University of Virginia

General The central purpose of the University of Virginia (UVa) is to enrich the mind by stimulating and sustaining a spirit of free inquiry directed to understanding the nature of the universe and the role of mankind in it. Activities designed to quicken, discipline, and enlarge the intellectual and creative capacities, as well as the aesthetic and ethical awareness, of the members of the University and to record, preserve, and disseminate the results of intellectual discovery and creative endeavor serve this purpose. In fulfilling it, the University places the highest priority on achieving eminence as a center of higher learning. The University of Virginia is made up of twelve schools in Charlottesville, plus the College at Wise in southwest Virginia. UVa offers 51 bachelor's degrees in 47 fields, 84 master's degrees in 67 fields, six educational specialist degrees, two first-professional degrees (law and medicine), and 57 doctoral degrees in 55 fields. The University of Virginia continues to excel in the U.S. News & World Report's annual rankings. In March 2009, many of UVa's graduate programs earned top recognitions. In August 2009, U.S. News & World Report's latest (undergraduate) college rankings placed the University of Virginia as the nation's No. 2 public university and 24th (tied with UCLA) among 248 national universities. Since U.S. News began a separate listing of the top 50 public universities, UVa has never been ranked lower than No. 2. In the 20-year history of the rankings, UVa has never dropped out of the top 25 listing of all public and private universities. The University of Virginia has the highest graduation rate among public universities. UVa is proud of its distinguished faculty. In 1825 at Thomas Jefferson’s University, eight faculty members greeted the first students. Like their predecessors, today’s faculty—numbering 2,171 full-time members—were selected from some of the world’s foremost universities, not just because of their accomplishments but because of their enthusiasm and energy. Twenty-five faculty members have been selected as Guggenheim fellows; twenty-six have been awarded Fulbright fellowships; six faculty members have been named National Endowment for the Humanities fellows. Two faculty researchers have won Presidential Young Investigator Awards, and three have won Sloan Foundation Awards. In the sciences, three University of Virginia faculty members have received highly prestigious Packard Foundation Awards. Members of the faculty have won major prizes from various national associations, including the Bancroft Prize of the American Historical Association and the Distinguished Science Award of the American Psychological Association. UVa’s diverse student body numbers over 21,000. In the 2008-09 academic year, there were 13,762 undergraduate, 4,904 graduate, 1,725 first professional (law and medicine) and 666 on-grounds continuing education students. About 69% of our undergraduates are Virginia residents. Of the total undergraduate population, 62.5% self-report as white Americans, 8.7% as African American, 11.4% as Asian American, 5.4% as international non-resident foreign, 4.2% Hispanic American, 0.2% Native American, and remainder are unknown/unclassified.

Research The University of Virginia supports research and scholarship in many fields. Its areas of strength include research in the humanities and programs in the biomedical, physical, and engineering sciences. Sponsored research awards totaled over $326 million for FY 2009 from all sources (federal and state agencies, industry and private foundations). Of this amount, nearly half came from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The National Science Foundation awarded nearly $27 million to the University on 139 awards. Libraries Thomas Jefferson himself selected the original medical books to be included in the library of the University of Virginia. Today the philosophical underpinnings of the Health System Library’s historical collections continue to be rooted in Jefferson’s belief that the arts and sciences are inextricably linked, and this marriage has produced a collection rich in materials that illustrate the connections between past, present and future. The University Libraries have over 5 million books and over 50,000 journal and newspaper subscriptions, housed in 14 libraries or available online. The libraries asociated with the professional schools (Law, Business, and Health Sciences) are open to only their students during their finals, but the rest of the year they're open to all students and faculty. The Alderman Library system open stacks policy permits users direct access to most of the collections, and interlibrary loan privileges are extended to most borrowers. Computer assisted information services provide for access to over 200 specialized data bases. The libraries are a modern facilities with small group meeting and study rooms, photocopy machines, typing rooms and microcomputers. Libraries offer courses to users and provide computer access to a variety of databases through terminals within the library, or in most cases, through the University’s computer network.

Computer UVA’s office of Information Technology and Communication (ITC) provides a myriad of services for faculty, staff and students. Resources available specifically for researchers include licenses for a host of research software packages as well as support for many of them (see http://www.itc.virginia.edu/researchers/), dedicated computing facilities, hardware and collaboration resources for computational sciences, and an array of tools and tutorials to support research endeavors. Through participation in the University’s Desktop Computing Initiative (DCI), all Curry School faculty and staff are provided with computers that are top of the line and already configured in accordance with University and School standards. In addition the DCI has a staff of on-grounds technicians who are available and authorized by the vendor(s) to repair DCI Computers. All DCI computers have four-year parts and labor warranties with the exception of notebook batteries which only carry a 1 year warranty. DCI Service maintains an inventory of spare parts for servicing DCI computers which enables technicians to repair computers quicker, resulting in shorter downtimes for the end user, and DCI Service will perform on-site service for all DCI computers located on-grounds and for DCI computers located within ten miles of Charlottesville. Convenient access to information anytime and anywhere is not only a priority for students, it is essential in their day-to-day lives. ITC’s first-year student computing inventory has found that an ever-increasing percentage of UVa’s incoming students come to school with a laptop: for the past two years, 99% of the incoming first-year classes arrived with a notebook computer. The number of students using other mobile computing devices is growing each year as well; fully 1/3 of the class of 2012 brought mobile devices and smartphones capable of checking email, surfing the Web, and more. For the handful of students who do not own a computer, programs are in place to help through Access UVa and the Laptops for Students program (LFS). Founded in 1997 and run by UVa’s Office of Student Financial Services, LFS assists students each year who have financial need in acquiring a computer. These successful programs have contributed to the widespread rise of mobile computing throughout UVa’s student body. As they move from one place to another, mobile devices and wireless access free students from being tied to a physical space— such as a computing lab—for an Internet connection or specialized software. Curry School of Education The Curry School of Education, founded with two professorships in 1905 as one of the academic schools of the University, has two major missions. The first is to prepare personnel to work in America's educational system, pre-kindergarten through collegiate levels, and to conduct research and scholarship that address problems and issues of importance to our educational system. Through partnerships with other organizations and educational institutions, the Curry School is committed to developing exemplary and innovative approaches to address those issues and problems. The second mission is to enhance human potential by preparing professionals and conducting research in such areas as psychological/ emotional development, physical development and fitness, and speech/language/ auditory development. These areas contribute to the betterment of the human condition and are directly related to increased learning and successful experiences in our educational system. The Curry School of Education has long been recognized for applying groundbreaking methods to educational and social challenges. This recognition is grounded in the fact that Curry excels in both the training of professionals who staff schools and community programs and in conducting path-breaking research. Curry was a pioneer in the development of both a five-year teacher preparation program and a graduate business school/education school program to improve the effectiveness of principals and other school leaders. Through research conducted within the Center for Advanced Study of Teaching and Learning, Curry faculty developed an objective, verifiable means of observing and rating classroom teaching and created a professional development program to enhance teacher effectiveness. These teacher assessment and training tools will be used in every Head Start classroom in the country beginning in 2009. These are just two examples of Curry’s capacity and impact.

last revised mbl:1/18/2010