heard about career and academic options in health care practice and research. 

Faculty member Ervin Jordan, an archivist in the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library, curated an exhibition titled “Embracing Equality: Before and Beyond Brown v. Board of Education, 1950-1969: An American Civil Rights Exhibition.” The exhibit depicts local, state and national Civil Rights events through selected legislation, letters, reports, speeches and photographs. “Embracing Equality” will remain on display on the first floor of the Small Special Collections Library until March 1.

The accompanying video highlights King celebration events.

Two panelists at a forum Monday night said a recent apparent decline in the number of African-American students coming to the University of Virginia is primarily due to financial conditions, along with related factors.

Valerie Gregory, associate dean of admission, and Deborah McDowell, director of U.Va.’s Carter G. Woodson Institute of African-American and African Studies, discussed with an audience of about 75 people in the Minor Hall auditorium long-term changes in the economy, politics and education that present obstacles to African-American enrollment.

The scope of the issue is not clear, due to changes in how the race of students is counted.

Determining the number of African-American undergraduates at U.Va. was relatively straightforward in the years prior to 2009. According to University records, there were 1,366 black undergraduates in 1991, for example, and 1,199 in 2008.

But in 2009, new federal guidelines changed how records are collected and maintained about the race of students. Beginning in that year, students were able to select more than one race on University enrollment records. If, for example, a student checked off both “African-American” and “Asian-American,” that student would be recorded in a new category called “Multi-Racial American.” Students who did so were not included in the count for the African-American category.

Partially as a result of the new method, the number of students who solely selected African-American as their race dropped to 946 in 2012. Meanwhile, the number of students reported in the multi-racial category has risen from 273 in 2009 to 588 in 2012.

The group University and Community Action for Racial Equality sponsored the meeting out of concern for the dropping numbers of African-American students. UCARE describes itself as a grassroots community organization with a mission to understand and remedy the University’s legacy of slavery, segregation and discrimination within and outside the University.

UCARE looked at data from the U.Va. Institutional Assessment and Studies office and found that in 1991, 12 percent of the student body self-identified as African-American, compared to 6.5 percent last year.

Gregory, who has directed the Admission Office’s outreach efforts to attract minority students to U.Va. for 12 years, said the 2008 recession and weak economy has disproportionately hurt African-American families. Some students who’ve been accepted to the University go elsewhere for better financial aid, she said. Parents and students are more worried than they used to be about paying for college, and are less willing to take out loans to help.

In addition, there is still a perception among some African-Americans that they shouldn’t even apply because they can’t afford rising tuition costs, Gregory said. Although the AccessUVa financial aid program implemented in 2003 has made a dramatic difference in attracting students, U.Va. is competing more than ever with elite schools, such as Harvard and Princeton universities, for the top black students.

Like Gregory, McDowell said she has a sense that more students are anxious about covering college costs. “The economy is playing a major role,” she said.

Audience member Claudrena Harold, a history professor in the College of Arts & Sciences, said the change in numbers is not just about the economy. “It has to be a priority of the administration, the Board of Visitors and the state,” she said.

Also in the audience, Maurice Apprey, director of U.Va.’s Office of African-American Affairs, said although some students might be having more trouble with finances, there is not a retention problem here. Academically, black students are performing better than ever, and the University has maintained its successful graduation rate, he said.

Gregory said the pool of well-qualified black high-schoolers is shrinking both on the national level and in Virginia, because of the achievement gap between white students and minority students in kindergarten through 12th grade. She quoted Virginia Department of Education statistics that, of the high-school graduates last year, only 25 percent were African-American students, and of that group, 16 percent pursue more education.

The Office of Admissionhas programs to reach parents and potential students in earlier grades than in the past to advise them on the path to college, Gregory said, adding that her office needs to do more. “We have a public obligation to make sure African-American students know the process,” she said. She and McDowell agreed the University should try to reach younger students and families to get them thinking ahead about college.

Over the past two decades, some of the University’s options have changed, Gregory said. As a result of judicial challenges to affirmative action, the University cannot offer race-based scholarships; they must be supported by private funding and offered through University foundations. Black alumni have helped by endowing scholarships, such as the Holland and Ridley programs, and she called for more fundraising to increase the number of scholarships.

If the U.S. Supreme Court strikes down the use of race in the University of Texas’ undergraduate admissions process in Fisher vs. University of Texas, Gregory predicted the number of students applying and being accepted will decrease. Under the current legal interpretation, at issue in the case, U.Va. does use race as one of many factors in deciding who to accept into U.Va.

“It’s a holistic process” in determining the makeup of each class of students, she pointed out.

Audience members asked about other possible factors in how black students make their college choices. What about the number of African-American faculty? Could the University save money, and thus charge less for tuition, by reducing the size of the administration? Could faculty exert more pressure on the University to work on the numbers? What do we mean by diversity?

Gregory encouraged students to help her office by getting involved.

“We need your help,” she said. “Students are our greatest asset. You could go back to your high school or church and talk about U.Va.”

UPDATED, May 6, 2013, to add mention of homophobic comments also painted on the bridge.

University of Virginia President Teresa A. Sullivan on Thursday emailed a statement condemning racist and homophobic comments painted on Beta Bridge, adding her voice and those of two vice presidents to student groups who condemned the graffiti.

The bridge, which carries Rugby Road over railroad tracks, is frequently painted with various messages ranging from the mundane (birthday wishes and party announcements) to the inspirational (a “Hoos for Hokies” message painted after the 2007 Virginia Tech shootings remained undisturbed for weeks, a rare occurrence).

Derogatory slurs used to describe homosexuals and African-Americans appeared sometime Wednesday, alongside a crudely drawn pornographic image. Others soon painted over the offensive material, and two student organizations, the Black Student Alliance and the Student Council, swiftly issued statements condemning the original defacement.

On Thursday, Sullivan; Dr. Marcus L. Martin, vice president and chief officer for diversity and equity; and Patricia M. Lampkin, vice president and chief student affairs officer, released the following statement in an email to the University community:

On the morning of Wednesday, May 1, a display of hate and bias was discovered painted on Beta Bridge.

The individuals responsible for this derogatory message were trying to intimidate and isolate members of our University community. We reject this expression of hatred, and we stand by the University’s commitment to promote an inclusive and welcoming environment that embraces the full spectrum of human attributes, perspectives and disciplines.

There is no place for intolerance, bigotry or hatred in such an environment. We condemn this abhorrent act, which is disruptive to civility and community life, is not representative of our values and will not be tolerated.

The administration supports the statements issued by the Black Student Alliance and the Student Council condemning this incident.

As of Thursday, those responsible for the racist graffiti had not been identified, University spokesperson McGregor McCance said.

In broad terms, the undergraduate class that will enter the University of Virginia in August strongly resembles those of other recent years.

Completed applications for the Class of 2017 increased compared with the previous year, a pattern in place for a decade. Test scores and high school ranks for those offered admission occupy the highest percentiles among their classmates – also a common characteristic for incoming classes.

Indeed, the fabric of a U.Va. class features a consistent texture.

“Across all the schools, from the College to Nursing to Engineering, we’ve admitted poets and performers, scientific researchers and military veterans, social activists and technological innovators,” Dean of Admission Greg W. Roberts said. “These bright, promising scholars, from a broad range of ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds, are eager not only to contribute to the U.Va. community, but also to change the world.”

A closer look, however, at the class composition as it stands today – accepted offers of admission will shift a time or two before the new semester begins – shows that U.Va.’s incoming class is anything but stale or predictable.

The Office of Undergraduate Admission continues to see a return on targeted and sustained efforts to build diverse incoming classes to complement an already-diverse student body.

Overall minority student enrollment among the first-year entering class is projected to increase from 26.5 percent in the just-ended academic year to 27.5 percent in 2013-14. Hispanic enrollment is on track to increase by 20 percent compared with this year. African-American enrollment is projected to increase by 8 percent. And enrollment of Asian students is expected to increase from 11.3 percent to 11.7 percent of the total first-year class.

Today’s snapshot of the incoming class also shows that 9.7 percent of first-years in 2013-14 will represent first-generation college students, an increase from 9.4 percent a year ago. Students from low-income families are projected to make up 6.9 percent of the class, unchanged from the current year.

“The University promotes an inclusive, welcoming environment that embraces the full spectrum of human attributes and perspectives,” said Dr. Marcus L. Martin, vice president and chief officer for diversity and equity. “I applaud the outreach efforts of our Office of Undergraduate Admission, Student Affairs, Dean of Students and the Office of African-American Affairs to enhance the success of minority students.”

Assigning accurate numbers to categories of race and ethnicity has grown more complex since new federal reporting standards for students began in 2009. Prior to that year, incoming students could select only a single race when reporting ethnicity for University records.

Starting in ’09, students were able to report more than one ethnicity. A student who selects more than one race is not included in the tally for any individual race, but instead is counted in a category called “multi-race.” (The sole exception is the Hispanic ethnicity category. Those who select Hispanic and another race are counted in the Hispanic column.) Students may also opt not to specify a race. The new process provides more flexibility for the growing number of students reflecting more than one ethnicity, but also makes record-keeping more complicated and the results more difficult to interpret.

The new approach has created some confusion regarding enrollment of African-American students, for example. Comparing African-American enrollment before 2009 with years thereafter shows what appears to be a dramatic decline in numbers. U.Va. enrolled 1,199 African-Americans in 2008 and 946 in 2012, according to records. However, that comparison does not account for the effect of the multi-race category.

The number of students in 2012 who identified themselves only as African-American (946) combined with those who identified themselves as African-American and some other ethnicity (206) totals 1,152.

Other trends have also developed that provide good news about African-American enrollment at U.Va.: The number of African-Americans completing applications for U.Va. admission has increased dramatically over the past few years. The number of applicants who selected African-American as at least one of their racial categories increased from 1,021 in 2004 to 2,180 in 2013 – outpacing the growth of the overall application pool.

In addition, the number of African-American students offered admission to U.Va. represented a larger percentage of offers than their share of the applicant pool. This spring, 8.8 percent of offers of admission were extended to African-Americans, who constituted 7.5 percent of the applicant pool.

“Misunderstanding about how race and ethnicities are reported has led to some conclusions that don’t compare apples to apples,” Martin said. “At the same time, it’s reassuring to know that so many are committed to growing minority enrollment and that any level of decline in African-American enrollment is an opportunity for improvement.”

“We welcome and encourage this dialogue, and I feel strongly that U.Va. is committed to diversity and supportive measures to enhance student success and the numbers of African-American and other minority students will continue to rise here along with the changing demographics of our society,” Martin said.  

Statement of University of Virginia President Teresa A. Sullivan:

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va., May 31, 2013 -- On Wednesday, May 29, the provost issued a statement to faculty who were concerned by some comments made by Paul Tudor Jones during the question-and-answer segment at an April 26 symposium at the University. That statement has now become public through reporting by news media.

The University respects Mr. Jones’ right to state his personal views as a fundamental exercise of free expression.

As part of his response to a question about the lack of diversity on the all-male symposium panel, Mr. Jones observed that the emotional highs and lows that accompany life events such as childbirth and divorce, particularly when these events occur during the formative years of skill acquisition (20-30 years) for a professional in the narrow field of macro-trading, can be impediments to success.

Mr. Jones’ comments do not represent the views or policies of the University with regard to marital or parental status and its effect on employment or success in the workplace.

I have reached out to Paul and have spoken at length with him about this issue. He has assured me that he believes fervently as we do that having a family should not disadvantage a woman's performance in the workplace.

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Nothing calms the spirit like music, especially gospel. And one artist in Virginia, who celebrated her 83rd birthday July 4, is considered “queen” of the genre.

She’s evangelist Maggie Ingram, who’s not only known for her voice and message, but for her community service.

Jon Lohman, director of the Virginia Folklife Program, recognized the significance of Ingram’s work and set out to record it.

Ingram is “a true national treasure,” said Lohman, whose program is part of the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, based at the University of Virginia.

“She has been a stalwart of Richmond’s gospel music scene and African-American cultural life since her arrival 50 years ago,” he said. “Her life is a testament to perseverance and community service. Her current group, ‘The Ingramettes,’ composed primarily of family members, is incredibly powerful.”

The Virginia Folklife Program is dedicated to the documentation, presentation and support of Virginia’s rich cultural heritage. It was established in 1989, with support and funding from the Virginia Commission for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts’ Folk Arts Program, a collaborative effort initiated by the Virginia Folklore Society.

One of its programs is the Virginia Folklife Apprenticeship Program, which pairs an experienced master artist with an apprentice for a one-on-one, nine-month learning experience, to help ensure that a particular art form is passed on in ways that are conscious of history and faithful to tradition. Maggie and one of her daughters, Almeta, participated in the 2009-10 program. Almeta used her apprenticeship to record the story of her mother’s life.

Since then, “we have presented Maggie and the Ingramettes at numerous festivals across the state,” Lohman said. “We chose to record the CD live at the Fifth Baptist Church in Richmond, in front of Maggie’s own and others’ congregations.”

Lohman’s instincts were spot on regarding “Mama Ingram.” The CD project he led, “Live in Richmond: Maggie Ingram and the Ingramettes,” is nominated for the Independent Music Award’s Gospel Album of the Year, which Lohman calls “quite an honor.”

In addition to industry-determined winners, music fans from around the world have until July 19 to cast their votes at The IMA Vox Pop Jukebox to determine the fan-selected program winners whose music will be promoted to nearly 1 billion music fans worldwide, according to Lohman. (Read more about the competition here.)

Working with Ingram and the Ingramettes on this project was “wonderful,” Lohman said. “An interesting thing is that Maggie has early onset of Alzheimer’s. When you talk to her off-stage, you can definitely tell. But when she gets on stage, she completely locks in. My favorite part of the show is during ‘Working for Jesus,’ when the Ingramettes get her up and they all start pantomiming work – digging with imaginary shovels,” he said. (Watch their performance at the end of this video.)

“Working for Jesus” and “Standing on the Promises of God” are fan favorites, Lohman said of the band’s work, which is largely a family affair. In addition to Almeta Ingram-Miller, Cheryl Beaver, another Ingramette, is her granddaughter, and several members of the rhythm section are relatives as well.

The Virginia Folklife Program’s live recording of Ingram and the Ingramettes was released Dec. 14. Produced by Lohman for Virginia Folklife Recordings, which he also directs, the album features classic Ingramette songs “Help is on the Way,” “Wide River,” “When Jesus Comes,” “A Tribute to Martin Luther King, Jr.,” “The Family Prayer,” “Conferring of Honorary Doctorate Degree on Maggie Lee Ingram,” “Standing on the Promises of God,” “Praise Break” and “Work Until I Die.”

This CD is for anyone who loves gospel music or cares about preserving the musical traditions of Virginia, Lohman said.

The project was funded from a variety of sources, including the National Endowment for the Arts and private donations. The majority of CD sales have been in the city of Richmond, Lohman said, and all proceeds thus far have gone to “The Ingramettes.” 

“We would love to have more people aware and supportive of this CD,” he said. It is available online, through the UVA Bookstore and at the Plan 9 music store.

Ingram is a self-taught musician, who also taught her children to sing and play. The Ingramettes have performed for more than 50 years at such illustrious stages as the Kennedy Center and the National Folk Festival. But …

‘Singing Ain’t Enough’

That’s what Ingram said in February in a Virginia Living magazine article. And in her life, she has walked the talk.

According to the article, liner notes written by Don Harrison on the Virginia Folklife Program’s “Live in Richmond” album, and a Kennedy Center bio, Ingram …

• … may be known in Richmond as much for her red van as for her singing. For years, she drove it around town dispensing free food to the needy, and hauling visitors to prison as part of the family day events she helped establish in Virginia correctional centers through legislation she initiated.

• … turned her home into a halfway house for women released from prison – “my babies,” she called them – as they re-entered society and the workforce.

• … became an ordained minister in the early 1980s. (Her children have followed in her footsteps, Christine was ordained in 1995 and Almeta in 2003). 

• … received the prestigious 2009 Virginia Heritage Award for lifetime of excellence in the folk and traditional arts.

• … was awarded a doctor of music degree from Virginia Triumphant College and Seminary in 2011.

Ingram was born July 4, 1930, on Mulholland’s Plantation in Coffee County, Ga. As a child, she worked in the cotton and tobacco fields with her parents. At 16, she married Thomas Jefferson Ingram, also a sharecropper from Georgia. They had five children: John, Lucious, Tommie, Almeta and Christine, and moved to Miami, Fla.

After her husband left the family and returned to Georgia, Maggie Ingram moved to Richmond. She arrived on Christmas Eve 1961, “in that little green-and-white ’56 Chevy with her five little children,” Almeta recalled in the liner notes of the “Live in Richmond” CD.

Ingram first found employment in the home of an energetic attorney, Oliver W. Hill Sr., who at the time was working on behalf of Virginia plaintiffs in what would become the landmark Brown v. Board of Education case.

Years later, the Queen of Gospel turned down an invitation from the Godfather of Soul to tour with his band, telling James Brown, “We don’t sing rock ’n’ roll.”

Ingram and her Ingramettes will be performing this summer and fall, including an Oct. 13 stop at the Richmond Folk Festival; their touring details are here.

Virginia Folklife Program’s Mission

“Whether sung or told, handcrafted or performed, Virginia’s rich folklife refers to those ‘arts of everyday life’ that reflect a sense of traditional knowledge and connection to community,” Lohman said.

Robert Vaughn, president of the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, said, “The Virginia Folklife Program is the only state folklife program grounded in the humanities, engaged in research, scholarship and teaching, as well as in documentation, publication, public performance and education. In short, it’s comprehensive, involving extraordinarily diverse artists and audiences.”

Lohman, who’s been at his job since 2001, “is simply the finest folklorist and folklife director in the nation,” Vaughn said. “He’s also in demand internationally.”

University of Virginia doctoral nursing student Hershaw Davis Jr. recently received one of five nationwide scholarships intended to bolster the ranks of minorities in academic nursing.

Johnson & Johnson awarded Davis its Campaign for Nursing’s Future AACN Minority Nurse Faculty Scholarship, worth nearly $60,000 over three years. It covers tuition for Davis’ study and pays for him to attend nurse faculty development conferences each year.

Nearly 90 doctoral nursing students applied for the Johnson & Johnson scholarship.

“Hershaw embodies already what we so often want to teach, model and nurture in our students,” said Dorrie Fontaine, dean of U.Va. School of Nursing and Sadie Heath Cabaniss Professor of Nursing. “That he will join the ranks of nursing academia is outstanding because not only do we need more professors in our field, we need more from diverse backgrounds. Hershaw will be an exceptional nursing professor – and is such an exceptional nurse already.”

Davis, originally from Richmond, earned his master’s degree from U.Va. in 2012 while working full-time as a night shift emergency room nurse at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. He was among the nurses interviewed, photographed and videotaped for “The American Nurse Project,” a project led by photographer Carolyn Jones aiming to elevate the voice of nurses in this country by capturing their personal stories through photography and film. Begun in early 2012 by Jones, the American Nurse Project recorded the unique experiences of nurses at work, ultimately compiling a book – “The American Nurse” –­ and website of video interviews, to much acclaim from the health care community and beyond.

“I am humbled to receive such a prestigious honor,” Davis said. “This scholarship will be instrumental in my development as a nurse scientist as well as fulfilling my aspiration of becoming a professor of nursing.”

The program – developed in 2006 by Johnson & Johnson and the American Association of Colleges of Nursing – provides financial support to graduate nursing students from minority backgrounds who plan to teach in a nursing school after graduation. Beyond the nursing shortage itself, there is a dramatic, well-documented shortage of nursing professors to teach and mentor new nursing scholars. According to the AACN, more than 75,000 qualified applicants were turned away from the nation’s nursing programs due to a lack of clinical space and faculty to teach them. The average age of a nursing professor, according to the AACN, is 55.

The scholarship is also designed to address the growing shortage of nurse educators while diversifying the nurse faculty in the U.S., expanding the number of culturally competent nurse educators available to teach and increasingly diverse student body.

They come from as nearby as Charlottesville High School and as far away as Cuba and Cameroon, Ghana and Guatemala.

They’re smart; 23 posted perfect scores on the math and verbal portions of the SAT, and seven of those tacked on a perfect score on the writing portion, too; all told, their mean verbal and math scores added up to 1,349 points on a 1,600-point scale. Approximately 92 percent ranked in the top 10 percent of their high school graduating classes.

They’re diverse: 28 percent are minority students, 35 percent are receiving financial aid, 240 qualify for full scholarship support and 348 represent the first generation of their families to attend college. They come from 44 states and 72 countries.

They are the class of 2017, which will take its collective place at the University of Virginia this weekend and begin its undergraduate studies Tuesday.

The University anticipates welcoming 3,515 first-year students, the largest entering class in school history. On top of that, 675 students will transfer into the undergraduate student body, including 350 from the Virginia Community College System.

“Every year, we endeavor to build a strong, well-rounded class that maintains the University’s highest standards,” Gregory W. Roberts, dean of admission, said. “We’re attracting record numbers of applicants, and enrolling terrific students from all walks of life.”

In the second year of its “early action” admission plan, U.Va.’s Office of Undergraduate Admission fielded a record 29,250 applications from high school seniors. Patience paid off for 160 of them, who accepted admission offers after initially being placed on the waiting list.

Beyond the numbers are the stories of some of those entering students, many of whom have already begun to make their mark on their world.

Kevin Cao has served on no fewer than four government committees in his hometown, including two advising the school board and others advancing human rights and environmental sustainability. It’s no small feat; he’s from Fairfax County, Virginia’s largest locality with more than 1.1 million residents.

As a high school sophomore, Lauren Jackson of Little Rock, Ark., saw that her older schoolmates needed senior portraits taken and set up her own business. It grew quickly and she began selling prints to a local gallery, earning thousands of dollars over the years – which she spent to support her volunteer work in Belize and Fiji. Beyond her business savvy and public service, she’s got a keen eye, too: her photos have won national awards.

After months of intensive training, Sarah Koch of Kansas City, Mo., traveled to a village in Paraguay to teach Spanish and health in a primary school. Not content to merely punch her passport and add a resume flourish, when she returned home she spoke at schools on behalf of the program in which she participated, interviewing prospective volunteers in Spanish and giving presentations on lesson planning, goal setting and other skills.

Of course, not all students have found their direction in life. For most, that journey begins this weekend.

“I can’t wait to see what this group accomplishes, both in their time on Grounds and beyond,” Roberts said.

WTJU 91.1 FM is keeping the dream alive with a week of commemorative programming that honors the Civil Rights Movement.

Beginning Monday, the University’s public radio station will begin airing music and audio documentary in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington, with a week of special civil rights programming planned to focus on the seminal event.

The University of Virginia’s Office of African-American Affairs, Office of Diversity and Equity and Office of Equal Opportunity Programs are supporting WTJU’s  commemorative programming. It will be presented in three formats: special music programming focused on specific topics, interviews and historical speeches and one-minute audio moments.

“WTJU’s Civil Rights Week programming is an important recognition of the important social changes brought about by the struggle for justice a half-century ago,” Nathan Moore, general manager of the radio station, said. “I’m so pleased that WTJU staff and volunteers are coming together to share music and stories that connect us to that moment in history.”

On weekdays from 9 to 10 a.m., WTJU’s “Soundboard” will air interviews with Virginians who experienced the Civil Rights Movement firsthand and were involved in the struggle. During the hour, WTJU will also air excerpts of historical speeches and interviews by civil rights leaders. “Soundboard” is WTJU’s educational discussion program about news, culture and community issues in the Charlottesville area.

In addition, the station will air one-minute audio moments every hour excerpted from the collected interviews and speeches.

“It took many thousands of people to make gains in the struggle for civil rights – including many people in Charlottesville and elsewhere in Virginia,” Moore said. “Their stories are so important to hear and to understand, so that we can connect to one another.”

On Wednesday during “Soundboard,” the station will air the entirety of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech, 50 years to the day since he delivered the speech at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington.

The civil rights struggle inspired a wealth of tremendous and unforgettable music, including Billie Holiday’s mournful “Strange Fruit,” Sam Cooke’s poignant “A Change Is Gonna Come” and the reworked popular traditional song “We Shall Overcome,” a key anthem of the Civil Rights Movement derived from the early African-American gospel song, “I’ll Overcome Someday.”

“Music inspired those who struggled for justice during the civil rights era just as it continues to inspire us today,” Moore said.

A complete list of WTJU’s music specials during the week can be found here. Some of the highlights include:

• “Anything Goes” presents anthems of the Civil Rights Movement that span the decades back to Louis Armstrong;
• “Eclectic Woman” offers a range of responses from oppressed women of color in America expressed in song, from the anger of Nina Simone to the faith of Mahalia Jackson;
• “Folk and Beyond” delves back to the country blues recordings that highlighted the plight of rural blacks in the ’20s and ’30s;
• “Melodiya” explores racism, bigotry and miscegenation through the musicals “Porgy and Bess,” “West Side Story” and “Showboat; Copland’s “Fanfare for the Common Man,” and songs from the Civil War; and
• “Jazzmania” conveys the freedom of jazz to create in the moment through the music of artists such as Sonny Rollins and Miles Davis. Just as the Civil Rights Movement was about experiencing personal freedom to vote and work, jazz music through improvisation expresses in musical language its own transformational freedom.
• WTJU’s world music program, “Radio Tropicale,” will explore Ghanaian music with Pan-African themes on “W.E.B. Du Bois and Pan-Africanism.” Du Bois, the great African-American historian and civil rights activist, died in Ghana the day before the March on Washington; there was a moment of silence in his honor at the event.

On the program “Don’t Let Me Lose the Dream: African-American Visions and Commentary on the Pursuit of the Dream,” WTJU’s Dave Rogers – known as “Professor Bebop” – shares a musical commentary on the hopes and frustrations of the African-American community in realizing King’s dream, featuring music by artists such as Aretha Franklin, Solomon Burke, the Staple Singers and the Last Poets. “WTJU’s week of civil rights programming, whether in words or music, serves as a reminder that injustices still remain,” Moore said. “The music and stories tell us that, in working together as a community, we can carry that spirit of the Civil Rights Movement forward to address social problems that still have not been resolved.”

WTJU-FM is a noncommercial educational radio station licensed by the Federal Communications Commission to the Rector and Board of Visitors of the University of Virginia. The station presents original, rich and diverse programming of music and other forms of expression free from the direct constraints of commercial interests, reflecting the broadest educational goals of the University.

From the range of voices that joined together Wednesday to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, it’s safe to say the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s celebrated “dream” of racial justice and equality from his famous speech that day remains vivid in the University of Virginia community.

At the same time, those voices concurred that the dream is far from fulfilled 50 years later.

To mark the occasion of the 1963 March on Washington, the University held two events:  U.Va.’s Office of the Vice President and Chief Officer for Diversity and Equity hosted “Let Freedom Ring at U.Va.,” in the Rotunda Dome Room; and later, the Carter G. Woodson Institute of African-American and African Studies held an event with more than 30 participants expressing ways to revitalize the purpose of King’s speech, which emphasized the need for jobs and justice.

At the “Let Freedom Ring” event, the program brought together undergraduate and graduate students from the College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences and the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy to reflect on the march and King’s famed “I Have a Dream” speech.

Music from the 1960s echoed through the Dome Room as students, faculty and community members settled in to hear their remarks. Dr. Marcus Martin, U.Va.’s vice president and chief officer for diversity and equity, opened with a brief history of King as a leader and political activist in the Civil Rights Movement.

Claudrena Harold, associate professor in the Corcoran Department of History, also reflected on King’s life and legacy.

“King’s vision of freedom at both the individual and collective level was expansive,” she said.

Students then read excerpts from King’s speech and reflected on the implications of his vision for justice, equality and freedom. 

Shermaine Jones, a doctoral student in the English department, discussed the influence of King’s faith on his work. “Martin Luther King’s boldness was grounded in faith,” Jones said. “It behooves us to speak into existence the community Dr. King imagined,” she said.

Sheridan Fuller, a graduate student in the Batten School, described the March on Washington as a “defining moment and a transformational movement” that “cannot be seen as only relevant to the black community.”

Other student participants included Charlie Tyson, Dana Cypress, Comfort Allotey and Ravynn Stringfield, all undergraduates in the College; and Tamika Y. Richeson, a doctoral student in history.

The program culminated at 3 p.m. with the pealing of the bells at the University Chapel, part of a global remembrance commemorating the March on Washington.

At the later gathering, held in the auditorium of the Mary and David Harrison Institute for American History, Literature and Culture/Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library, participants offered their interpretations of King’s speech in any format they choose – in spoken words, song, dance and instrumental performance. In addition to short speeches and personal reminiscences, some people performed jazz, gospel, hip hop, poetry and drama.

Charlottesville Vice Mayor Kristen Szakos told the story of her father going to the 1963 protest and how it changed him. He took a faculty job at Tougaloo College in Mississippi, where Kristen grew up. She attended Saturday’s anniversary march in Washington, she said, and “the only problem was there wasn’t enough singing.” She then led the crowd in singing “Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around.”

It wasn’t the only time that song rose Wednesday afternoon. A student group that met just last week to practice for the event, the Freedom Revival Experimental Ensemble – or FREE – performed a multimedia interpretation with clips of film of the march and audio recordings of protest songs. Playing different characters, they gave responses to what had changed and not changed in American society from 50 years ago. The students wore black T-shirts emblazoned with the words “R U Free,” and led the audience in chants and song.

Deborah McDowell, director of the Woodson Institute and Alice Griffin Professor of English, put the day’s goals in context by telling about A. Philip Randolph, who helped organize the black Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters union in 1925. He also helped organize the March on Washington in 1963.

Emma Edmunds, a U.Va. director in strategic communications who led a project recovering the civil rights history of her hometown, Danville, described what happened after the March on Washington. King and other civil rights leaders had planned marches in other cities and met in Danville to make plans, but other events eclipsed the idea – the church bombing in Birmingham that killed four young girls and the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

Wednesday’s speakers focused on parts of King’s speech, using the occasion to do more than reiterate his famous lines of not judging people “by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.” They reviewed the state of poverty and the economy, education and work in today’s society and also mentioned the University’s efforts and shortcomings in those areas.

If people emphasized the first two-thirds of King’s speech, said English professor Susan Fraiman – a member of the Living Wage campaign – it might have been memorialized as “The Island of Poverty” speech or the “No, No, We are Not Satisfied” speech.

Sociology professor Sabrina Pendergrass reminded the audience of King’s metaphor that the protesters in Washington had come to cash “a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice,” as King said before observing, “America had given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked ‘insufficient funds.’”

Other participants included Frank Dukes, director of the Institute for Environmental Negotiation, based in the School of Architecture, and executive director of University and Community Action for Racial Equity; U.Va. students from Black Voices chorus; Assistant Dean Dion Lewis of the Office of African-American Affairs; Leah Puryear, director of Upward Bound; Jim Bundy of Sojourners United Church of Christ; Rev. Hodari Hamilton; and M. Rick Turner, president of the Charlottesville branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

At the end of the FREE performance, local actor Richard Cooper played the part of A. Philip Randolph, who read aloud a pledge at the 1963 protest. The attendees on Wednesday were invited to affirm it verbally, repeating, “I do pledge,” and to sign a sheet to put it in writing. Part of it reads:

“I affirm my complete personal commitment for the struggle for jobs and freedom for all Americans. To fulfill that commitment, I pledge that I will not relax until victory is won. ... I pledge my heart and my mind and my body unequivocally and without regard to personal sacrifice, to the achievement of social peace through social justice.”

(Student writer Dana Cypress also contributed to this report.)