Author: Jonathan Haynes

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Honor crimes: Is it time for the single sanction to go? 

A 2018 review of the honor system found that 45 percent of students would not report a violation because of the single sanction that requires expulsion. Photo: Eze Amos

Tucked on the fourth floor of Newcomb Hall in back of UVA’s Academical Village are offices of the student-run committee that investigates, charges, and tries fellow students accused of lying, cheating, or stealing. Its bylaws require panels to hand down the same punishment for any single conviction: permanent expulsion from the university.

That harsh mandate, known as the single sanction, combined with documented racial bias in its implementation, has students today questioning the relevance of the 100-year-old Honor Code in the 21st century.

Recent data has painted a troubling picture of the single sanction. The Honor Audit Commission, a semi-independent review of the honor system published in spring 2018, found that one in five professors would be deterred from reporting an honor offense because they did not believe in the single sanction. For students, that proportion leapt to 45 percent.

Honor’s Bicentennial Analysis, published in February, found significant racial basis in both reporting and processing. From 2012 to 2017, black students were over-reported by nearly 3 percent and Asian students by over 15 percent, though neither were sanctioned disproportionately. Meanwhile, white students were under-reported by over 28 percent.

During the same time period, international students were both over-reported and disproportionately sanctioned by 18 percent, according to the report. Critics find this particularly disturbing since expulsion for international students could lead to deportation, as many reside in the U.S. on student visas.

Honor’s evolution

Honor has evolved significantly since its inception in 1842, when faculty approved a resolution by UVA law professor Henry St. George Tucker requiring students to inscribe an anti-cheating pledge on the bottom of every assignment. Faculty panels ran the fledgling honor system for its initial 70 years, expelling the first student for cheating on a medical school exam in 1851.

At the turn of the 20th century, the honor system morphed into UVA’s largest commitment to student self-governance. In 1912, students approved a resolution to create an official committee, to be comprised of student presidents from each of the university’s schools. Ever since, the Board of Visitors has granted the Honor Committee expulsive powers each year.

Today, with 27 elected representatives and 104 appointed support officers, honor remains the most powerful student organization on Grounds. Its alumni-funded endowment is in the millions and guarantees funding as a special-status organization, which has afforded a lavish budget for promotional materials and partnerships with other student groups.

The Honor Committee also bestows immense privileges to its members. The committee owns Lawn Room 37, enabling it to handpick its Lawn resident from the committee each year, and a special seal is emblazoned on all of its members’ diplomas.

Honor’s jurisdiction is expansive. Anyone can file an honor report against a student, so long as the accused committed an offense in Charlottesville, Albemarle, or a UVA facility. During the early 1900s, the committee cracked down on students writing bad checks and sneaking booze into dance functions.

However, its actual powers are somewhat limited. The committee can’t compel testimony from a witness or subpoena documents, nor can it try cases of sexual misconduct or physical violence.

Over the past decade, the Honor Code’s favorability among the student body has declined. Students increasingly oppose the single sanction, recently approving some of the most significant changes in its 100-year history.

In 2013, for example, students voted to implement an informed retraction, which allows students to admit guilt within seven days of reading the formal accusation and take a two-semester leave, rather than being expelled.

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Controversial calculations: Alderman renovation moves forward

Some UVA professors fear the Alderman Library renovation will seriously hinder research at the university. Photo by Eze Amos

Governor Ralph Northam approved the University of Virginia’s proposal to renovate Alderman Library on March 24, sending the $160 million project into development.

The renovation, which has been planned since 2016, involves removing a significant percentage of the library’s books and turning its cramped 10-floor layout into a more spacious five floors to meet modern fire codes. It will also increase the number of entrances and extend a bridge to the adjacent Clemons Library, to make it easier to move between the two buildings.

According to a December statement from UVA Library, over half of the roughly 1.6 million volumes currently housed in Alderman will return when the renovation’s finished, while the remainder will be redistributed to either Clemons or the Ivy Stacks, a storage facility one mile off Grounds.

Faculty and students have raised concerns about the project’s impact on research, with many criticizing the methodology used by Dean of Libraries John Unsworth to calculate the estimated loss of on-site books.

Tensions escalated in spring 2018, after a steering committee predicted an 18 percent reduction in Alderman’s on-site collections, which many professors say is inaccurate. Some, such as UVA professor of English John Bugbee, have estimated the university’s plan will result in a 45 percent reduction.

The dispute boils down to a disagreement over how to calculate the number of books that can fit in a foot of shelving.

Unsworth used an Association of Research Libraries algorithm that calculates 10 books per foot of shelving, while faculty point to academic sources that estimate eight books per foot of shelving is more precise.

In addition, the proposal also incorrectly claims that books will be stored in the basement, which is reserved for processing, says Bugbee. “It also does not account for growth space—the leftover space in a shelf left for new materials.”

In late May, Bugbee and fellow UVA English professor John Parker gathered over 500 signatures opposing the reduction of books at Alderman. Bugbee then relayed his concern that the Board of Visitors was misled them when it approved the project in a November meeting with UVA President Jim Ryan.

“I told them I would be happy if we’re only going to lose 18 percent of books,” Bugbee says, “but we would need to adjust the project to get there.”

He anonymously contacted the Association of Research Libraries, and a spokesperson told him the 10-books-a-foot metric was for a survey, not for any sort of capital project, he says.

Despite that information, Ryan continued to support Unsworth, who says this is the best option he has. “The only alternative that is not an estimate is to fill the library with books and then count them,” Unsworth says. “We’re not in a position to do that yet.”

Books will begin being moved out of Alderman this summer, and the first floor of Clemons will be closed until August, according to the library’s website. Construction will begin in 2020 and be completed in 2023.

Correction: The $160 million cost of the project was inaccurately reported as $305 million in the original story, based on a typo in a press release about the budget from Delegate Steve Landes.

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Second act: A new life for used books—and store’s owner

Former UVA professor Daphne Spain is confident about her prospects selling used books in the former home of Read It Again, Sam. Photo by Eze Amos

Amazon has been blamed for the demise of bookstores, but that doesn’t seem to deter people from taking up the retail cause on the Downtown Mall. New Dominion got a new owner in November 2017, and last month the former Read it Again, Sam reopened as 2nd Act Books.

The name comes from both its second-hand retailing and the career path of its owner. “I had been retired for two years and got tired of it,” says Daphne Spain, who taught urban and environmental planning at the University of Virginia for 30 years. “So when the space became available, I decided I would give it a try—my second act.”

Read It Again, Sam’s founder, Dave Taylor, owned the business for 20 years until passing away in April 2017. Longtime customer Dennis Kocik then bought the store from Taylor’s widow, hoping to keep it in business, but he closed the store last fall. Landlord Joan Fenton used the space as a holiday pop-up store, and Spain took over in February.

On a visit to the store last month, Spain conscripts a reporter into retrieving a bucket of wine from the loading port. “It’s for a panel of mystery writers,” she says. She’s continuing Taylor’s tradition of holding a crime wave panel for the annual Virginia Festival of the Book

Passing a back room lined with empty shelves, Spain says, “we’re looking to fill these up.” She estimates the building’s total capacity is 10,000 books.

According to Spain, around three-quarters of 2nd Act’s collection is donated. “Donations have given us a head start,” she says, joking that Marie Kondo’s hit show on decluttering has boosted contributions.

Like the books, little in the store is new. Reading areas are furnished with chairs and end tables from Habitat for Humanity, where Spain volunteers every Monday. The building’s green-marble facade at 214 E. Main St. still bears the name of a former tenant, Keller & George. Spain, who volunteered as a book-duster at Read It Again, Sam, retained three of its employees.

Bookstores run in the new owner’s family. “My grandmother owned a bookshop in Sebring, Florida, in the ’50s,” Spain says. “She supported five kids with that store so I spent a lot of time there as a kid.”

2nd Act boasts an expanded children’s section, with child-sized tables and chairs, book buckets, and wooden train sets situated near a lime-green bookshelf stocked with kids books. A book mobile hangs from the ceiling.

“A lot of moms come in and say their children have outgrown certain books,” Spain says of the extensive donations of children’s books she’s received.

Spain is optimistic about her prospects. “Read It Again, Sam was quite successful for the 20 years it was here,” she says. “People want to see another independent bookstore succeed.”

Updated April 18 with additional information from Joan Fenton.

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Hate-free hats: Student challenges county schools’ new policy on first day

A student who challenged Albemarle Superintendent Matt Haas’ new interpretation of the dress code was sent home after refusing to remove a hat with Confederate imagery.

Just hours after Albemarle County Public Schools’ new interpretation of its dress code went into effect on March 12, a Western Albemarle High student was sent to the principal’s office. He had refused to remove a hat bearing the Confederate insignia.

ACPS Superintendent Matt Haas had emailed parents the previous day to announce a ban on the “wearing of clothing associated with organizations that promote white supremacy, racial division, hatred, or violence,” making clear that included Confederate imagery and the Nazi swastika.

Schools spokesperson Phil Giaramita stresses that the dress code itself has not changed. “It’s the same policy, which does not specify content and is viewpoint neutral,” he says. “But it does say that clothing that becomes disruptive to the learning environment is not permitted.”

While revising the dress code requires approval from the school board, Haas maintains he may interpret the policy within reasonable bounds. At the Albemarle County School Board’s February 14 meeting, he informally declared his intention to bar Confederate imagery on clothing, using the harm and disruption standard of the county’s current dress code.

Shortly before the meeting, the School Health Advisory Board issued a report concluding that the presence of Confederate imagery would likely impact the ability of students of color to learn and feel safe at school. Haas and school board members David Oberg and Katrina Callsen invoked the report when explaining their support for a ban.

Teachers and administrators have been instructed to respond to violations by notifying the principal, who will call students to the front office and inform them that their clothing is prohibited. Students may not return to class until they have removed or inverted their attire.

At Western Albemarle last week, the student’s father opted to check him out of school.

According to Giaramita, enforcement is not geared toward discipline. For this to work, “it needs to be an act of education or counseling,” he says. “But if a student refuses and continues to show up with the imagery on clothing, it becomes an act of defiance.”

Acts of defiance are punishable by suspension, enforced homeschool, or expulsion, though Giaramita says expulsion is unlikely. (The student is now back in school.)

The new interpretation exempts imagery that has an educational purpose, such as in textbooks and historical films. Notably, the drama department at Western performed The Sound of Music, complete with swastikas and students playing SS guards, that same week. “It’s a matter of context,” says Giaramita, adding that the drama director brought in a history teacher to talk to students about World War II, the German takeover of Austria, and the Nazi regime.

Free speech has figured prominently in the debate over Confederate imagery in schools. Several members of the school board have questioned the legality of a ban, citing an infamous case in 2002, in which Alan Newsom sued after he was forced to wear his NRA T-shirt inside out at Jack Jouett Middle School.

When asked about the new interpretation, his father, Fred Newsom, says he thought that issue had been settled with Alan’s lawsuit. “If only popular speech is protected, there’s really no right of free speech,” he says. “It comes down to if there’s a disruption. I can understand the motivation to try to avoid a disruption.”

ACPS legal counsel Ross Holden advised Haas that the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld bans of disruptive clothing if the dress code itself is content neutral, says Giaramita.

The Albemarle County School Board is scheduled to discuss hateful imagery on clothing at its April 11 meeting.

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Coming soon: Hundreds of new workers and only 74 parking spaces

While some business welcome the new office building under construction, others have raised concerns about parking, the less-historic design, and the costs of a two-year construction plan. Submitted rendering

The Center of Developing Entrepreneurs, now under construction on the west end of the Downtown Mall, will provide office space for more than 600 workers. But it will include only 74 parking spaces.

That drew the ire of a couple members of the Downtown Business Association of Charlottesville, who grilled builders about a potential parking shortage at their January 31 meeting in Old Metropolitan Hall.

At the meeting, representatives from CSH Development and the Wolf Ackerman architecture firm unveiled detailed plans for CODE, the latest project from hedge fund CEO Jaffray Woodriff, which will take the place of the now-demolished Main Street Arena and Escafé, and rent space to a variety of start-ups and other businesses.

“The goal of the building is to provide a healthy work environment for individuals, fledgling businesses, and established companies,” CSH president Andrew Boninti told the crowded room. “It’s designed for the collision of people, which allows for networking.”

For the most part, the crowd was receptive, sipping rosé and eagerly asking questions about new business opportunities. But midway through the meeting, Jacie Dunkle and another business owner pressed the builders on how they plan to accommodate the parking needs of hundreds of new tenants.

“Many businesses coming to this space are already downtown and already have parking,” Boninti replied. “The parking we have now is being underused.”

Later, Dunkle, owner of Tin Whistle Irish Pub and The Salad Maker, elaborated on her concerns over the phone. “There will be 670 new people looking to park,” she says, “but they’re only adding 74 spaces underground and offering some spots in the Staples parking lot.”

“I don’t blame Woodriff,” she adds. “I blame the city. It never required him to have more spaces, even though people are struggling to find parking in the city as it is.”

Boninti says parking is a concern for anything downtown. “We have secured two offsite areas four to five minutes away, which should add 50 to 75 spaces,” he says, though he declined to specify the locations.

And while the 167,000-square foot space will hold a maximum of 700 people, Boninti predicts no more than 400 will occupy it at once.

The building will have bicycle racks and showers, which could encourage employees to run or bike to work. Other Silicon Valley-inspired elements include rooftop courtyards, open staircases, and a publicly accessible ground floor with retail and food for employees working long hours.

All told, CODE could usher in a new era for downtown businesses.

“There’s been a sea shift in the historic Downtown Mall,” said Roy van Doorn, treasurer of DBAC, at the January meeting. “We’re ending the historic side of the mall and going toward the experiential side, with music, restaurants, shopping, and working.”

Like Woodriff’s record-breaking $120 million donation to the University of Virginia to build a school for data science, that statement has polarized local residents. In addition to parking concerns, Dunkle resents the shift towards “high-tech” architecture. “The ‘historic’ Downtown Mall is losing its value as being a historic venue,” she says.

Others are cautiously optimistic. “It’s always welcome to have more spaces for people who will bring business,” says José Giron, owner of Consignment House Unlimited. But he’s worried he’ll lose customers who frequented Escafé and the ice skating rink, as well as some foot traffic during the years-long building phase.

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Historic effort: Burley High on its way to landmark status

Local activist Jimmy Hollins, who attended Burley High School (now a middle school, above) when it was “colored-only,” led a campaign for the school to receive landmark status. Photo by Skyclad Aerial

Last fall, after Burley Middle School unveiled a monument wall listing the names of students who attended the segregated school from 1951 to 1967, local activist Jimmy Hollins began circulating a petition to officially designate it a historic landmark.

Burley is one of three operating Virginia schools that had once been all-black, as it was when Hollins, 71, attended from 1960 to 1965. The Burley Varsity Club, a nonprofit co-founded by Hollins, collected over 500 signatures and sent a letter to the Albemarle County superintendent.

The Albemarle County School Board approved a resolution for the designation February 14. Next, the proposal goes to the Virginia Landmarks Register, which would officially grant historic status to the school. Then, an application would be submitted to the National Register of Historic Places to designate it a national landmark.

Burley’s unique story makes it a strong candidate for historic designation.

In the late 1940s, Charlottesville and Albemarle County decided to build Burley to show proponents of integration that public schools could truly be “separate but equal,” a common strategy in Southern localities at the time. The city and county provided Burley ample funding, hired top-shelf teachers, and distributed substantial resources to its athletic programs–all in the hopes of maintaining segregation.

At first, it seemed as though the plan may have worked. Burley was built to replace Jefferson and Esmont high schools and Albemarle Training School. “I think all the black kids wanted to go to Burley,” says Hollins, who played defensive tackle on the football team. “Charlottesville had police officers and firefighters who went to Burley, and UVA nursing school worked to get black nurses for UVA hospital from Burley.”

But the U.S. Supreme Court, in its 1954 unanimous Brown v. Board of Education ruling, determined that “separate educational facilities are inherently unequal” because segregating black children on the basis of race “generates a feeling of inferiority…in a way unlikely to ever be undone,” wrote Chief Justice Earl Warren. Regardless of quality, schools would have to integrate.

In the years between Brown and Hollins’ first year at Burley, Virginia Governor James Lindsay Almond Jr. shifted his efforts to actively resisting integration, temporarily closing Venable Elementary and Lane High schools in 1958 to avoid admitting black students. But his efforts were repeatedly quashed by mandatory desegregation orders from federal courts, and in 1959, the first black students enrolled at Lane and Venable.

Facing yearly declines in enrollment, Burley converted to a school for seventh graders from the overflowing Jack Jouett Junior High in 1967, then reopened as an integrated middle school in 1973.

Jeff Werner, historic designation and design planner with the city, decided to team up with Hollins after discovering they had a common interest: Since Burley Middle School is squarely within the Rose Hill neighborhood, designating the school could help the effort to preserve the entire historically black area, which has many homes dating from 1900 to 1930.

Werner inherited the project of designating Rose Hill a historic district from his predecessor, Mary Joy Scala.

Last summer, the Virginia Department of Historic Resources deemed Rose Hill eligible for historic status. This has granted special protections, since eligibility alone requires state agencies to take steps to mitigate potential damages when working in the district, even though its status has not yet changed.

Designating Burley a historic landmark “really changes the narrative,” Werner says. “Think about what that means to these individuals. That’s invaluable.”

Hollins concurs. “If I could go back to Burley I would do it all over again,” he says. “It was a family.” And one with a proud history, including the Burley Bears’ 1956 undefeated football season, which Hollins wants to make sure is not forgotten.

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Superintendent says Confederate imagery disrupts learning, but board chair postpones vote

The February 14 Albemarle County School Board meeting got heated after Chair Jonno Alcaro tabled a resolution that would restrict Confederate imagery on clothing in schools until the next meeting. Hate-Free Schools Coalition of Albemarle County provided refreshments. Photo by Eze Amos

A resolution to ban Confederate imagery on clothing in Albemarle schools was back on the agenda at the February 14 Albemarle County School Board meeting. The last time the issue came up, in August, six people were arrested.

School board members were split on the issue, and again postponed a decision, to the dismay of both attendees and Superintendent Matt Haas, who said he was ready to ban the imagery because it created a disruption to learning.

Haas says that rationale, supported by a recent report from the School Health Advisory Board that concluded Confederate imagery might be harmful to students, could protect the board should a lawsuit ensue. But several school board members, citing a 2003 First Amendment lawsuit from a Jack Jouett sixth grader not allowed to wear his NRA T-shirt, expressed concerns about infringing on students’ rights.

At first, the meeting was business as usual. After commending eight Albemarle students on qualifying for the Daily Progress Regional Spelling Bee, board members listened to local middle schoolers attest to the importance of extracurricular civics programs.

Then came public comment. Most speakers, many with Hate-Free Schools Coalition of Albemarle County, pressed the board to pass the resolution banning Confederate imagery. They delivered impassioned pleas stressing that minority children cannot feel safe around classmates wearing Confederate imagery, as audience members stood up in solidarity.

“To allow children to wear [Confederate imagery], carry it into a school, is no different from having them bring in swastikas,” said Matthew Christensen, a social worker. “I have seen the violence. I have seen the hatred. It has such an impact on our kids and it’s going to stay with them; it’s not going to go away when the image disappears.”

Star Peterson, one of the victims injured in the August 12 vehicular assault, spoke about the use of Confederate imagery during local hate rallies in 2017. “During the summer of hate…Richard Spencer and his people marched by a family festival with Confederate flags,” she said. “I can tell you I saw Confederate flags at a KKK rally. I can tell you I saw Confederate flags with my own eyes at the Unite the Right rally. There is no question of their significance.”

Before proceeding to debate, the board reviewed new items added to the Albemarle County schools budget, such as $30,000 earmarked for panic buttons. Then, it took a 30-minute break.

When the meeting reconvened, Assistant Superintendent Bernard Hairston submitted the resolution.

Board members Steve Koleszar, Kate Acuff, and Jason Buyaki, who wore a Confederate tie at one of the board’s previous discussions of the topic, said they felt the ban violated the First Amendment and failed to solve the underlying problem of racism.

Chair Jonno Alcaro implied he was reluctant to pass it for similar reasons, and decided to table the resolution until the next meeting, on February 28, to hear public concerns and allow the board more time to review the language.

Many in the audience were stewing. Amidst shouts of “coward” and “you’re supporting fascism,” Lara Harrison stood in front of the dais and flipped board members off with both hands.

After a minute of murmurs and muffled laughter, Alcaro noticed and asked her to sit down. “I’m not disrupting the meeting,” she replied, sitting on the steps. “I thought you were in favor of free speech.”

She returned to her seat after Alcaro threatened to have her removed.

Harrison had been arrested for trespassing during the special August 30 school board meeting concerning the same policy, though the charges were later dropped.

Audience interruptions continued throughout the meeting, but those heckling the board either stopped after being threatened with removal or stormed out of the auditorium.

Board member David Oberg supported the resolution, as did Graham Paige, who said he had evolved on the issue. Citing the School Health Advisory Board report, Katrina Callsen also supported the resolution.

“I think Confederate imagery should be banned from schools,” she said, comparing it to gang imagery. “Our city was the site of one of the largest hate rallies in recent history and the Confederate flag was a hate symbol.”

All board members in favor said they were willing to face a lawsuit but didn’t think it would happen because of the violent history of the flag in Charlottesville.

In response, Koleszar alluded to MLK. “You know, Martin Luther King warned about how the Northern liberal was more dangerous than the white racist,” he said.

“I am not a Northern liberal,” Paige retorted. The room erupted in laughter.

Haas said he would use his authority to prevent students from wearing Confederate imagery in the meantime. “I want a green light to work with the administrative team to have a plan to proactively tell families that the school board supports our current dress code,” he said. “I am now saying that you cannot wear these outfits to school.”

Nobody objected.

Before adjourning, Alcaro suggested the meeting prompted a change of heart. “I look forward to approving the anti-racism consent resolution in the next meeting,” he said. “I’ve heard a lot that I really need to think through.”

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Windfall blowback: UVA donation spurs backlash

Despite glowing coverage, many locals bristled at Jaffray Woodriff’s $120 million donation for a new School of Data Science at UVA. Photo by Eze Amos

UVA announced the biggest donation in its history, from hedge fund quant Jaffray Woodriff, with much pomp and circumstance, including an appearance by Governor Ralph Northam. But not everyone was happy with the McIntire alum’s decision to spend $120 million on a School of Data Science.

Some feel Woodriff’s donation could have served better causes. “One of the most important steps that @UVA can take to repair its relationship with black Charlottesville is to pay everyone who works for the university a living wage,” John Edwin Mason, associate professor of history at UVA, wrote on Twitter.

“There’s nothing fundamentally wrong with a $120 million gift or school for data science,” Mason says in a follow-up conversation. “But UVA has been one of primary drivers of racial inequality, prospering off the impoverishment and displacement of African Americans. And here comes a new school of data science announced as if it’s oblivious to this much more urgent conversation.”

When asked about the criticism, William Foshay, executive director of the private foundation through which Woodriff and his wife made the donation, said Woodriff “is a domain expert of data science, and he pursues philanthropy in the area he knows the most about.”

Michael Payne, a Democratic candidate for City Council, says the donation “should start a conversation about the role UVA plays in the community.” And he’s critical of Woodriff’s plans to remake the western end of the Downtown Mall. “He purchased the Main Street Arena, which had an ice rink, and Escafe, which was a big space for LGBTQ community for many years, so he could make room for office space for startups he’s invested in,” Payne says.

Some UVA students expressed frustration as well.

Veena Ramesh, a second-year computer science student, worries the school could overwhelm existing programs. “The [new data science] school will have to heavily rely on the statistics and computer science departments,” she says in an email. Since “these two departments are underfunded and stretched too thin, having an entire school rely on the expertise these professors have is an insane request.”

Other critics have framed Woodriff’s donation as the latest in a series of contributions that ultimately benefit him or people of similar status. Referring to tax filings from the Quantitative Foundation, Matthew Gillikin points out on Twitter that most of Woodriff’s charitable giving has gone towards private schools, squash facilities, and UVA.

“All educational organizations the foundation has contributed to have personal connections with the family,” says Foshay. “Merrill is an educator, so she focuses on educational philanthropy.”

Woodriff previously attracted controversy in 2013 after donating $12.4 million to UVA to build a squash center at the Boar’s Head Sports Club. Although the resort is owned by UVA and grants students open access, its three-mile distance from Grounds has effectively limited the court to UVA’s official squash team, which is almost entirely composed of white students from affluent areas of the Northeast.

Cory Runkel, a third-year economics student, confronted then-UVA executive VP and chief operating officer Pat Hogan about the squash donation in a private meeting held by the Living Wage Campaign at UVA on April 16, 2018. “Hogan said the university had asked if the $12 million grant could be used for another purpose, but the donor was adamant that it be used for the squash center,” says Runkel.

“Squash is Woodriff’s avocation,” says Foshay.

Runkel, the current treasurer of the Living Wage Campaign at UVA, says, “If you have $120 million, it’s up to you to spend it. I would hope you don’t spend it making new consultants.”