A news article by Michelle Unterbrink

Yesterday, November 27, a crowd of hundreds filled Old Cabell Hall’s auditorium to hear a lecture titled “Time Management” by former UVA professor Randy Pausch. When the auditorium’s 850 seats were filled, approximately 50 additional people were allowed inside to stand and view the lecture. Many more had to be turned away.

The turnout for Pausch’s lecture was impressive, but not surprising. After he was diagnosed with terminal cancer, Pausch delivered a lecture at Carnegie Mellon University in September 2007 titled “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams.” The lecture has been viewed over a million times, and Pausch has signed a deal with Hyperion to co-author a book based on the lecture, which will be called “The Last Lecture.”

Much like Pausch’s CMU lecture, yesterday’s lecture was insightful, practical, and humorous. Within the first minutes of the lecture, Pausch proclaimed, “time is the only commodity that matters.” Pausch then described goal setting and planning, technologies and tricks to help organize tasks and workspace, and ways to avoid wasting others’ time–while also preventing them from wasting yours. The lecture concluded with a list of “Action Items” for the audience.

The slides from an earlier version of Pausch’s lecture are available here, and the audio/visual will be available from UVA’s School of Engineering.

A news article by Michelle Unterbrink

A change in UVa policy is creating problems for Charlottesville’s Voter Registrar. The Daily Progress reports that Registrar Sheri Iachetta has been unable to secure election officials for November 6, because a new UVa policy requires employees who staff the polls to either forfeit their 16-hour paycheck for the day or use vacation leave.

A post on the Staff Union at UVA’s website claims that a request for the Attorney General’s ruling on the matter was filed October 22, and describes the situation:

“Anyone working the polls on Election Day is paid by the state and by their employer, but… UVa employees manning the polls on November 6th are being asked to reimburse the university for their missed day of work… everyone locally gets paid for helping with elections, except those employed by UVa.”

Under a 2005 law, the state cannot force employees who work at the polls to use sick or vacation time. UVa’s VP or Human Resources, Susan Carkeek, argues that the UVa policy is not in violation of the law, since employees are not required to use either vacation time or sick leave. Under the new policy, employees may either keep their UVa pay by using paid vacation or civil leave and forfeiting the pay for poll work, or use a day or paid vacation and accept the pay for poll work.

According to Iachetta, seven UVa employees worked city polls last November, but none chose to work this year.

Daily Progress Article
SUUVA Website

A news article by Trevor Dobson and Michelle Unterbrink

On October 5^th, 2007, Nobel laureate Dr. Robert Solow presented preliminary findings from his recent research on low wage work in the United States and parts of Europe as part of the Jefferson Society’s Fall Speaker Series. Dr. Solow’s research seeks to explain the differences in wage equity in industrialized, wealthy countries. Dr. Solow’s research draws on data from six countries, collected by the Russel Sage Foundation. The countries chosen were Denmark, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and the United States. For the purposes of the study, low-wage workers were defined as people who earn less than 2/3 of the median wage for their country. Solow emphasized that this measure of low-wage work is necessarily a relative measure. American economists generally measure wage levels in absolute terms, usually by comparing household income to a federally mandated poverty line.

Solow noted the high incidence of low-wage work in the United States, and the variation in treatment low-wage workers face. The study compared five jobs present in each of the countries: hotel cleaning staff, nurses’ assistant and hospital cleaning staff, supermarket and retail clerks, workers in food processing, and call-center operators. Solow described several major observations from the study.

Solow’s first observation conflicted with the traditional economic view that workers’ low wages reflect low individual productivity, which is caused by a lack of education and job-specific training. Solow found that unproductivity in many low wage jobs reflects the unskilled nature of the job itself, rather than the uneducated nature of the laborer. This suggests that the conventional solution to poverty, increased funding for education and training of workers, may not be effective, given that certain tasks like bed-making and janitorial work aren’t performed more efficiently by educated workers than by uneducated workers. Solow suggested that changes to institution and labor technology would be more efficient than educating low-wage, low-skill workers. He also noted that a certain amount of unskilled labor would always be necessary in any economy, and suggested that the best way of providing this labor would be for students to work while pursuing their educations.

Solow also noted that there is a great deal of variation in the amount of low-wage work. In the United States, about 25% of workers classified as low wage. The United Kingdom also had a large percentage of low-wage workers (22%), while countries like France (12.5%) and Denmark (8.5%) were noteably lower. Solow mentioned that increases in intensity of competition usually implied increases in low-wage work.

Solow’s third observation was that wage mobility varied among nations. In Denmark, nearly 100% of low-wage workers leave low-wage work within 5 years. 90% leave in France, 80% leave in Germany, and about 60% leave in the United States and United Kingdom. In Denmark, the average length of employment in low-wage work is 1.8 years, while in the United States it is 4.1 years.

Solow’s final observation was that types of education available to laborers affect the amount of low-wage work. France, the United Kingdom, and the United States have the highest levels of university education, but also have higher percentages of low-wage workers than the Netherlands, Germany, and Denmark, which have more students attending vocational schools and fewer attending universities.

UPDATE: A podcast of Dr. Solow’s lecture is available here, via the Jefferson Society.

A News Article by Michelle Unterbrink

On October 1, 2007, the Honor Committee released a report summarizing work performed by its executive officers and committees since the start of its term in spring of 2007.

According to the document, 14 cases and six conscientious retractions have been filed with the Honor Committee since the beginning of the term.

Two trials have been conducted and the students involved in both trials have been found guilty of Honor offenses. Another two students have left the University admitting guilt, or “LAG’d”. The Committee granted a single claim of a “contributory mental disorder”.

Additionally, the report details the work done by the Committee’s five executive officers, the Faculty Advising Committee, the Procedures Ad Hoc Committee, the Technology Ad Hoc Committee, the UVA 101 Committee, and the Diversity Advisory Board.

The Diversity Advisory Board (DAB), chaired by Jon Overdevest and Kat Custudio, released an additional report on its efforts to engage newly arrived international students in small group discussions. According to the report:

Although the small group orientation sessions were held outside of the typical ‘orientation week’ of events, 77% of those in attendance agreed the information provided made the session a very worthwhile experience. Moreover, 56% expressed their willingness to participate in follow-up sessions that would explore issues related to Honor which they found particularly relevant. This enthusiasm translated into an expanded understanding of the Honor System, as students exiting the sessions felt more knowledgeable in the function and functioning of Honor within the UVa community.

October 1 Honor Committee Report
DAB Supplemental Report
Further information regarding the Honor Committee