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The Third Rail

An Online Publication of the Virginia Policy Review

AccessUVA: One year later

9/24/2014

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by Katharine Meyer

When President Sullivan announced changes to the AccessUVA financial aid program approved by the Board of Visitors last August, reactions ranged from acceptance of the changes as inevitable and cries for immediate reversion to the original policy. Essentially, AccessUVA was doing too good a job – by implementing an all-grant aid package, the University saw large increases in low-income applications and enrollments. Coupled with a downturn in the economy which saw many individuals’ income statuses change, the program was viewed as unsustainable, and UVA adapted the landmark program to include loans.

Restore AccessUVA, a student group formed in protest to the changes, worked throughout the year to raise awareness about the AccessUVA changes, advocating for the exclusions of loans for the lowest-income students at UVA. This past spring, the group touted a generous donation to AccessUVA from McIntire School of Commerce alum and current UVA Board of Visitors member John Griffin as a sign of success. Their sense of accomplishment is fully warranted – without their efforts writing op-eds and contacting elected representatives, it’s hard to say whether or not Griffin would have been moved to dedicate his funds to financial aid.


“The University of Virginia is proud of its commitment to ensure access for excellent students without consideration of their financial backgrounds, and of our commitment to meet 100 percent of demonstrated need for undergraduates.” 
President Teresa Sullivan, February 2014  




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Richmond circuit court strikes down marriage ban

9/9/2014

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by Grady Brown

At the end of July, Virginia became the latest state to allow gay couples to marry. In a 2-1 decision, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court’s decision to strike down Virginia’s voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage, incorporated into the State’s constitution in 2006. The U.S. Supreme Court stayed the ruling, pending review, in August.



In Virginia, support for gay marriage echoes the national landscape, where a record-high 59 percent of Americans support gay marriage, according to a poll by the Washington Post and ABC News. While the ban on same-sex marriage was supported by 57 percent of Virginians, last March, a Quinnipiac poll found that support for gay marriage among Virginians had jumped to 50 percent. This support is bolstered by young Virginians. 70 percent of voters under the age of 30 support same-sex marriage. A University of Virginia survey found that support for same-sex marriage in Charlottesville is also high. According to the survey, 68 percent of local voters support same-sex marriage legalization. According to the Williams Institute at UCLA, Virginia had an estimated 14,243 same-sex couples in 2010, while Charlottesville had 142 with 14 percent raising their own children.

This victory for same-sex supporters was short-lived. The US Supreme Court answered the petition of a Prince William County’s Circuit Court clerk and ordered a stay on the Fourth Circuit’s decision. This follows a trend across the country, where states have turned to the High Court to petition judicial decisions of lower federal courts. Last December, the Supreme Court stayed the decision of a lower court in Utah that overturned a constitutional same-sex marriage ban. Similar decisions across the country have halted the legalization of same-sex marriage in states for the time being.


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