Plan to upgrade sciences termed "disaster"

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Virginia
1

<p>"A $126 million effort to attract world-class research professors to the University of Virginia has apparently failed to provide the expected boost to the university’s reputation, according to UVa President John T. Casteen III.</p>

<p>The three-year recruitment effort, known as the “star scientist initiative,” has so far lured six top-tier science researchers to UVa at a cost of $20 million."
"
“I can’t imagine another way that we can catch up with other institutions,” Casteen said. “If there’s an arms race, then we’re losing it.”</p>

<p>New research facilities are needed to attract the best and brightest science professors to UVa, Casteen said. The university’s current policy of recruiting expensive faculty members and then custom building lab space for them has proved a “disaster,” he said."</p>

<p><a href="http://www.dailyprogress.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=CDP%2FMGArticle%2FCDP_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1173353004476&path=!news%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.dailyprogress.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=CDP%2FMGArticle%2FCDP_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1173353004476&path=!news&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

2

<p>I agree. Look at my ECE 203 professor: Dr. A. Holmes. Brilliant, just brilliant man. As for teaching, he's getting much better each day. But the guy is stuck in a pretty non-special EE department, which makes me wonder why he's here. It's great, i'm not arguing that, but more, something really had to have looked good for him to have left UT-Austin (probably the best EE school, hands down, IMO, and we all know the research I put into schools last year to transfer). I think it would be useful for everyone (school, professors, students, the world) to have better research situations for some professors, like Archie, would could do wonders both in and outside of the classroom.</p>

3

<p>i do find it amusing that you, barrons, only find time to really post on the UVa board when you dig up some negative press about the school...</p>

4

<p>Hahaha, I agree. Barrons loves to bring down UVA. He didn't have much to say when I retaliated a year ago pointing to various U</a>. of Wisconsin scandals - like taxpayers who were complaining about their vice chancellor who hadn't worked for 9 months, or this nice ditty...</p>

<p>
[quote]
Three other UW faculty members were convicted of felonies between March and August of 2005, one for "sexually assaulting three young girls, another for e-mailing sexually explicit material to a teenage boy, and a third for stalking."

[/quote]
</p>

5

<p>i think its jealousy...after all not everyone can attend the University. sometimes you have to settle for UW... :-O ?!!?!? did i just say that? <strong>rolls eyes</strong></p>

6

<p>jags861, would it be totally out of line to say that some people (maybe a lot of people) have had to settle for UVA as well? ;)</p>

7

<p>i think uva forgets that it's a state school. i mean, if you could see the people in my elem ed "teaching with technology" class, you would feel differently about how to boost uva's reputation.</p>

8

<p>cool beans,</p>

<p>I'm sure people who have gotten rejected from Yale have had to settle for Harvard. Whats your point?</p>

<p>Regardless, I think you took my comment a little too seriously... I'm merely having some fun.</p>

9

<p>


</p>

<p>Aren't we all. =D</p>

10

<p>UVa has had their own similar scandals with the head of one major program sent packing. They just were able to keep it a little quieter. But hat's not really the point is it? My major quibble with UVa was the feeling they were overrated and really not the equal of some of the major schools like Wisconsin and Michigan when you start talking expensive programs like the sciences. Now they are finding you just don't throw around a few bucks and have people come running. It takes many years of financial commitment, nurturing the research of junior faculty and growing your own stars to be a science power. You can't go out and buy it like a new basketball arena.
So you can ignore the post but it does prove my point. Uva is a good liberal arts school but when it comes to being a science power it has a long way to go.</p>

11

<p>barrons,</p>

<p>the issue is simple. no one claims uva is a power house science school. yet you continue to try to prove it isn't. we get it. we're not michigan and we're not cal when it comes to research. but, quite frankly, that has nothing to do with the quality of an undergraduate education. so we have professors who cost us $20 mil who don't have equipment. i guess they'll just have to teach. oh well. fortunately this lack of a juggernaut graduate science department hasn't detracted the quality of the school at all.</p>

12

<p>First of all, UVA has always focused on maintaining an excellent undergraduate educational experience - something that many HUGE universities have long sacrificed for research. So, all this hullabaloo doesn't bother me that much.</p>

<p>Secondly, I agree that JUST recruiting top scientists is not enough. I'm glad that UVA realizes that it should also improve its facilities. (Mistakes are fine as long as you learn from them.) I think everyone's freaking out because Professor Takahashi who was recruited and was supposed to come to UVA reneged on his deal after UVA had already built an animal testing lab in a $35 million underground facility and a tailor-made research lab in a $43 million building. That was a major dick move after UVA spent so much money to make sure he got what he wanted. Shame on him!!! I wouldn't call the "star scientist initiative" a failure. Yes, UVA spent $20 million on the 6 scientists, but they brought in more than double that amount in new research dollars. </p>

<p>Furthermore, Washington</a> Monthly recently ranked schools based on research and social mobility, and guess what? UVA went from #20 to #16. Wisconsin went from #11 to #18. (Oops!) Not bad for a school who's not "a science power".</p>

13

<p>I don't know where Washington Monthly got their research spending numbers but using just the Federal awards leaves out more than half the research funding UW receives. UW does lots of research for private firms and foundations.<br>
According to the much more reliable data from the National Science Foundation UW was a very high #3 in total research and only a few bucks behind #2 which cheated by including all campuses in their numbers. Based on a single campus UW beat Michigan. Also Hopkins includes the spending on the federal labs they only mange for the US. That would be like Cal including the spending at the facility they manage in New Mexico. That's something like $650 Million.</p>

<p>I agree that the NU prof was a major putz for what he did. But I can't believe they did not have a signed contract with him before they started building with a major $$$ penalty if you decided not to come. I'm sure they will next time.</p>

<p>Top Institutions in Total Research-and-Development Expenditures for Science and Engineering, 2005 Fiscal Year</p>

<p>Johns Hopkins University $1,443,792,000
University of Michigan $808,887,000
University of Wisconsin at Madison $798,099,000
University of California at Los Angeles $785,625,000
University of California at San Francisco $754,444,000
University of California at San Diego $721,035,000
Stanford University $714,897,000
University of Washington $707,519,000
University of Pennsylvania $654,982,000
Duke University $630,752,000
Pennsylvania State University $625,764,000
Ohio State University $608,923,000
Cornell University $606,804,000
Massachusetts Institute of Technology $580,742,000
University of California at Berkeley $554,551,000
University of Minnesota $548,873,000
University of California at Davis $546,978,000
Columbia University $535,424,000
Washington University in St. Louis $531,846,000
University of Florida $530,734,000
University of Arizona $530,233,000
University of Colorado $517,067,000
University of Pittsburgh $510,943,000
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign $499,711,000
Texas A&M University $479,735,000
Baylor College of Medicine $458,694,000
Harvard University $447,196,000
University of Southern California $445,036,000
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill $441,033,000
Yale University $431,618,000
Georgia Institute of Technology $425,386,000
University of Texas at Austin $410,981,000
Northwestern University $387,242,000
University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center $383,780,000
Purdue University $364,986,000
Louisiana State University $356,828,000
Vanderbilt University $350,433,000
University of Rochester $345,337,000
University of Maryland at College Park $338,648,000
Scripps Research Institute $338,634,000
University of Iowa $334,144,000
Michigan State University $333,735,000
Emory University $333,665,000
University of Nebraska $333,126,000
Case Western Reserve University $323,618,000
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas $320,800,000
University of Alabama at Birmingham $318,536,000
University of Illinois at Chicago $318,279,000
University of Georgia $316,806,000
Rutgers University $309,531,000
Indiana University $307,137,000
University of Kentucky $306,653,000
University of Maryland at Baltimore $304,396,000
North Carolina State University $302,596,000
University of Chicago $293,970,000
Virginia Tech $289,994,000
University of Cincinnati $286,036,000
University of California at Irvine $276,763,000
New York University $276,198,000
State University of New York at Buffalo $267,271,000
Oregon Health & Science University $266,687,000
California Institute of Technology $265,364,000
State University of New York at Albany $259,708,000
University of South Florida $259,218,000
University of Tennessee $255,699,000
Boston University $246,520,000
University of Utah $244,691,000
University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey $239,778,000
University of Virginia $239,061,000</p>

14

<p>Here are the most recent Federal Only numbers--UW is much higher than the Washington Monthly had.</p>

<p>Top Institutions in Federal Research-and-Development Expenditures for Science and Engineering, 2005 Fiscal Year
Johns Hopkins University * $1,277,292,000
University of Washington $606,317,000
Stanford University $574,675,000
University of Michigan $554,516,000
University of Wisconsin at Madison $477,582,000
University of California at Los Angeles $469,889,000
University of Pennsylvania $465,284,000
University of California at San Diego $463,946,000
Massachusetts Institute of Technology $457,235,000
Columbia University $453,188,000
University of Colorado $449,366,000
University of California at San Francisco $438,988,000
University of Pittsburgh $420,281,000
Washington University in St. Louis $400,699,000
Harvard University $395,906,000
Duke University $376,568,000
Cornell University $365,694,000
Pennsylvania State University $358,569,000
Yale University $332,702,000
University of Southern California $330,126,000
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill $320,294,000
University of Minnesota $319,771,000
Baylor College of Medicine $300,638,000
Ohio State University $294,053,000
University of Arizona $292,811,000
University of California at Berkeley $290,960,000
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign $289,985,000
University of Alabama at Birmingham $288,434,000
Vanderbilt University $281,694,000
Scripps Research Institute $272,969,000
Emory University $266,868,000
University of Rochester $257,497,000
University of Texas at Austin $254,529,000
California Institute of Technology $249,371,000
University of Chicago $245,679,000
Georgia Institute of Technology $245,130,000
Northwestern University $244,113,000
University of California at Davis $240,003,000
University of Florida $231,699,000
Boston University $228,842,000
Oregon Health & Science University $217,145,000
University of Iowa $216,354,000
Texas A&M University $212,923,000
Case Western Reserve University $212,485,000
University of Cincinnati $202,654,000
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas $202,057,000
University of Virginia $200,726,000
University of Illinois at Chicago $198,163,000
University of Maryland at College Park $196,008,000
New York University $191,782,000
Mount Sinai School of Medicine $191,326,000
University of Hawaii-Manoa $190,137,000
Carnegie Mellon University $173,902,000
Indiana University $171,528,000
University of Utah $168,652,000
University of California at Irvine $161,524,000
University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center $160,953,000
Yeshiva University $160,894,000
Michigan State University $156,461,000
University of Miami $156,059,000
Colorado State University $154,245,000
State University of New York at Buffalo $151,890,000
Purdue University $150,351,000
University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey $143,239,000
University of Kentucky $142,794,000
University of South Florida $142,580,000
Wake Forest University $141,685,000
Rutgers University $137,609,000
University of Connecticut $134,347,000
University of Massachusetts at Worcester $130,680,000
University of New Mexico $129,557,000
University of Maryland at Baltimore $129,270,000
University of Nebraska $129,216,000
Louisiana State University $128,324,000
State University of New York at Stony Brook $125,781,000
Dartmouth College $122,329,000
University of Tennessee $121,004,000
Wayne State University $120,581,000
Princeton University $120,042,000
University of Texas Medical Branch $117,235,000
University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston $112,509,000
University of Kansas $110,768,000
Virginia Tech $109,842,000
North Carolina State University $109,128,000
Oregon State University $109,030,000
Medical University of South Carolina $108,196,000
Florida State University $105,747,000
University of California at Santa Barbara $103,955,000
State University of New York at Albany $103,941,000
University of Georgia $102,966,000
Medical College of Wisconsin $102,859,000
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution $100,747,000
Georgetown University $100,328,000
Tufts University $98,200,000
Iowa State University $98,005,000
Virginia Commonwealth University $97,322,000
University of Missouri at Columbia $96,038,000
University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio $95,125,000
Tulane University $94,628,000
Arizona State University $94,545,000
* Includes $649-million for the Applied Physics Laboratory.
SOURCE: National Science Foundation</p>

15

<p>So Barrons....did you get rejected from UVA or something? You are way too full of yourself...what I care about is a great undergraduate experience for my daughter and she loves it there...has great respect for her professors, is academically challenged and motivated, and is happy as a clam. Every state, or commonwealth, should be as lucky as Virginia to have such an outstanding state school. Go where you want....badmouthing UVA is sour grapes. See ya!!!!</p>

16

<p>Ahhh, the old reject argument. Brilliant. No, UVa was all male when I went to college so it never was an option. The article was front page news in the local press and seems important enough to get some airing on a UVa discussion board--especially for people looking at a science major. You rarely see college president's calling a major spending program a disaster. Presenting an article quoting the college president hardly qualifies as badmouthing. Why not take it up with Mr Casteen. He said it.</p>

<p>I have my second home in Virginia not far from C'Ville and keep up with things there. As a taxpayer it's my right to question what they do with my tax money.</p>

17

<p>well.... obviously you've heard the "argument" before....hmmmm....</p>

18

<p>Anyone who has frequented this or any similar board sees that as the first snappy retort from people with no ammunition. As you can see by my membership level, I've been around here for some time. Welcome but save that bullet for the other newbies.</p>