UVA's Bicentennial Stories initiative from WTJU 91.1 FM tells our collective story. It helps us understand our shared history and make meaning in the University today. And as we look ahead, these stories help us shape the future of the University and our role in a democratic society.

Elizabeth Wittner, Academic Director of the Center for American English Language and Culture, and International Teaching Assistant Program Coordinator

“We have a large volunteer program called VISAS. That program started off as the ITAs were giving their five-minute lesson to prepare for teaching in an actual classroom, and so I got some undergraduates to come and serve as audience and give feedback.

“And they loved it so much, they would stay after class and they’d make plans together and they wanted more time, and it was so great. And it just seemed sort of like a no-brainer to begin adding more undergraduate students. I think last semester was over 260 students.

“I love that program and I could talk forever about that.”

For more: www.uvastories.org

UVA's Bicentennial Stories initiative from WTJU 91.1 FM tells our collective story. It helps us understand our shared history and make meaning in the University today. And as we look ahead, these stories help us shape the future of the University and our role in a democratic society.

Elizabeth Wittner, Academic Director of the Center for American English Language and Culture, and International Teaching Assistant Program Coordinator

“We have a large volunteer program called VISAS. That program started off as the ITAs were giving their five-minute lesson to prepare for teaching in an actual classroom, and so I got some undergraduates to come and serve as audience and give feedback.

“And they loved it so much, they would stay after class and they’d make plans together and they wanted more time, and it was so great. And it just seemed sort of like a no-brainer to begin adding more undergraduate students. I think last semester was over 260 students.

“I love that program and I could talk forever about that.”

For more: www.uvastories.org

UVA's Bicentennial Stories initiative from WTJU 91.1 FM tells our collective story. It helps us understand our shared history and make meaning in the University today. And as we look ahead, these stories help us shape the future of the University and our role in a democratic society.

Deborah McDowell, Alice Griffin Professor of English and Director of the Carter G. Woodson Institute for African-American and African Studies

“I would feel more comfortable saying we are moving the needle. Because we are in a transitional moment, and I’m not just being diplomatic.

“The proof will be in the pudding. Because if I could say at this moment, in my thirty-one years, that we had a person of color in the upper-administration, that people of color were represented in the various schools as department chairs. We have whole departments in this university that have never hired a black person. Never. We are in the process of moving the needle.”

For more: www.uvastories.org

UVA's Bicentennial Stories initiative from WTJU 91.1 FM tells our collective story. It helps us understand our shared history and make meaning in the University today. And as we look ahead, these stories help us shape the future of the University and our role in a democratic society.

Deborah McDowell, Alice Griffin Professor of English and Director of the Carter G. Woodson Institute for African-American and African Studies

“I would feel more comfortable saying we are moving the needle. Because we are in a transitional moment, and I’m not just being diplomatic.

“The proof will be in the pudding. Because if I could say at this moment, in my thirty-one years, that we had a person of color in the upper-administration, that people of color were represented in the various schools as department chairs. We have whole departments in this university that have never hired a black person. Never. We are in the process of moving the needle.”

For more: www.uvastories.org

UVA's Bicentennial Stories initiative from WTJU 91.1 FM tells our collective story. It helps us understand our shared history and make meaning in the University today. And as we look ahead, these stories help us shape the future of the University and our role in a democratic society.

Deborah McDowel, Alice Griffin Professor of English and Director of the Carter G. Woodson Institute for African-American and African Studies

“So when you ask me what kind of entity is the Carter Woodson Institute, it is the kind that universities have great difficulty with.

“Because these are the units, they do not exist to reproduce the institution as it is. They exist to pose a challenge to those aspects of the institution that need changing, that need addressing. They sit athwart the prerogatives of the institutions in which they exist.”

For more: www.uvastories.org

UVA's Bicentennial Stories initiative from WTJU 91.1 FM tells our collective story. It helps us understand our shared history and make meaning in the University today. And as we look ahead, these stories help us shape the future of the University and our role in a democratic society.

Deborah McDowel, Alice Griffin Professor of English and Director of the Carter G. Woodson Institute for African-American and African Studies

“So when you ask me what kind of entity is the Carter Woodson Institute, it is the kind that universities have great difficulty with.

“Because these are the units, they do not exist to reproduce the institution as it is. They exist to pose a challenge to those aspects of the institution that need changing, that need addressing. They sit athwart the prerogatives of the institutions in which they exist.”

For more: www.uvastories.org

UVA's Bicentennial Stories initiative from WTJU 91.1 FM tells our collective story. It helps us understand our shared history and make meaning in the University today. And as we look ahead, these stories help us shape the future of the University and our role in a democratic society.

Charlotte Patterson, Psychology Professor and Chair of the Department of Women, Gender and Sexuality

“So it was a closeted gay community to be sure, when I arrived at UVa.

“I think my current favorite, the one that I'm teaching most often now, is the Psychology of Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity. It's a course I began here at UVa, I think it was in 1995.

“It couldn't be called the Psychology of Lesbian and Gay Experience or anything like that at the time because a lot of the students who wanted to take it told me that their parents wouldn't allow them to take a course like that. And I thought that was crazy.

“We renamed the course Human Development and Sexuality so that no one could figure out what it was when it appeared on their transcripts.”

For more: www.uvastories.org

UVA's Bicentennial Stories initiative from WTJU 91.1 FM tells our collective story. It helps us understand our shared history and make meaning in the University today. And as we look ahead, these stories help us shape the future of the University and our role in a democratic society.

Charlotte Patterson, Psychology Professor and Chair of the Department of Women, Gender and Sexuality

“So it was a closeted gay community to be sure, when I arrived at UVa.

“I think my current favorite, the one that I'm teaching most often now, is the Psychology of Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity. It's a course I began here at UVa, I think it was in 1995.

“It couldn't be called the Psychology of Lesbian and Gay Experience or anything like that at the time because a lot of the students who wanted to take it told me that their parents wouldn't allow them to take a course like that. And I thought that was crazy.

“We renamed the course Human Development and Sexuality so that no one could figure out what it was when it appeared on their transcripts.”

For more: www.uvastories.org

UVA's Bicentennial Stories initiative from WTJU 91.1 FM tells our collective story. It helps us understand our shared history and make meaning in the University today. And as we look ahead, these stories help us shape the future of the University and our role in a democratic society.

Charlotte Patterson, Psychology Professor and Chair of the Department of Women, Gender and Sexuality

“There was a gentleman here by the name of Bernard Mayes who was on the faculty. Bernard and I were invited to go around to dorms and talk about gay life and answer questions. This was long before there was an LGBT resource center.

“So Bernard was every inch the British gentleman that he had grown up being. And he would arrive in his perfect tweed jacket and he'd have his necktie tied perfectly, and I would come schlumping on in whatever I was wearing, and we would egg each other on.

“And he would say, ‘My first husband was a drag queen.’ The students’ eyes would be as large as saucers. They would never imagine that a gentleman who looked like Bernard could possibly have had a husband, never mind a husband who was a drag queen. And we would be off and running.”

For more: www.uvastories.org

UVA's Bicentennial Stories initiative from WTJU 91.1 FM tells our collective story. It helps us understand our shared history and make meaning in the University today. And as we look ahead, these stories help us shape the future of the University and our role in a democratic society.

Charlotte Patterson, Psychology Professor and Chair of the Department of Women, Gender and Sexuality

“There was a gentleman here by the name of Bernard Mayes who was on the faculty. Bernard and I were invited to go around to dorms and talk about gay life and answer questions. This was long before there was an LGBT resource center.

“So Bernard was every inch the British gentleman that he had grown up being. And he would arrive in his perfect tweed jacket and he'd have his necktie tied perfectly, and I would come schlumping on in whatever I was wearing, and we would egg each other on.

“And he would say, ‘My first husband was a drag queen.’ The students’ eyes would be as large as saucers. They would never imagine that a gentleman who looked like Bernard could possibly have had a husband, never mind a husband who was a drag queen. And we would be off and running.”

For more: www.uvastories.org