Podcast for March 14, 2025: Multiple stories from the University of Virginia’s Board of Visitors meeting

Perhaps there is something irrational about one person attempting to write as many stories as possible about a meeting of a public institution’s governing body. But that is the basic frame of this Pi Day edition of the Charlottesville Community Engagement podcast. I’m Sean Tubbs, and this week I’ve put a premium on going through several hours of the University of Virginia’s Board of Visitors meeting to hear one specific incident. I didn’t get there yet, but what follows is the perhaps most thorough town coverage of gown goings-on.

In this edition:

• UVA continues to meet fundraising goals (learn more)

• Ellis continues to vote against any capital spending at UVA (learn more)

• University of Virginia planning to phase out coal plant (learn more)

• The chair of the Buildings and Grounds Committee continues to express concern about scope of proposed Center for the Arts (learn more)

• UVA projects increase in graduate student enrollment through 2031 while undergraduate population will remain flat (learn more)

• UVA Finance Committee endorses transfer of Virginia Guesthouse, expansion of mail pharmacy (learn more)

• UVA Finance Committee briefed on need for data center (learn more)

• Funding to construct UVA Center for the Arts included in General Assembly’s version of the budget (learn more)

A picture used earlier in the week and placed here to have a picture in this post!

First shout-out: Celebrating the community’s other information organizations!

There are a lot of stories each week that go out through this newsletter, but no one information outlet can put together the entire picture. That’s why each regular edition ends with a section called Reading Material.

Charlottesville is fortunate to have a media landscape that includes the Charlottesville Daily Progress, C-Ville Weekly, Charlottesville Tomorrow, and Cville Right Now, I curate links from these sources because I believe a truly informed community needs multiple perspectives.

There’s also the Cavalier Daily, Vinegar Hill Magazine, the Fluvanna Review, the Crozet Gazette, NBC29, CBS19, and other sources. But if you look every day, you’ll find links to articles in national publications, all linked to give you more perspectives on some of the issues of our times.

Now more than ever, journalism is needed. To be a citizen of a democracy, you must seek information from multiple sources. Consume only one and you are at risk of becoming a zombie!

Second shout-out: Advertise on Information Charlottesville

Long-time readers may know that most of the stories posted through this newsletter are also posted to Information Charlottesville. Sometimes the stories go there first! Both this newsletter and that website are part of the same information gathering operation, an operation I hope to continue to grow!

There are multiple ways to contribute to Town Crier Productions.

One new one is to place an advertisement on Information Charlottesville. I’m in the early days of experimenting with visual ways for organizations to get their message across to a growing audience. I’ve not yet put together a media kit, but I’m ready to offer a special for March. What’s the special? More details in the audio version of the podcasts.

Advertising on Information Charlottesville could be a great way to keep my business going while also growing yours. I think there are new ways to do advertising, but I don’t know what they are until I’m allowed to continue testing.

An example of the kind of advertisement a neophyte would make. But introductory specials are in place! Listen to the podcast to the dollar amount!