Attention was drawn to Virginia this week with the execution of John Allen Muhammad, the state’s 104th person to be executed since the U.S. Supreme Court allowed capital punishment to resume in 1976. Officials are preparing for another execution next week, but little noticed amid the recent activity in the state’s death chamber is that there has not been a death verdict from a jury in the state since March 2008.

National universities—262 American universities [164 public and 98 private] that offer a wide range of undergraduate majors as well as master’s and doctoral degrees; some emphasize research.
  Liberal-arts colleges—266 schools that emphasize undergraduate education and award at least half of their degrees in the arts and sciences; most are private, but 28 are public.

Some students returning to college campuses during the next couple of weeks will bring the H1N1 flu virus with them. But that’s about all that health officials can say for certain as they brace for the next wave of the pandemic this fall. “Clearly, there are more questions than answers,“ Mark Levine, deputy commissioner for the Virginia Department of Health, told college administrators attending the Governor’s Campus Preparedness Conference yesterday.

College students and their younger counterparts will get a refresher course on the rules of hygiene when they return to class: Cover your cough, wash your hands and don’t share cups. Such practices are key to minimizing the spread of the flu, speakers at the Governor’s Campus Preparedness Conference said yesterday. Local schoolchildren will be getting the same advice, spokesmen for school systems said. Beyond that, the schools will follow the guidance of local health districts in determining what steps to follow during an outbreak.

Emily Wallace will be dancing off the wall at Washington and Lee University tomorrow, but it’s no college prank. The 22-year-old senior from Roanoke is one of 12 students who will do leaps, spins and flips off the side of a 40-foot building as the culmination of their aerial dance class. Their performances, at 3:30 p.m. tomorrow and Saturday on the exterior of Wilson Hall on the Lexington campus, will demonstrate “a completely new form of dance,“ said Wallace, an art history major with a dance background.

To reduce the spread of a new swine-flu virus at Washington and Lee University, sick students were isolated, meals were delivered to them and the campus doctor made house calls. “Like most schools, we have in place an emergency-management team and what we call a pandemic-flu plan,“ said Dawn Watkins, Washington and Lee’s vice president for student affairs and dean of students. “One of the things that has been interesting about this experience is it’s allowed us to test certain aspects of that.“

Virginia Health Department officials confirmed yesterday that one student at Washington and Lee University has H1N1 flu, or swine flu. Dr. Karen Remley, Virginia’s health commissioner, said Friday that there were two probable cases, both involving students, at the Lexington campus. Health officials have not received confirmation on the second case.

Values eroding, Thomas says ‘Little emphasis’ on sacrifice, self-denial, justice says at W&L Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas told a crowd at Washington and Lee University yesterday that today’s Americans seem little disposed to sacrifice during hard times—even if the government asked them to do it. “These days, there seems to be little emphasis on responsibility, sacrifice and self-denial,“ Thomas told about 300 people gathered in the Lee Chapel on campus.

Fire forces evacuation of W&L fraternity house A lit cigarette may have caused a pre-dawn fire yesterday that forced the evacuation of all 15 residents of a Washington and Lee University fraternity house and caused about $200,000 in damage to the structure. One resident was treated for smoke inhalation and released from Stonewall Jackson Memorial Hospital in Lexington.

University of Richmond School of Law students won the national finals of the American Bar Association’s Student Trial Advocacy Competition. They defeated teams from 69 other law schools at the event last month in Chicago. Students were judged on their advocacy skills and courtroom presence at each stage of the trial. Teams consisted of four students each, two serving as lawyers and two acting as witnesses. The Richmond law team won seven preliminary trials to advance to the finals, judged by U.S. District Court Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer.