Category Archives: Main

The High Cost of Learning

Posted on by Jason Coleman

The University of Virginia is one of the nation’s top institutions of higher learning. Establishing credibility was a process, however, not a given—even with Thomas Jefferson as its founder. UVa went through very real growing pains, as Rex Bowman and Carlos Santos make clear in their new book Rot, Riot, and Rebellion: Mr. Jefferson’s Struggle to Save the University that Changed America. In the following piece, coathor Carlos Santos takes on an issue at the center of higher learning—tuition—and illustrates how Edgar Allan Poe’s folks didn’t have it any better than your folks…

Much has changed at the University of Virginia in the past 185 years, but not tuition shock—that feeling of parental despair and pain over the cost of a college education.  UVa President Teresa A. Sullivan recently released some sticker-shock news. She announced changes to the nationally recognized AccessUVa financial-aid program, reverting back to loans versus outright grants. The adjustments will be phased in over a four-year period by class, beginning with the 2014-15 academic year. Sullivan says that “once fully implemented, this new approach will help the University moderate escalating program costs by about $6 million per year.”  But it won’t moderate parental costs at all, of course.

Rouhani Calls for “Moderation”

Posted on by Jason Coleman

This fall we will be bringing out Independence without Freedom: Iran’s Foreign Policy, in which one of the great commentators on modern Iran, R. K. Ramazani, summarizes six decades of political history in this volatile and important nation. With the election this summer of a new president, Ramazani has several important questions about the future of Iran and the promises made by its new leader. Ramazani writes, “Hassan Rouhani’s surprise landslide victory in Iran’s elections astounded Iranians, Americans, and much of the world. In his victory speech, he claimed he would travel the road to ‘moderation.’ What does this mean? Is he a ‘mianeh ro’ or ‘e’tedal,’ meaning middle of the road or just man, or alternatively, is he simply against extremism? If so, is he a ‘centrist’ and ‘pragmatist,’ responding flexibly to different situations, or is he, as he has been called, ‘the diplomatic sheikh’?”

The Twelfth Temple

Posted on by Jason Coleman

In 2012, Robert Sibley shared his experiences on the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage in his book The Way of the Stars. Sibley’s latest book, The Way of the 88 Temples, chronicles his journey on the Henro Michi, one of the oldest pilgrimage routes in Japan. Located on Shikoku, the smallest of Japan’s four islands, the pilgrimage comprises 88 temples and covers nearly 900 miles. Publishers Weekly has said of the book, “Sibley’s acute psychological observations are interwoven not only with vivid details but historical and cultural contexts of the ancient Shikoku pilgrimage. Throughout his journey, Sibley asks himself—and the travelers he meets—why walking the path is important. While he finds no one answer, this accomplished narrative demonstrates that the impulse to seek inner change through a physical journey, if mysterious, is enduring.” Following is an excerpt from The Way of the 88 Temples.

Famine Foods Workshopping

Posted on by Jason Coleman

American in Paris Jeffrey Greene recently contributed a piece to our blog about his pursuit of an elusive oyster known as the pied de cheval. In this latest piece, Greene—who is currently at work on a book about wild edibles—travels to the Polish Carpathians to learn the finer points of foraging. Jeff writes, “The first time I learned of Lukasz Luczaj was in a message sent from a log cabin in the Polish Carpathians.  At the time, I was writing The Golden-Bristled Boar: Last Ferocious Beast of the Forest, a book about the astonishing world of wild boars, highly intelligent and elusive animals that have played a significant role in human civilization.  A friend had written, ‘I am sitting on the porch with a bunch of people drinking beer, dusk falling, and we’ve been talking about two fires on the far hill that we’ve seen burning almost every night.  Lukasz just told us that one of the village drunks—a woman who meets her lovers in the woods—is burning tires because someone pays her to sleep up there and keep the wild boars out of the potato field.’”

Founders Online Launches

Posted on by Jason Coleman

The University of Virginia Press announces this week the launch of Founders Online, a website offering free access to the papers of six of the most important figures from America’s founding era. The site, developed by the Press’s electronic imprint, Rotunda, will be officially launched at a ceremony at the National Archives in Washington, D.C. on June 13. University of Virginia President Teresa A. Sullivan will offer remarks on this unique collaboration between the Archives and the University. This new resource will provide free public access to nearly 120,000 documents from the papers of George Washington, John Adams (and family), Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and Benjamin Franklin.

Jamestown: The “Starving Time”

Posted on by Jason Coleman

Archaeologists have called her “Jane.”

She was only fourteen years old when she died at James Fort, part of the Jamestown settlement, during the winter of 1609-10. That winter has been called the “starving time” because of its particular brutality. The settlers dared not stray far from the fort, for fear of being preyed on by the Powhatans, and so they had been driven to eat rats and snakes in order to survive. Until now, the possibility that human flesh was also devoured had been just speculation. Recent excavation at the former site of Jamestown, however, confirms that during the “starving time” the fort’s inhabitants did indeed resort to cannibalism.