Letter to Parents of Incoming Students
August 2003
"As the summer wanes, we look forward to the arrival of our new students and to their first ventures as members of a new community. We look forward also to welcoming you as members of our extended family. If you attended orientation this summer, I hope you already feel at home here." Full text.
Letter to Alumni and Friends of the University
June 2003
"This spring has been wet here in Charlottesville. As though making up for the droughts of the last three or four years, the rain came early, and it has stayed with us. Frogs, gardeners, and people who like English weather have been happy here this spring. Everyone else has been wet." Full text.
President's Page
Alumni News Summer 2003
"In my spring travel to visit alumni clubs, I have heard a good bit of advice about issues here in Charlottesville, including the report of racial intimidation in connection with the spring elections for student council offices. Alumni News is covering these events in a separate article in this issue." Full text.
John T. Casteen III
State of the University Address
April 10, 2003
"Let me welcome you to this 2003 State of the University Address.... the report is really directed to students, to alumni, to faculty, to staff, to the community, to the State, to anyone who takes a real interest in the University." Full text.
State of the University Video Stream (RealOne Player)
For instructions on how to download the free version of RealOne click here.
President’s Page
Alumni News Spring 2003
"In September 1962, in the line outside the old housing office in Page House, one of my friends from my first year said that he was sleeping in the sand traps at Farmington while hunting for a room for the year. The following year, two of my friends, sharing a basement on Valley Road, joked about not having wall-to-wall floors. Their landlord had cured his basement flooding by raising the floor but leaving narrow ditches or troughs all the way around. When it rained, they stood on their island and watched the torrent flow around the room, then out through a Rube Goldberg arrangement of pipes and grates and tunnels." Full text.
President Casteen's Letter to All Students, Including an Update on University Responses and Upcoming Events
March 9, 2003
"Just before Spring Break, an assault on a candidate for Student Council president was reported. This crime included a racial element that has led to a joint FBI/U.Va. Police inquiry under the federal law prohibiting hate crimes. This investigation is continuing." Full text.
Statement Concerning the Attack on Daisy Lundy
February 2003
"An incident reported last night involving one of our students has left many, African American students in particular, feeling vulnerable and afraid." Full text.
What's at Stake for UVa?
Black Issues in Higher Education
January 16, 2003
"The following Q&A session with the University of Virginia's president, Dr. John T. Casteen, follows news reports that the venerable state school, which appeared to have forged a bright multicultural future from its troubled racial past, has been stung in a national string of "blackface" incidents." Full text.
Statement from President Casteen Concerning Continental Tire Bowl
January 2, 2003
"On Saturday, Dec. 28, our football team and West Virginia University’s met in one of the year’s most successful bowl games, the Continental Tire Bowl in Charlotte, NC. This event was an unqualified success. Both teams and those who attended the game enjoyed remarkable support from the City of Charlotte and from bowl officials and sponsors." Full text.
President's Page
Alumni News Winter 2003
"As you drive south on Emmet Street, past the shops at Barracks Road, a couple of banks and the fast-food places, only a sign or two and (when the leaves have fallen) the distant dome of U-Hall suggest that the University is in the neighborhood. This is about to change." Full text.