Within the next three to five years, Charlottesville’s climate action team hopes to create neighborhoods that are bikeable, walkable, and served by public transportation. File photo.
In a virtual meeting last week, the Metropolitan Planning Organization’s Citizens Transportation Advisory Committee discussed how Charlottesville and Albemarle County are working to drastically slash their carbon emissions, particularly in the context of transportation.
Susan Elliott, Charlottesville’s climate protection program manager, explained that 95 percent of the city’s emissions come from the community. Residential, commercial, and transportation each make up 30 percent, while 5 percent stems from waste. The remaining 5 percent comes from municipal operations.
The city has already begun to see progress in its fight against climate change—its emissions in 2019 were 30 percent less than 2011 levels. Still, within the next three to five years, the city’s climate action team plans to implement key mitigation strategies, including creating neighborhoods that are walkable, bikeable, and served by public transit. The team also wants to increase the use of green transportation—including e-bikes, scooters, and electric vehicles—among residents, and develop a network of electric vehicle charging stations across the community, among other big goals.
Elliott urged the city’s urban designers to prioritize travel conservation, and design more spaces that allow people to travel to important destinations within a five-minute walk radius.
Gabe Dayley, Albemarle’s climate protection program manager, provided a similar overview of the county’s status on climate action. In a 2018 report, the county’s emissions were about 10 percent less than its 2008 levels. Thirty-nine percent of the county’s emissions come from buildings, while 52 percent stem from transportation—a much larger share than the city due to the county’s larger size.
According to a 2015 to 2019 report on work commutes, only around 16 percent of county residents take a bus, carpool, walk, bike, or use another environmentally-friendly form of transportation—the majority drive alone to get to work.
The county is considering reducing the amount of space allocated to on-street parking, and shifting it over to accommodate public transit, walking, and biking. However, “with a large rural area, it’s unlikely that we would ever have a transit service that could serve all areas of the county, so we may need to rely more on the transition to personal electric vehicles than the city might have to,” Dayley said. Over the past few years, there has been a growth in the usage of electric vehicle charging infrastructure across the county.
Though Albemarle does not have its own transit service, both city and county leadership want Charlottesville Area Transit to work toward electrifying its fleet—the University of Virginia, which has its own lofty climate goals, has already purchased four electric buses. The county is also looking into transitioning to electric school buses.
Following the presentations, members of the committee raised questions regarding the feasibility of increasing public transit, walkability, and bikeability in areas where driving seems to be the most accessible option. Dayley and Elliott explained that the city and county’s focus is on maximizing greener transportation options—but one trip does not have to be limited to a single mode of transportation.
“It’s not just the walkability, it’s not just the bikeability, it’s not just the transit access,” said Elliott. “It’s how those pieces intersect together.”
The flexibility of getting an online UVA education has proven to be an attractive option for many nontraditional students who want to complete their degrees. File photo.
By Eshaan Sarup
Ten years ago, a raging debate over the future of online courses led to the resignation—and reinstatement—of former University of Virginia president Teresa Sullivan. Now, after two years of pandemic-prompted virtual classes at UVA and schools across the country, online learning seems to be here to stay. However, the question of how an online education compares to in-person classes is still hard to answer.
Enrollment rates at UVA suggest demand for online education is high. The UVA School of Continuing and Professional Studies, which offers a slate of degree completion programs and certificates tailored to older students looking to change careers or continue their education while still working, claims record-breaking enrollment in its online-only Bachelor of Interdisciplinary Studies Program.
“I really appreciated everyone’s understanding when my son was on my lap during class, or if we could get up and get something to eat,” says Carla Hallman, who graduates from the BIS program this semester and was able to complete her degree while working full time and raising her son.
Bladen Finch, who recently completed UVA’s Certificate in Public Administration Program, also needed his classes to fit around his schedule as a full-time employee for the state government.
“There’s a lot of uncertainty with my job schedule,” he says, “and so having something that afforded more flexibility with the uncertainties, constantly changing work schedules, I mean, what could be more appealing?”
On its website, the UVA School of Continuing and Professional Studies points out that the university as a whole was ranked as the No. 1 best value public university by the Princeton Review in 2018—but it doesn’t specify accolades for the online education offerings alone. The SCPS homepage beckons potential students to “let UVA come to them” and “join the UVA family.” The FAQ section of the website says that “graduates of [UVA SCPS degree programs] are entitled to the same privileges and opportunities available to all students who have earned degrees from the University of Virginia.” An article under the news section of the website claims “employers may not realize you graduated from an online program unless you choose to bring it up in an interview.”
But when asked if an online degree through UVA SCPS holds the same value as a traditional in-person UVA degree, Alex Hernandez, the dean of SCPS, declines to answer directly, and instead reframes the issue.
“People go to different programs for different reasons. And so each program has its own population. And the program has its own outcomes, and it has its own objectives,” Hernandez says.
He argues that pitting online vs. in-person learning isn’t a useful comparison and notes that only 30 percent of the adult population in this country has a bachelor’s degree.
“And so if we’re going to meaningfully expand the number of people who are educated, it’s not because we’re going to keep opening traditional programs. We have lots of traditional programs across the country,” he says. “It’s because we’re gonna find new ways to innovate, to create high-quality programs that meet people where they are. And when people have successfully done that, you know, we’ve seen a lot more students get educated.”
SCPS’ objective—to increase access to a quality education and “meet people where they are”—appeals to many of the students and faculty that C-VILLE interviewed.
Charlotte Matthews, who teaches writing to BIS students, offers high praise.
“I just feel like this program is a real gem in a world where sometimes life happens and people don’t march to the exact same drum,” she says, describing SCPS students as “highly motivated students who are getting a second chance. They’re taking classes and they’re working full time.”
Hallman says she would “highly recommend” the BIS program to all nontraditional students looking to complete their degree.
“UVA SCPS has been a highlight through these last two years,” she says. “From day one, I felt everyone at SCPS was invested in my success.”
Despite positive faculty and student testimonies, there is little hard data to support the program’s success. While UVA SCPS boasts three different degree programs and 12 different certifications, the official Destination Report for 2020 only has data for two degree programs—the interdisciplinary BA and the health care management BA. Moreover, only nine BIS graduates reported their salaries.
Asked about that lack of data, Hernandez notes that a lot of information tracked by the Department of Education is for full-time students only. He says UVA, like many other universities, does not participate in gainful employment reporting although he believes that would be helpful.
“You can imagine a world where higher education institutions come together and do more research on career outcomes and employment data,” he says. “That would actually create a lot of opportunity to measure the effectiveness of professional programs across the country.”
Hernandez, who also serves as UVA’s vice provost for online learning , says that online education should be considered on a case-by-case basis. “We know [all other programs at UVA] can be offered fully online, I think the question is…for each one of our schools…what’s their vision for their programs that they’re trying to accomplish academically? Who are they trying to serve?”
Hernandez cites the example of the new UVA Nova initiative, which caters to the working adult population.
“It’s not going to be 23,000 students in Northern Virginia, going to school full time, in-person format,” he says. “And so I think that’s going to be a really great way for us to figure out…how do we run our great programs in different ways for different student populations that change lives. At the end of day, that’s what we’re trying to do.”
Ukranian refugee Hanna, center, and her young son were reunited with her mother in Prague after nine weeks’ separation. Photo courtesy Kimberly Bianchini.
Refuge for refugees
Twelve years after moving from Charlottesville to Prague, Kim Bianchini had built a real estate business with her husband when war in Ukraine broke out and refugees began flowing through Poland and into the Czech Republic.
“The families that were arriving were having a very hard time signing leases and finding places to stay for several reasons,” Bianchini says. “One being that landlords were very skeptical to rent to them because they weren’t sure how long families would stay.”
With her husband, Bianchini, who formerly owned the Petit Bebe boutique on the Downtown Mall, was able to place several mothers and children from Ukraine in vacant apartments they owned, but the need for additional housing grew more urgent as a growing number of refugees arrived in Prague.
“This is when I decided to form a nonprofit organization and reach out to the community and try to find properties for these families,” says Bianchini.
The organization she founded, Amity, has nonprofit status in the Czech Republic. Bianchini is working on acquiring 501(c)(3) status in the U.S. She has already secured 21 furnished apartments and has placed 75 women and children—but with an estimated 300,000 Ukrainian refugees already in the Czech Republic, the need for affordable housing is mounting.
The nonprofit’s website, amity.ngo, has an option for making donations in American dollars, and Bianchini says the money goes directly to assisting refugees.
“No one takes any salary or anything,” says Bianchini, who invites interested parties to contact her for more information about the people her charity is assisting.
“I can directly connect you with a specific family so you really know where the money you’re giving is going,” she says.
Amity co-founder Kimberly Bianchini embraces two children who fled a small town outside Mariupol, Ukraine. Photo courtesy Kimberly Bianchini.
March for reproductive rights
Hundreds of protesters gathered in downtown Charlottesville on Saturday to protest an impending decision by the U.S. Supreme Court that would overturn Roe v. Wade and decades of constitutionally protected access to abortion.
The Bans Off Our Bodies event led marchers from the federal courthouse to the Free Speech Wall on the Downtown Mall, and was part of a nationwide response to the draft opinion that leaked earlier this month.
Speakers included UVA Law Professor Anne Coughlin, Deborah Arenstein of the Blue Ridge Abortion Fund, and Josh Throneburg, Democratic congressional candidate for Virginia’s 5th District.
In a release announcing the event, attorney Andre Hakes warned that “the demise of Roe should be of concern to everyone who loves freedom. The rights to contraception, interracial marriage, and gay marriage are all based on the same interrelated legal concepts of privacy, due process, and equal protection… all these rights, and others, are at risk if Roe is overturned.”
In brief
New hires
After more than a year without a director of human resources, the City of Charlottesville has appointed Mary Ann Hardie to the position. It has also promoted longtime employees Misty Graves to director of human services, and David Dillehunt—who has been serving as the city’s interim communications director since January, following Brian Wheeler’s resignation last fall—to deputy director of communications.
Union bust
In a 4-2 vote, the Albemarle County School Board rejected a collective bargaining resolution proposed by the Albemarle Education Association during a meeting last week. Board members who voted against the resolution—which has received support from more than two-thirds of the division’s teachers, transportation staff, and school nurses—claimed the new state legislation allowing public employees to unionize did not provide adequate guidance, and wanted to see how other school divisions engage in collective bargaining before moving forward. Instead, the board unanimously voted to allow Superintendent Matt Haas to look into alternatives to collective bargaining, and report back in 90 days.
Matt Haas. Staff photo.
No more Dewberry
The Dewberry Group, owners of the half-finished Dewberry Living building, will have to give the downtown eyesore a new name—and pay $43 million in damages. In 2020, Dewberry Engineers filed a lawsuit against the Atlanta-based real estate company for violating a 2007 confidential settlement agreement that prohibited it from using the name Dewberry, reports The Daily Progress. Last week, a federal judge ruled that the Dewberry Group breached the trademark agreement when it changed the vacant building’s name from The Landmark Hotel to The Dewberry Hotel, after purchasing the abandoned project in 2012—and again when it changed its name from The Laramore to Dewberry Living in 2020.
A Maniac wreaks havoc at a police station in Live Arts' Accidental Death of an Anarchist. Supplied photo.
A farce for the force: Italian playwright Dario Fo’s political satire Accidental Death of an Anarchist pokes fun at the Italian police force by imagining a fictionalized aftermath of 1969’s real-life Piazza Fontana bombing. Giuseppe Pinelli, an anarchist wrongly accused of the bombing, plummets to his death from a fourth-floor window while in a police interrogation room. In the acclaimed play, the Maniac works his way through the police station, confuddling officers with absurd disguises and witticisms until the truth is revealed. Susan E. Evans helms the production—her first directing gig as Live Arts’ artistic director.
Through 6/5. $20-25, times vary. Live Arts, 123 E. Water St. livearts.org
Jazz ensemble Tuba Skinny performs at the Jefferson Theater on May 22. Supplied photo.
Preservation haul: New Orleans jazz ensemble Tuba Skinny fulfilled a lifelong dream this year with the release of Magnolia Stroll, its first album of original music. The group formed in 2009 as a loose collection of street musicians that combines cornet, clarinet, trombone, tuba, tenor banjo, guitar, frottoir, and vocals. Influenced by a wide range of music, including spirituals, Depression-era blues, ragtime, jug band music, and more, Tuba Skinny is known for its commitment to reviving long-lost songs—which is what makes Magnolia Stroll so special. It’s an ode to the musicians, past and present, who’ve inspired the group.
Sunday 5/22. $25-28, 8pm. Jefferson Theater, 110 E. Main St. jeffersontheater.com
The majority of employees at Bodo’s on the Corner have signed union authorization cards, and requested voluntary recognition of the union. Photo: Eze Amos.
Holding colorful homemade signs and pictures of bagels, Bodo’s employees—joined by several dozen community members—gathered on the Corner last week, urging the restaurant to allow its staff to unionize. A majority of the workers at the shop’s Corner location have presented signed union cards to management in an effort to improve wages, benefits, and overall working conditions.
“We are doing this not because we dislike Bodo’s—but because we want to improve it. In the three-plus years that I’ve been here, the starting wage has never been at or above a living wage,” said employee Malcolm Augat during the rally. “[Bodo’s] needs to make sure that it has workers from the city, who can afford to live in the city.”
“I know people who haven’t gotten a raise in a year and a half—I got one last month and in January. I’ve been here eight months,” added employee William Wagoner.
Employee Kieran Williams called for an end to the alleged sexual misconduct at Bodo’s. He claimed that a former female worker touched his crotch twice during their first shift together last year. Though he says he immediately reported the incident to management, he had to work with her for nearly three more months, until she was fired for not showing up to work.
“I know countless other people who have quit because they’ve had negative interactions with other co-workers, including other cases of sexual harassment…and [whose] harassers are still employed by Bodo’s,” he added.
Charlottesville City Councilors Michael Payne and Sena Magill, along with 57th District Delegate Sally Hudson, also voiced their support of the Bodo’s union, and encouraged more service workers across the city to unionize.
However, not all Bodo’s employees are on board with the union effort. Six of the Corner Bodo’s 14 employees have not signed union cards yet. One Bodo’s worker silently protested throughout last week’s rally, holding up a brown cardboard sign saying, “8+ year Bodo’s employee AGAINST the union.”
Since requesting voluntary recognition of the union—which would become a part of the United Food & Commercial Workers Local 400—last week, pro-union employees claim they have also received negative reactions from Bodo’s managers, as well as co-owners Scott Smith and John Kokola. Wagoner and Williams, who have been working to unionize the Corner Bodo’s for about half a year, accuse management of refusing to meet with union members, and making it “harassment” to ask people to join the union. One owner also came into the Corner location last week, and made employees “feel uncomfortable,” alleges Williams.
Following the union rally, Kokola and Smith posted a message to employees at a different Bodo’s location, encouraging them to weigh “the pros and cons” of unionizing.
“We strongly suspect that there would be more negatives than positives associated with a union at Bodo’s,” read the letter, shared with C-VILLE by an anonymous employee. “A union [would] demand the kind of mediated management that would disrupt our efforts to operate with the judgment and humanity that permit situational context. A management staff contractually stripped of such autonomy…must resort to the kind of ‘three strikes and you’re out’ rule-book foolishness that makes so many other workplaces feel thoughtlessly rigid, disconnected, or even stupid.”
In an email to C-VILLE, however, Scott emphasized that he and Kokola support employees’ rights to choose to be represented by a union or not, and have not prohibited them from discussing unionizing at work—but cannot meet with union representatives until the process is complete. He also touted the wages and benefits Bodo’s employees already receive.
“The average pay for staff at the Corner currently sits at $17.00,” Scott wrote. “We also pay 2/3 of the [health care] premium for employees working 30 or more hours…and provide 6 paid holidays per year and an escalating one to two weeks of yearly vacation pay for full time staff.”
According to the MIT Living Wage calculator, a living wage for an adult (with no children) in Charlottesville is at least $18.59 an hour.
As for Williams’ accusations, Smith says management did speak with that former employee about inappropriate touching and believed the situation had been resolved to Williams’ satisfaction. Bodo’s has a policy prohibiting sexual harassment.
Last week, Bodo’s owners also posted this message to employees at one of the restaurant’s non-Corner locations, detailing the anti-harassment policy.
The second time Williams reported being touched by the employee to the manager, Williams “was very suspicious that this brush by ‘accident’ was actually intended, [but] stopped short of describing it as clearly intentional,” explained Smith in an email. “[The manager] agreed that he would talk with her to investigate it further, but he [believes] that she was then fired for being a no-call, no-show before he could sit down with her.”
“I absolutely did say–and even point to—where she touched me. The fact that it happened twice in quick succession tells me it wasn’t accidental,” said Williams in a statement to C-VILLE. “The fact that my experience is far from isolated remains. Because the few that do come forward see little to no consequences for their offenders, many feel as though coming forward would not be worthwhile.”
“Without clear guidelines for [managers] to follow, the process for dealing with harassment feels ad hoc and sporadically enforced. This is why we believe a union would be beneficial to our workplace,” he added.
If Bodo’s owners refuse to voluntarily recognize the union, the Corner employees will have the opportunity to vote in a union election. If the majority vote in favor of the union, they can then start negotiating a contract.
“Our responsibility here is to ensure that all employees have that opportunity to express their choice with a vote, and to continue to support them whatever the outcome might be,” says Scott.
If the Corner Bodo’s does vote to unionize, it will not affect the restaurant’s Preston Avenue and Emmett Street locations. However, Williams says union organizers have already started talking to employees there, and are “absolutely willing to help” them unionize, too.
And despite the pushback they say they have received from management, the pro-union employees do not want the community to boycott the restaurant. Instead, they ask union supporters to come to the Corner location wearing a red article of clothing on Wednesdays.
“We would encourage you to reach out to the owners and have them do the right thing,” tweeted the Bodo’s union account last week. “You can also voice your support of the union to Bodo’s workers when you order your favorite bagel!”
Soprano Alyssa Weathersby stars as Venus and serves as stage director in the Early Access Music Project's production of Venus & Adonis. Supplied photo.
Sad, mad love: A grumbling Cupid, lovesick Venus, and dishy Adonis star in Venus & Adonis, a modern operatic take on the classical Greek myth, produced by the Early Access Music Project, a rotating group of musicians that brings early music to the community through accessible programming. Originally composed by John Blow in the 1680s, Venus & Adonis features a baroque band with period instrumentalists, and stars sopranos Alyssa Weathersby and Julie Bosworth, and baritone Harrison Hintzsche.
Ralph Sampson’s American Tap Room is open six days a week at the Barracks Road Shopping Center. Images: Anna Kariel
It’s been more than 40 years since Ralph Sampson led the University of Virginia Cavaliers to a run of basketball glory that included an NIT title in 1980, an NCAA Final Four appearance in 1981, and a trip to the NCAA Elite Eight in 1983. The 7-foot, 4-inch Harrisonburg native was one of the most sought after college recruits of his generation, winning NBA Rookie of the Year and making the cover of Sports Illustrated six times during his college career. He retired from pro basketball in 1995, went into coaching for several years, and was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2011.
For his latest rebound, Sampson returns to Charlottesville to lead a new team at Ralph Sampson’s American Tap Room, which held its grand opening at its Barracks Road location last month.
“The opening weekend was crazy,” says Sampson. “It happened to line up with alumni weekend, so the opening celebration with the teams tested us from the start.”
The stylish restaurant combines a traditional sports bar with upscale-casual dining, and it’s clear how much consideration went into every aspect, including the decor. Seated under a wall of signed basketballs, accented by a miniature statue of Sampson himself, the superstar baller takes care to emphasize that “this is not just a sports bar. We want it to be a place where people can have great experiences and great food. You’ll never see me hang my jersey on the wall.”
The idea, says Sampson, is to bring together the community as a whole. “The world of UVA can feel very separate from the rest of the city,” he says. “Like when I was a student, I didn’t feel like I knew the rest of Charlottesville. So we hope that this can be a place for both communities.”
The menu follows the vibe of the restaurant with a mix of bar food and fine-dining options, intending to offer something for everyone. A bacon-wrapped filet mignon with lobster tail rings in at $54, with burger prices around $14.
Supplied photos.
An order of the jumbo lump crab cake arrived softly composed, herby, and drizzled with grilled lemon accompanied by crispy, well-seasoned fries. A side of dijonnaise complemented the crab dish, as did the house IPA—Ralph’s Big Juicy, a mouthwatering citrusy beer developed in partnership with Three Notch’d Brewing Company.
With plenty of room for dessert, Sampson personally recommended the Rockslide brownie sundae. “It’s one of my favorites on the whole menu,” he says. “The chocolate is so rich and soft, there’s nothing else like it.”
Sampson approaches his foray into the restaurant business with a coach’s mentality. “I want to win championships in the restaurant industry,” he says. He understands that success in this field, like sports, comes from building a team of talented, hard-working players.
Sampson partnered with Thompson Hospitality, the group behind The Ridley on West Main Street, to build his first original-concept restaurant. “I first met Warren [Thompson] back when we were both at UVA, but it wasn’t until recently that we connected again over this project,” he says. “There were so many moving parts and some setbacks when it came to opening this place up. It really showed us our strengths and our weaknesses, and I was lucky to have such an experienced and professional team on my side.”
Sampson says he has lots of plans for the space, everything from screenings of classic games to meet-and-greets with professional athletes and live recordings of his all-things-sports podcast, “Center Court.” With its community focus, and sports history foundation, his American Tap Room is a place where Sampson is sure to power forward once again.
Of the Montpelier Foundation Board’s 25 members, 14 now represent descendants of the enslaved population at the fourth U.S. president’s former estate. File photo.
After nearly two months of tension that included firings of high-level staff and public accusations of game-playing and racism against the Montpelier Foundation, the dispute between the foundation board and the Montpelier Descendants Committee has ended. At the May 16 foundation board meeting, the board voted in 11 new members recommended by the MDC, two more than had been previously promised.
“This historic and unprecedented vote by the Board of Directors means that the Foundation has achieved its long-sought goal of parity on the Board for descendants of Montpelier’s formerly enslaved population,” the foundation said in a release. “It has been a long and not always easy process to get to this point, but one result of the process has been the identification of an incredibly gifted and renowned slate of new Board members.”
“I just think all of us are surprised, thrilled and, you know, want to commend the board members, whatever their motivations were throughout,” says Greg Werkheiser, attorney for the MDC. “In the end, they took a hard vote. They did the right thing. And now, you know, the really hard work of rebuilding and restoring Montpelier’s finances, its reputation, its staff. That’s the next chapter.”
The stage for dispute was set last summer when the foundation board voted to rewrite its bylaws giving MDC authority to recommend at least half of the board members. In late March, the board reversed that historic vote and blamed the MDC for being uncollaborative.
“That’s not partnership. It’s not collegiality,” said former board chair Gene Hickok in an early April interview. Hickok resigned from the board at the Monday meeting.
Dozens of historic organizations, including the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which owns Montpelier, condemned the foundation’s actions. Remaining Montpelier staff released a fiery statement alleging the board was putting historic preservation work at risk and violating federal law. Those employees and the MDC demanded the reinstatement of staff who’d been fired for speaking out in support of the descendants and a change in leadership.
Werkheiser says the new board will act quickly to rehire fired staff but declined to comment on the future of Montpelier’s embattled CEO Roy Young. Hickok and Young declined to be interviewed.
The 25-member foundation board now includes 14 people representing descendants of the enslaved at Montpelier. Among those new members are journalist Soledad O’Brien, UVA McIntire School of Commerce Dean Nicole Thorne Jenkins, and the Reverend Cornell William Brooks, Harvard professor of the practice of public leadership and social justice and former NAACP president and CEO.
“As our nation grapples with and even grieves over the racial injustices of this day, the work of the Montpelier Foundation is all the more important: teaching the lessons of the living legacy of President James Madison, studying the past and possibilities of our Constitution, and sharing across our Republic and beyond the ongoing story of those enslaved at Montpelier,” Brooks said in an MDC statement released after the May 16 vote.
The new board members were selected from a list of 20 names MDC recently put forth for consideration. Werkheiser says the nine individuals who were not named to the board will serve on an advisory council.
“It’s just further testament to the kind of egolessness of a lot of these public servants that they are willing to stay at the table, not sit on the bench,” he says. “They’re willing to put their shoulder to the wheel here as well. And trust me, all of them are going to be needed, as well as the returning staff, to put Montpelier back together again as quickly as possible.”
Courteney Stuart is the host of “Charlottesville Right Now” on WINA. You can hear her interview with Greg Werkheiser at wina.com.
Jada Seaman is soaring at the University of Virginia. Photo: Matt Riley/UVA Athletics.
When Carla Williams took charge of University of Virginia athletics in 2017, she was the only African American woman directing sports at a Power Five school.
Now, she is one of three.
But Vanderbilt’s hiring of Candice Storey Lee, and Duke’s of Nina King, is not the only way Williams has helped shape sports during her six years as UVA’s athletic director. On March 21, Williams made one of the biggest hires of her career by naming Amaka “Mox” Agugua-Hamilton head coach of UVA women’s basketball.
In 2019-20, Agugua-Hamilton set a Missouri State record for wins as a rookie coach. After leading the Lady Bears to a 73-15 record over three seasons, she will bring four assistant coaches and her FABs (family, academics, basketball) coaching philosophy to Virginia.
While Agugua-Hamilton implements her fast-paced scoring style, which she says is influenced in part by men’s basketball head coach Tony Bennett’s mover-blocker offense, Williams will continue implementation of her “Master Plan,” a $12-14 million overhaul of UVA athletic facilities.
As these two women decide the future of UVA women’s sports, here’s a glimpse at 11 of the female athletes who have shaped the university’s 2021-22 season, plus a Notre Dame transfer who’s thrilled she’s “coming home.”
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Images: Matt Riley/UVA Athletics
Halfway through Virginia rowing varsity four’s grand final race, where senior Hailey Barnett (1) was rowing in lane five, Duke nosed ahead in lane six.
“We knew they would try to make moves on us,” Barnett says. “So, we decided to take a move against them.”
In the final 500 meters of the race, the Cavaliers made a power 10 move, where all rowers coordinated 10 powerful, simultaneous strokes.
The crew finished with the fourth-fastest varsity four time in conference history to help Virginia win its 12th consecutive ACC rowing championship.
“We didn’t do as well as we’d hoped throughout the beginning of the season, so we were honestly a bit nervous going into it,” Barnett says. “But our motto on the team is to stay humble and hungry, so we were ready to give it our all.”
That competitive mindset is a Barnett family tradition. Barnett’s father, Fred Lee Barnett, was an NFL wide receiver from 1990 to 1997. Her mother, Jacqueline Barnett, is a dancer. Both provide guidance and support for Barnett and her twin sister and UVA roommate Myla Grace Barnett (2), a senior defender for UVA lacrosse.
Myla Barnett recorded 10 caused turnovers in 2022, including a single game-best of three in the 2022 ACC semifinal. Growing up, she had few Black lacrosse players to look up to. Now, she is playing in this month’s nationally televised NCAA women’s lacrosse tournament.
“I know that there are a lot of younger Black lacrosse players who want to be in my shoes and want to have these opportunities,” she says. “I’ve had younger Black aspiring lacrosse players DM me on Instagram. That is something that’s super important to me, and a lot of why I keep going.”
Barnett has provided coaching clinics for young Black players, and played tournaments alongside Black college stars like Syracuse’s Emma Ward and Ohio State’s Chloë Johnson.
Meanwhile, as part of her Citizen Leaders and Sports Ethics Community Impact Fellowship at UVA’s Contemplative Sciences Center, Barnett is planning anti-racist student-athlete education and a commemoration for Virginia’s enslaved laborers. She is also a member of Generation Now, an organization diversifying the sport of rowing.
“There is definitely a disparity in Black collegiate rowers, and Black rowers in high school, and I think it’s because of the lack of exposure that kids of color have in the sport of rowing,” Barnett says. “I’m happy to set the example for other kids of color who want to row.”
After UVA’s NCAA lacrosse bid, Barnett is preparing for the strangeness of being “more than 10 feet away” from her sister for the first time when she starts a job on Wall Street this summer.
“I’m glad that there’s still FaceTime, and things like that,” she says. “We’ll definitely be speaking to each other every day.”
This year’s Virginia men’s and women’s swim and dive ACC championships, usually held at staggered times, played out side-by-side at Georgia Tech from February 15 to 19.
That meant 15 minutes after junior Kate Douglass (3) helped the women’s team set an American record for the 200-meter freestyle relay, she was able to watch the men’s team set a record of their own.
“I think that was one of the coolest things I’ve ever been a part of,” Douglass says. “Breaking the American record myself was super exciting, but then getting to see the men do it right after, our team just went crazy. You could just tell how much we all loved and supported each other.”
The relay record wasn’t the only mark statistics major and 2020 Tokyo Olympics bronze medalist Douglass made on college swimming history in 2022.
As she helped Virginia successfully defend its NCAA title on March 16, Douglass became the first college swimmer to claim three individual titles in three different strokes by winning the 50 freestyle, 100 butterfly, and 200 breaststroke.
What’s more, she set American records in all three events.
“I just wanted to get as many points as I could for my team, and I wanted to make sure that I was having fun with my teammates and that everyone was just smiling and enjoying themselves,” Douglass says. “I think what’s really special about our team is that we don’t really do it for ourselves. We do it for each other. And that definitely helps take the pressure off yourself.”
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Images: Matt Riley/UVA Athletics
Whether indoor, outdoor, or at a championship, junior sprinter and jumper Jada Seaman (4) loves the 200-meter race.
“It’s so quick and just fun to me,” Seaman says. “I feel like the 200 is the perfect length, too. It’s not too short, like the 60. It’s not too long and painful, like the 400. It’s just that happy balance.”
In 2021, Seaman set the Virginia freshman record for the 200-meter with a time of 23.70.
The next year, she clocked in at 23.18 seconds—just 0.01 short of Sonja Fridy’s 1987 all-time school record.
“I really want to break 23 seconds,” Seaman says. “That’s my goal, so hopefully I’ll be able to do that.”
In addition to working toward a school record and studying business with a “Mad Men”-inspired interest in marketing, Seaman has been perfecting her long jump.
“My strategy up to now has just been to run and just kind of hope for the best, because speed on the runway has kind of saved me,” Seaman says. “I’m not that pretty in the air, but I’m fast on the runway. I just need to be able to hone my speed and really put it all together in the end.”
Seaman put this work to the test at the ACC championships on May 12. This jump was different from the others. With the help of teammates and coaches, she had learned to enjoy the leap.
“I got sixth place, and I’ve won long jump three times now, but getting that medal means a lot to me,” Seaman says. “That was the first time I really had fun.”
After 70 scoreless minutes of soccer against defending national champion Santa Clara, Virginia was granted a free kick near the top left corner of the box.
Sophomore midfielder Lia Godfrey (5) lined herself up, thought of the team’s desire to win for recently injured senior forward Rebecca Jarrett, and curved her shot into the net.
“I work on shooting from different areas around the box, and getting it up and over the wall, because that’s kind of one of the most difficult parts of shooting a free kick…and it went up over that wall,” Godfrey says. “That was something that I’ve just been working on for so long.”
Godfrey’s goal decided one of the 15 victories, which allowed the Cavaliers to clinch the top spot in the ACC with a draw against Florida State on October 28.
“That is one of the hardest things to do, is win a regular season title, playing that many games and coming out on top,” Godfrey says. “We celebrated in the locker room. There was a lot of dancing.”
While completing the first two years of a biology degree and shadowing small animal vets in pursuit of a veterinary career, Godfrey has led Virginia in assists for two seasons.
“A lot of it has to do with connections between me and my teammates,” Godfrey says. “They make the right runs so that I’m able to play those passes. Sometimes I may not see them, but they make a good run…they’re able to read what you want, and I know what they want, so those passes are just able to connect.”
In the top of the first inning against Sacred Heart on February 19, a Virginia softball player waited in scoring position.
From the confidence with which freshman catcher and utility player Sarah Coon hit the ball to send her home, the crowd could have never guessed it was only Coon’s eighth college game.
Sacred Heart retaliated with three runs in the bottom of the frame. That blow might have felled a previous Virginia squad. Instead, Coon polished off a 9-4 comeback win in the sixth inning by cracking the first homer of her college career over the fence.
That four-RBI game helped ACC All-Freshman Coon rack up 32 RBIs in 51 games to help Virginia tie a school record with 12 conference wins.
When Virginia volleyball went down 23-21 against Bellarmine at Memorial Gym on September 18, it looked as if the Cavaliers were in danger of dropping the first set of the home tournament.
Instead, 6-foot 3-inch graduate student middle blocker Alana Walker, who joined the Hoos after racking up 741 career kills for Northwestern, led a comeback. She slammed down back-to-back blocks to clinch both the second and third sets of a 3-0 win.
Walker recorded 16 kills that day as the Cavaliers swept Georgetown and Fairleigh Dickinson to finish out a perfect 9-0 tournament. She went on to lead the ACC, rank second in the NCAA, and mark the second-best single-season blocking performance in Virginia volleyball history by averaging 1.51 blocks per set.
With 19.5 seconds left in the third quarter of a scoreless battle with No. 6 Syracuse, junior midfielder Danielle Husar found the ball on her field hockey stick at the side of the net.
She lifted it into the goal to help No. 16 Virginia grant Syracuse its first loss in over a month.
The goal reflected the Virginia midfielder’s international career as striker for Team Canada. In April, Husar traveled to Potchefstroom, South Africa, to represent Virginia and her native Mississauga as a striker at the FIH Junior World Cup. Last year, she helped win the first Pan American gold medal in Canadian history at the Junior Pan American Cup in Santiago, Chile.
During the May 10 Ann Arbor Regional, from which four golf teams advance to the NCAA tournament, all eyes were on Virginia sophomore Jennifer Cleary after three birdies put her 3-under par halfway through the second round of play.
A bogey on the 12th hole looked like it might set Cleary back—but the Cavaliers’ leader in stroke average knew how to rally. Cleary knocked in back-to-back birdies on holes 14 and 15 to record a career-best 4-under 67.
Cleary’s score marked just the fourth time in program history a Cavalier has recorded a 67 during regional play, and helped Virginia claim an NCAA berth with the third-best team score ever recorded in a single round at Michigan’s golf course.
A storm thundered through Charlottesville as Virginia tennis hosted Oklahoma State in the NCAA Round of 16 on May 14, causing the singles tournament to move indoors halfway through as Oklahoma State claimed four of the first six sets.
But it takes more than a two-set deficit and some rain to rattle sophomore Emma Navarro (6), who dispatched her opponent in two efficient sets to help the Cavaliers advance to the quarterfinals of the NCAA Women’s Tennis Team Championship for the first time since 2016.
After joining Danielle Collins (2014, 2016) as the second player in program history to claim the NCAA singles title in 2021, Navarro, in 2022, was the first Virginia singles competitor to enter the NCAA singles tournament as the No. 1 seed.
In her second game as team captain of Virginia squash on November 14, senior Caroline Baldwin won her first set against fourth-ranked Columbia’s Ellie McVeigh.
McVeigh claimed the next two sets, putting Baldwin—and Virginia’s hopes of emerging with victory against their Ivy League opponent—on the ropes.
Baldwin rallied to win the final two sets, earning the difference-making point in a historic 5-4 win over the highest-ranked squash team Virginia has ever defeated.
“I’m coming home,” Tweeted Ruckersville native Sam Brunelle on April 9, when she announced her decision to transfer from Notre Dame to Virginia.
In 2019, Brunelle emerged from William Monroe High School as one of the top basketball recruits in the United States. After leading ACC freshmen in scoring (13.9 points per game) in 2019-20, a series of injuries haven’t been enough to slow the 6-foot 2-inch Brunelle.
In Notre Dame’s November 9 season opener against Ohio, she came off the bench to drop 20 points in 17 minutes. That’s the kind of offensive explosion Agugua-Hamilton hopes Brunelle will repeat in Charlottesville.
