Up today in the Senate Education & Health Committee, starting at 8:30 a.m.:
HB1: This bill makes certain student directory information confidential. The current version of the bill is much narrower than the original version, and it now deals with this type of information within the context of Title 22.1 (the Education Code) instead of within FOIA. It still does not answer the question of why students over the age of 18 in colleges should have more right to keep contact information confidential than any other person over 18 in the Commonwealth.
HB1473: This bill prohibits public universities from approving an increase in undergraduate tuition or mandatory fees without providing students, certain parents, and the public notice of and an opportunity to provide public comment at a board meeting in advance of any vote on such an increase.
You can watch the committee hear this and other bills by clicking “Education and Health (SR A) from the Upcoming Events menu on this page.
UVA’S Student Council passed a bill Tuesday to require its representatives to host office hours once a week. Sponsored by first-year College student Avery Gagne and third-year College student Chi Chan, the bill was previously discussed during Student Council’s general body meeting Feb. 6. However, it was tabled due to concerns about implementation and enforcement in graduate schools. The bill requires each representative to hold at least one office hour per week. Representatives are not required to hold their office hours at the same time and location each week, though consistent scheduling is recommended by the general body.
Cavalier Daily
Arlington County has denied a Freedom of Information Act request to release the 911 call made after the hit-and-run accident that Bijan Ghaisar was involved in prior to the police chase that ended with Park Police shooting him on Fort Hunt Road. Ghaisar, 25, died 10 days after being shot. The 911 call was made around 7:27 p.m. Nov. 17 after a vehicle rear-ended Ghaisar’s Jeep Grand Cherokee on the George Washington Memorial Parkway in the city of Alexandria. Ghaisar, an accountant who lived in McLean and graduated from Langley High School, left the scene of the accident for reasons unknown. He was later spotted by Park Police further south on the Parkway, and a chase began that ultimately ended with Ghaisar being shot and critically wounded in Fairfax County. Although the initial accident was in Alexandria, the 911 call was routed through Arlington’s communications center.
Covering the Corridor
In an examination of how the principles of civility and freedom of speech could build a brighter future in communities, the executive director of the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center said Wednesday that she is reluctant to endorse traditional ideas about civility as a guiding principle for public discourse. “The word ‘civility’ has a qualitative nature to it,” Andrea Douglas said. “… It’s a behavioral term. It is related to the politics of the body. It is about the things that people do and how they comport themselves. Consequently, it has implications for power and control when it is used.” Douglas was the keynote speaker at the Public Education Foundation of Charlottesville-Albemarle’s annual luncheon and student expo at the Boar’s Head Resort.
Charlottesville Tomorrow
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“Brown cannot end-run the First Amendment by creating a system in which hypothetical doubt regarding whether litigants comply with rules about redaction allow her to exclude the public from access to judicial proceedings until she is good and ready to provide it.”
“We want to make it easier for you to access information and draw your own conclusions.”