Tag: university of virginia

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In brief: 1619 Project comes to town, Chase announces governor bid, and more

Acclaimed New York Times Magazine writer Nikole Hannah-Jones speaks with Times columnist and local resident Jamelle Bouie about the 1619 Project at The Haven on February 17. PC: Eze Amos

Get serious: Talking reparations, monuments, and more

What does it mean to confront the truth? To not be complacent in an unjust system? To seek justice for those who’ve been oppressed by that system for over 400 years?

Acclaimed New York Times Magazine writer Nikole Hannah-Jones grappled with these questions­—and more—during a discussion with Times columnist (and local resident) Jamelle Bouie at The Haven on February 17.

“So much about the society that we’ve developed has been touched by [slavery], but we treat it as very marginal,” says Hannah-Jones, who also spoke at the Rotunda with UVA President Jim Ryan earlier in the day. Charlottesville “is a place that’s clearly still grappling and struggling with that legacy. And so I think it was important to have that conversation here.”

Hannah-Jones, who originated the magazine’s ongoing 1619 Project on the legacy of slavery, connected the project’s work to the years-long controversy surrounding the city’s Confederate statues, which she described as monuments to white supremacy.

“I just find it appalling that black folks pay to maintain statues to white supremacy and enslavement,” she says. “If you can’t get rid of monuments to people who fought [for slavery], then you’re not actually serious about making larger repairs.”

Hannah-Jones also addressed economic reparations for the descendants of slaves, saying “you cannot repay centuries of stolen capital without capital.” 

After reading Before the Mayflower: A History of Black America in high school, Hannah-Jones says she could not stop thinking about the mass erasure and misrepresentation of black history. After years of reporting on de facto school segregation and other racial justice issues, she pitched the 1619 Project to paint a broader picture of the long-lasting impact of slavery.

Hannah-Jones said 1619 has been criticized by some as “too pessimistic,” and she does not think there is a real desire for change, as “people aren’t willing to do the work,” especially when it personally affects them. 

Yet she encouraged community leaders, activists, and others to keep up the fight. 

“We do have to believe we can destruct the system that we have,” she said. “If you don’t believe it, then you can just sit comfortably where you are.”

About the 1619 Project

The 1619 Project was launched by The New York Times Magazine in August 2019, with a special issue devoted to tracing the legacy of slavery in America (which began 400 years earlier), and its impact on our current inequalities. The multimedia project now includes a podcast, teacher resources, and a forthcoming book, and aims to “reframe the country’s history,” the magazine says, “by placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of black Americans at the very center of our national narrative.”    

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Quote of the Week

“Fairfax needs to resign…Granting Fairfax the honor of speaking at the gala sends an exculpatory message I do not believe is merited.”

­—Charlottesville-based Dem super-donor Michael Bills, who withdrew a sponsorship when Lieutenant Governor Justin Fairfax was invited to speak at the Blue Commonwealth Gala 

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Ban banned

Charlottesville’s state Senator Creigh Deeds was one of four Democrats who voted to reject a bill that would ban the sale of assault weapons in Virginia. The bill had been supported by Governor Ralph Northam, and its failure is a rare victory for a gun-rights crowd that has loudly voiced its grievances in recent weeks. Deeds, whose district includes rural areas in Bath County, continues to earn his reputation as one of the most gun-friendly Democrats in the legislature.

Tessa Majors update

A 14-year-old middle school student was arrested in New York City February 14 for the fatal stabbing of Barnard freshman and St. Anne’s-Belfield alum Tessa Majors. The teen was charged with one count of intentional murder, one count of felony murder, and four counts of robbery. He will be tried as an adult.

Funke business

Hajo Funke, a German professor specializing in far-right extremism, was supposed to spend a semester teaching at UVA—but his visa has been delayed indefinitely, reports the Cavalier Daily. The professors who hoped to collaborate with Funke speculate that his work on far-right politics, criticism of Unite the Right, or a recent passport stamp from Iran might have caused the delay, but the consulate has kept mum. Foreign students and professors have had increasing difficulty entering the country since Trump took office, reported The New York Times in June.

Chasing power

State Senator Amanda Chase, who recently called Democrats “traitors” for passing modest gun restrictions, is the first Republican to announce a 2021 candidacy for governor. She says she has “brass balls’’ and will fight “the liberal, socialistic agenda that has taken control of the Capitol.” Chase says she’ll run as an independent if she can’t secure the Republican nomination, which actually might be a smart electoral play—Republicans have not won a statewide election in Virginia since 2009.

Virginia state Senator Amanda Chase has announced her bid for governor. PC: senate.virginia.gov

 

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Breaking free: Cyntoia Brown-Long shares her story of redemption with UVA students

Sex-trafficking victim Cyntoia Brown-Long spoke to hundreds of UVA students last week at Old Cabell Hall. PC: John Robinson

“Fifteen years ago, at the age of 16, I was told that I’d spend the rest of my life behind bars,” activist Cyntoia Brown-Long told hundreds of UVA students February 6 at Old Cabell Hall.

As a teenager, Brown-Long was in an abusive relationship with a man known as Kut, who forced her into prostitution. She was found guilty of murder and sentenced to life in prison after shooting a 43-year-old client whom she feared was about to kill her. 

Brown-Long’s cause was taken up in a 2011 documentary and, later, by multiple celebrities on social media, who argued that Brown-Long was a victim of sex trafficking and had killed the client in self-defense. 

She was finally freed in August, after being granted clemency (with a 10-year parole) by Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam. Now a successful author and public speaker, Brown-Long shared her story of redemption at an event sponsored by the Black Student Alliance and University Programs Council. 

“Cyntoia’s case stands as a clear example of the U.S. justice system’s proclivity for both criminalizing victims while simultaneously allowing the perpetrators of violent sexual crimes to get off scot-free,” said Ciara Blackston, vice president of the Black Student Alliance. 

According to a 2016 report by the Vera Institute of Justice, 86 percent of incarcerated women have experienced abuse in their lifetime, while 77 percent have specifically experienced violence at the hands of a partner. 

In her speech, Brown-Long dove into her early childhood, sharing how she found out she was adopted and biracial on her first day of kindergarten, when students pointed out that she didn’t look like her dark-skinned parents. Feeling like an outcast, she got into trouble many times over the years, landing her in an alternative school and, eventually, juvenile detention.

By the time she was 13, Brown-Long had run away from home and was living on the streets with women much older than her, who taught her how to “use [her] body as a commodity,” as she was continuously raped and assaulted. At 16, she met 24-year-old Kut, who abused her and forced her into prostitution—but who she believed was the love of her life.

“He found me in a place where I was desperate to be wanted,” Brown-Long said. “But there was no dollar amount that made him love me, because what I didn’t know was that love was never on the table.”

Four years into her sentence, Brown-Long was tired of “feeling like a failure,” and signed up to take college courses, earning her associate and bachelor’s degrees with a 4.0 GPA. She also mentored other women in prison, and met with government officials about sex trafficking. And she developed a relationship with her now-husband Jaime Long, who helped restore her religious faith. Brown-Long says that gave her a renewed sense of hope and confidence that she would one day be released.

Now, “as a free woman,” she said, “I get to honor the covenant I made with God, travel the country, and tell anyone who will listen about what He did for me.” 

Brown-Long helps spread awareness about sex trafficking and abusive relationships through her advocacy program GLITTER (Grassroots Learning Initiative for Teen Trafficking, Exploitation, and Rape). 

She’s also working with Tennessee legislators to change the ways juveniles are sentenced. In the state, juveniles can be sentenced to life in prison, and are not considered for parole until after they’ve served 51 years—the longest mandatory minimum sentence in the nation.

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In brief: People power, tech takeover, bye-bye bikes, and more

The old Monticello Dairy building will house at least two big tech companies. PC: Skyclad Aerial

People power

Opponents of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline scored a huge victory last week when the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals repealed Dominion Energy’s permit to build an invasive compressor station in Buckingham County’s historic Union Hill neighborhood.

“Today we showed that our community, our community’s history, and our community’s future matters more than a pipeline,” said Buckingham activist Chad Oba.

Union Hill became a flashpoint for the pipeline fight when activists began emphasizing the area’s long history. Free black people and former enslaved people founded the neighborhood just after the Civil War. The story of a historic community threatened by an energy monopoly attracted

Al Gore to speak in Buckingham last February. The former vice president called the pipeline a “reckless, racist rip-off.” 

“Environmental justice is not merely a box to be checked,” the court wrote in its decision. “The [Air Pollution Control] Board’s failure to consider the disproportionate impact on those closest to the Compressor Station resulted in a flawed analysis.”

Anti-pipeline groups have sought to slow down Dominion by tying up the project in litigation. The compressor station permit is one of many that pipeline opponents have contested. In the fall, the Supreme Court announced it would hear arguments about whether or not the pipeline could bisect the federally protected Appalachian Trail.

The strategy to slow the project seems to be working—Dominion’s initial estimates said the pipeline would be completed in 2019, but according to the Southern Environmental Law Center, less than 6 percent of the pipe has been laid in the ground so far.

Anti-pipeline protesters gathered in rural Buckingham County last year. PC: Friends of Buckingham County

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Quote of the Week

“This is my life, history. I returned to this area to make sure this story gets told correctly.”

—Calvin Jefferson, archivist and descendant of enslaved people at Monticello, speaking about his family at a panel event this week

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In Brief

You never forget how to ride a scooter

UBike, UVA’s languishing bike-sharing program, has been killed off by the e-scooter boom. The bikes have to be retrieved from and parked in specific docks, making them less convenient than the popular scooters. (Also less convenient: UBikes, unlike e-scooters, don’t have motors.)  

Moving in

PVCC, like other community colleges, is a commuter school—but that could change. As reported in The Daily Progress, plans to sell 17 acres the college owns off Avon Street Extended have been put on hold, as the Virginia Community College System State Board studies whether student housing could be a viable option for some of its community colleges.

Milking it

This town’s tech takeover continues: Two big companies recently signed leases in the Dairy Central office building/retail space currently under construction on Preston Avenue. CoStar, the world’s largest digital real estate company, and Dexcom, which makes diabetes monitoring systems, will together occupy 17,000 feet of office space at the intersection of Rose Hill and 10th and Page, two of Charlottesville’s historically black neighborhoods.

(More) statue drama

With the General Assembly potentially passing a law this year granting localities control over war memorials and monuments on their property, the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors is seeking public feedback on the future of the county’s Court Square, including its “Johnny Reb” statue. For the next six months, county staff will hold community conversations and “listening sessions” about the space, as well as conduct public tours, reports The Daily Progress. The Office of Equity and Inclusion’s equity working group will draft options for the future of the property, which the BOS will consider in June.

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Price check: UVA raises housing costs, again

UVA announced last month that it was raising on-Grounds housing prices by 3.5 percent for the 2020-2021 academic year. PC: Staff Photo

My first semester at the University of Virginia was full of surprises. I was surprised to learn just how difficult college classes are, how frustrating roommates can be, and how competitive everything at UVA is—just to name a few things.

What I found the most surprising though was that in October—a little over a month into the semester—people were already asking me where I was going to live next school year. I quickly learned that it’s quite common for UVA students to sign leases almost a year in advance, hoping to snag a good deal on a house or apartment before they’re all gone. However, there are still some students who, for a variety of reasons, opt out of apartment hunting, and sign up to live on Grounds.

Now, the decision on whether to stay on Grounds or move off Grounds may be more difficult for some students to make, with UVA announcing last month that it’ll be raising on-Grounds housing rates by 3.5 percent next fall to help pay for its increased debt and operating expenses. 

According to The Cavalier Daily, that’s an extra $220 for first-year housing, bringing the cost to $6,680 per year. For upperclassmen housing, that’s either a $250 or $270 increase, with several dorms now costing $8,120 per academic year.

And it’s on top of a previous hike (also 3.5 percent) the university enacted last year.

Third-year Sarandon Elliott says she’s enjoyed living on Grounds, and that, as a transfer student, it’s made it easier for her to navigate Charlottesville. However, she doesn’t know if it will still be worth it next year, “especially with the Board of Visitors already voting to increase tuition prices.”

“For a working-class kid like me, it’s scary because I’m wondering in the back of my mind, on top of all my studies, ‘How am I going to afford to live off-Grounds next year?’” she says. With dorm prices going up, off Grounds might offer some cheaper options, she says, “but it’s still expensive.”

Joe, another third-year (who asked that we not use his last name), says that with the university raising housing prices two years in a row, he doesn’t regret moving off-Grounds after his first year. 

“I have been able to get a much better quality of housing given the cost, with my rent being cheaper than on-Grounds prices this year and last,” he says. “I initially was a bit envious of the on-Grounds housing perks, like reduced maintenance fees, but soon found that there was no real competition when it came to costs.”

According to the University Finance Committee, the increased revenue from student housing will help pay off the $2 million in debt that the university accrued while renovating the McCormick Road Residence Halls (for first-years), and building Bond House (for upperclassmen). 

Elliott says this debt is no excuse for the university to raise housing prices, pointing to its $9.6 billion endowment.“They can afford to freeze prices. They can afford to build more dorms. It’s ridiculous,” she says. 

University spokesman Brian Coy says the endowment, which provides funding for professorships, scholarships, lectureships, academic prizes, and library acquisitions, cannot be used to “support or supplement” on-Grounds housing. 

Joe is just as frustrated with the university, and the heavy financial burden it has put on students.

“The university has already increased tuition…and the [Board of Visitors] seems wildly out of touch in terms of feeling the resentment students have for these decisions,” he says. “These changes will be marginal in terms of revenue, but significant in terms of the cost felt by students.”

To Elliott, it is even more frustrating that UVA is considering requiring second-years to live on Grounds, but keeps raising housing prices. However, if the university were to require them to live on Grounds, Joe thinks it should push for rezoning near Grounds and build more upperclassmen dorms, “freeing already existing affordable housing from student demand.” He says it should also contribute more to the Charlottesville Affordable Housing Fund and partner with more affordable housing advocacy groups.

Students aren’t the only ones worried about the price hike. Aaron Winston, a member of the Charlottesville Low-Income Housing Coalition, is concerned that it will only “continue the trend of UVA students choosing to live off Grounds,” putting even more pressure on the city’s already strained affordable housing market. 

“UVA has the resources to house its students, whether on Grounds or off, in a way that does not impact the Charlottesville affordable housing market,” he says. “It has land available that it can build additional student housing on.”

Winston is in favor of UVA requiring second-years to live on Grounds, as it “could potentially go a long way towards mitigating the impact of student rentals on affordable housing stock.” 

“But that alone isn’t going to be enough,” he says. “The university can do a whole lot more to improve the housing situation not just for its students, but for members of the Charlottesville community.”

Despite these concerns, there is still a high demand for on-Grounds housing—with 98.4 percent of on-Grounds housing being occupied during the 2019 fall semester, according to The Cavalier Daily. 

And that percentage could be even higher next year—while the housing process for 2020-21 is not yet complete, Coy says “the number of returning students who have signed housing agreements so far is 25 percent higher than at this time last year.”

“[This] suggests our students continue to appreciate the convenience, flexibility, and close-knit communities offered in on-Grounds housing,” he says.

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History lesson: Local educators help expand Virginia’s African American history curriculum

Charlottesville City Schools Superintendent Dr. Rosa Atkins is among those appointed to the Commission on African American History Education. Photo by Eze Amos

Community leaders gathered at the University of Virginia October 28 for the first meeting of the Commission on African American History Education.

Charlottesville City Schools Superintendent Dr. Rosa Atkins is among those appointed to the commission, which was established by Governor Ralph Northam. The purpose, says Atkins, is “to recognize that the African American experience and contributions to the development of our country are significant and have not been fully told. [We want] to fill in those areas in which African American history has not been taught.”

The commission will review Virginia’s history standards and practices and make recommendations for enriched standards related to African American history. The group will also offer recommendations on what support is needed to ensure cultural competency among teachers.

Northam established the commission by executive order on August 24 during a ceremony to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the first enslaved Africans in North America at Point Comfort in 1619.

“The important work of this commission will help ensure that Virginia’s standards of learning are inclusive of African-American history and allow students to engage deeply, drawing connections between historic racial inequities and their continuous influence on our communities today,”  Northam said in a press release.

Charlottesville City Schools came under fire last year for a New York Times/ProPublica piece highlighting longstanding racial inequities in city schools. Atkins says such disparities exist throughout the commonwealth, and that telling the story of African American history could be empowering for black students.

“Once our students, teachers, and community have truthful information about who African Americans are in our country and their role, it gives a degree of value to African American people and the experiences they have had, and it empowers them to look forward to the future and do more in our country,” says Atkins.

An enriched curriculum, she says, will help “all of our students to know the beauty—and the ugliness—of our country and of our commonwealth…and to appreciate the diversity of contributions to who we are today.”

Northam has appointed 34 people to the commission, including historians, teachers, school administrators, and community leaders from across the commonwealth. Also representing Charlottesville is Dr. Derrick P. Alridge, a professor of education and director of the Center for Race and Public Education in the South at UVA’s Curry School of Education. Members serve without compensation.

The commission will meet at least quarterly over the next year and publish a report with its findings and recommendations by July 1, 2020.

Atkins recognizes that adding more African American history to the Virginia curriculum is not an end-all-be-all.

“There are other cultures and other groups of people who have not been included in the Virginia history…and that have to be included,” says Atkins. “This is just one part of that hole.”

The commission’s next meeting will be held on December 16 in Farmville.

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In brief: Victory for C-VILLE, new trails, UVA living wage, and more

Dr. Jalane Schmidt and reporter Lisa Provence outside the courthouse. Photo by Jenny Mead

Case dismissed

Judge throws out defamation lawsuit against C-VILLE and UVA prof

On October 28, the Albemarle Circuit Court ruled in favor of C-VILLE Weekly and former news editor Lisa Provence, concluding that a defamation claim brought by Edward Tayloe II lacked the legal basis to proceed. 

Judge Claude Worrell also ruled in favor of UVA professor Jalane Schmidt, whom Tayloe also sued for defamation, citing comments she made in C-VILLE’s story.

The story at issue, “The Plaintiffs: Who’s who in the fight to keep Confederate monuments,” published in March, profiled the 13 people and organizations suing the city to keep the statues in place. Tayloe’s entry noted his lineage as one of the First Families of Virginia, and included information about his family’s history as one of the largest slave-holding dynasties in the state, a matter of historical record published, among other places, in the 2014 book A Tale of Two Plantations. Schmidt is quoted observing, in respect to Tayloe’s ancestors, “for generations this family has been roiling the lives of black people.”

In May, Tayloe sued the paper, Provence, and Schmidt, alleging that the story and Schmidt’s statements were defamatory because they implied that he was racist, and seeking $1.7 million in damages.

As lawyers for C-VILLE argued in their reply in support of their request to dismiss, Tayloe “does not contend that C-VILLE Weekly got any facts wrong in the article at issue. Instead, he is aggrieved by the truthful, if perhaps uncomfortable, presentation of his family history in connection with an accurate report on a subject of public concern.”

Attorneys for C-VILLE and Schmidt characterized the lawsuit as a SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation), and ACLU attorney Eden Heilman, representing Schmidt, warned of the “chilling effect” that such lawsuits could have on public discussion.

Before giving his decision, Judge Worrell noted that the “political discourse has gotten pretty rough and tumble” and that it “requires all of us to have a pretty thick skin,” except if one has been defamed or libeled. He went on to declare that neither Schmidt’s statements nor C-VILLE’s story as a whole were defamatory or libelous.

The ruling means the case is dismissed and will not go to trial.

 

 

Quote of the week

“It’s both the right and the smart thing to do.” —UVA President Jim Ryan on the university’s decision to expand its living wage plan to include contracted employees.

In brief

Firing back

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit held oral arguments on October 29th on a case to block Dominion Energy from placing a 54,000-horsepower compressor station, fueled by fracked methane gas, in the historically black community of Union Hill in Buckingham County. The Virginia State Air Pollution Control Board—comprised of members appointed by Gov. Ralph Northam, who owns stock in Dominion—issued a permit for the facility in January, inspiring uproar over what supporters call environmental racism.

Land grab

The City of Charlottesville has purchased 142 acres of land adjoining the Ragged Mountain Reservoir, which will be used for trails, environmental education programs, and forest protection, the city announced last week. The city paid $600,000 for the property, most of which was covered by a federal Community Forest Grant, and landowner Louisa Heyward donated the remaining value of the property (roughly $500,000).

Going bagless

For “both budgetary and environmental reasons,” the City of Charlottesville is swapping bagged leaf collection service for vacuum trucks. Starting October 28th, residents can rake their loose leaves to the curb for collection three times a season. Those who insist on bagging leaves can bring them to 1505 Avon Street Extended on Saturdays from 8am-1pm.

Pay raise

UVA announced on October 24 that its major contractors will be paying their full-time workers at least $15 an hour, fulfilling a promise UVA President Jim Ryan made when he raised pay for all full-time UVA employees. The new policy will lift the wages of more than 800 workers, including food service and janitorial staff, and will go into effect January 1.

Showing the receipts 

Days after city residents at the October 21st City Council meeting expressed the need for policy transparency, Mayor Nikuyah Walker has announced that the Charlottesville Police Department will post all policies and general orders to the city’s website, starting in January. At the meeting, speakers said the Police Civilian Review Board should be able to review all CPD policies. Council will vote on a proposed ordinance and bylaws for the CRB on November 4th.

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In brief: Capsized cop, jail board booed, and another Tar-jay?

Local mogul Coran Capshaw’s Riverbend Development has plans for the former Kmart shopping center on Hydraulic, now known as Hillsdale Place.

Another Tar-jay?

Local mogul Coran Capshaw’s Riverbend Development has plans for the former Kmart shopping center on Hydraulic, now known as Hillsdale Place. The company went before the Planning Commission May 14 for entrance corridor approval (after C-VILLE went to press).

The plans keep the existing footprint of the center that’s been closed since 2017. An 8,000-square-foot plaza lined
with shops and restaurants will be the space’s new focal point.

A Target-red-colored anchor, an outdoors store that looks suspiciously like an REI, and a mysterious storefront dubbed “Bells & Whistles” are depicted in the drawings.

Quote of the week

“There’s no way to prepare for a madman.” —WINA’s Dori Zook reports on the May 11 machete attack of two hikers on the Appalachian trail, one of whom was killed. James Louis Jordan, 30, of Massachusetts, faces federal charges.

ICE wins

The Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail Authority Board voted 7-4 to continue voluntarily notifying U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement when an undocumented inmate is released from jail, prompting explosive reactions from some people in the audience. Activists had been pressing the board to change its policy for more than a year.

Hit and run

Police are searching for the driver of a dark-colored sedan that grazed a pedestrian around 11pm May 9 on Pine Street near the Islamic Society of Central Virginia. Police do not believe the victim was intentionally targeted, but the mosque, which is holding nightly prayers during Ramadan, has a GoFundMe campaign to pay for additional security measures, and is now paying a police officer $40 an hour to be there every night.

Photo by Edward Thomas

Cop on a roll

An unusual sight on Seventh Street caught the eyes of many passersby last week, when a Charlottesville police cruiser rolled backward over a steep embankment, narrowly missing an apartment window. Only its front end could be seen peeking over the hill, putting it in a pretty challenging position for a tow. Cops say an officer exited his car to chase a suspect on foot—and you can probably guess what happened next.

Sheared

Greene County Commonwealth’s Attorney Matt Hardin cut his 10-inch tresses and donated them to Locks of Love May 8.

New ride

Megabus is launching a route from Charlottesville to Dulles Airport beginning May 16. The service will leave from the Seventh Street SW entrance of the Amtrak station and run Thursdays through Mondays, for $25 to Dulles and $20 back. Megabus entered the local market last fall, causing the Starlight Express to halt, and a trip to New York City that once took about six and a half hours now takes nine or 10.

Sheepskin stats

UVA will hand out 7,090 degrees over the upcoming weekend, about the same as last year.

  • 4,211 baccalaureate degrees, 151 of which were earned in a speedy three years, and five in a super-fast two years.
  • 457 medical and law degrees.
  • 2,448 total graduate degrees, including 311 Ph.D.s, 12 doctors of education, 20 doctors of nursing practice, and 10 doctors of juridical science.
  • 1,210 graduates are international students.

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Still active: Students work to change culture from the periphery

On the anniversary of the August 11, 2017, tiki-torch march through UVA Grounds, students refused to be corralled into a university-sanctioned demonstration area. Photo by Eze Amos

By Ben Hitchcock

At 10:30pm on May 4, 1970, approximately 1,500 UVA students gathered on the Lawn to protest the murder of four student activists at Kent State University earlier that day. On April 28, 1983, a group of 100 students marched up to the office of Student Affairs Vice President Ernest Ern and presented a list of demands, including the admission of more black students, the hiring of more black faculty, and an increase in the amount of financial aid for black students. In 1991, a Cavalier Daily opinion columnist wrote: “The world around us is buzzing with black political activism.”

The University of Virginia has a reputation as a hidebound and conservative place, where seersucker reigns supreme and change comes slowly. But progressive political activism has always been present on Grounds. For decades, UVA students have banded together to protest against all manner of injustices.

Today’s students are building on the activism of their forebears.

“Some of my friends were at the big bicentennial celebration on the Lawn, with a big banner that just says ‘200 years of white supremacy,’” says UVA student Corey Runkel, a member of the Living Wage Campaign at UVA. “We found an image from 1970, when they were trying to do co-education… They had a sign that said ‘150 years of white supremacy.’ It was interesting to see that history.”

Runkel, a third-year, has been a part of the Living Wage Campaign since shortly after his arrival at the school. Founded in the late ‘90s, the group has advocated for the rights of workers around Grounds, lobbying the administration to raise the minimum wage for the university’s employees. In 2006, 17 students occupied Madison Hall for four days before President John Casteen had them arrested.

The campaign scored a significant victory earlier this year, when President Jim Ryan announced that 1,400 full-time employees would receive $15 an hour by January 2020.

“When I was a first-year, people that didn’t know about Living Wage directly would never talk about it,” Runkel says. The group kept pushing, though, and managed to force the university into action.

Other students fight for different issues. The Virginia Student Environmental Coalition “engages in political advocacy, education, and direct action around environmental and social justice,” says leader Joyce Cheng. Recently, VSEC organized to slow down the Atlantic Coast Pipeline. Before that, the group lobbied the university administration to divest from fossil fuels.

“When the Atlantic Coast Pipeline opposition was really heightened, a couple semesters ago, we were really close with the people in Buckingham County,” Cheng says. “We have tried to strengthen the bonds between the university and the community.”

Many of UVA’s activist groups focus on issues beyond the university’s walls. Political Latinxs United for Movement and Action in Society concentrates on “having really close ties with the community,” says Diana Tinta, one of the group’s members. That could mean anything from hosting an open mic night to organizing dinners and donating profits to refugees in Charlottesville.

Recently, PLUMAS painted Beta Bridge to protest the Albermarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail’s relationship with ICE. Activities like painting the bridge can galvanize students, and “that’s given us a lot of momentum,” Tinta says.

The Living Wage Campaign, VSEC, and PLUMAS represent just a small sample of activist organizations at the university. UVA Students United has organized around a variety of social justice issues; the Queer Student Union advocates for UVA’s LGBTQ+ population; the Black Student Alliance has been a catalyst for political activism since its founding in the 1960s. The list of activist organizations at UVA goes on and on. The school is chock full of passionate and innovative students.

Nevertheless, UVA’s activists themselves remain generally pessimistic about the role of political activism in the university’s culture. Despite the long history of action and the proliferation of progressive groups, some organizers still feel like the stereotypes about UVA’s apathetic political climate hold more than a little truth.

“I think it’s probably apt to say that this is not a place that is known for political activism,” Runkel says. “We’ve found it a very difficult place to organize.”

Runkel ascribed this difficulty to the less-than-revolutionary politics of many UVA students. “Part of it is a sort of self-separation from the rest of UVA life. We’re fairly radical, relative to other groups.”

Cheng echoes Runkel’s lament. “[Mobilizing students] is something, to be honest, I think we struggle with, just because UVA students are so busy and so involved in all their different commitments,” she says. “UVA is very closed off to student activism.”

Tinta, too, believes most UVA students are insufficiently engaged. “I don’t think that students are active enough in advocating for issues, especially when it comes to advocating for the Charlottesville community,” she says. “There are a bunch of groups that do great work, but I think that all these works need more collaboration and more support, which I don’t think that UVA students really give.”

So while many groups are working hard for a wide variety of progressive causes, student activism continues to exist on the periphery of the school’s consciousness, and that relationship shows little sign of changing. As long as that remains true, UVA’s activists know they have more work to do.

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Indigenous inclusion: Advocates call for UVA American Indian studies center

UVA alum Guy Lopez (fourth from left) has convened a committee of other alumni and faculty to support the creation of an Indigenous Studies Center at the university. Over the weekend, they hosted a symposium to spread awareness and solicit advice on how to proceed. Photo by Eze Amos

Some issues don’t just go away if you ignore them.

Aside from a brief appearance at the May 6 City Council meeting, the last time we heard from UVA alum Guy Lopez was 2002, when the university was considering whether to invest $4 million in the University of Arizona’s Mount Graham Observatory to build a giant telescope on sacred San Carlos Apache land. UVA would then have permission to use it seven nights a year.   

Despite massive resistance from local and faraway American Indians like Lopez, who grew up on South Dakota’s Crow Creek Sioux Reservation, UVA proceeded with the agreement, and promised to mitigate its impact in a number of ways, including “increasing Native American representation at UVA by actively recruiting Native American students and faculty, and by enhancing scholarly research in Native American studies,” according to an October 2002 issue of Inside UVA Online.

Lopez says UVA hasn’t lived up to its promises, and an online tool shows that only 14 Native American students and five faculty were at the school in 2018. Now, he’s calling for an Indigenous Studies Center on Grounds, which he says is the brainchild of the committee of faculty and alumni he convened and Vice Provost Louis Nelson.

“It makes no sense that potentially one of the greatest American universities has had so little inclusion of American Indian scholars and indigenous people,” says Lopez. “The university is missing out on a rich world of knowledge and insight into life on this continent.”

Lopez says other universities have done a better job, and points to Stanford University, where there’s a Native American Cultural Center and annual powwow that draws more than 50,000 people. But “UVA doesn’t know basic facts about American Indian participation at the university,” he says, like who was the first American Indian graduate.

UVA spokesperson Anthony de Bruyn says increasing minority representation, among both faculty and students, is a strategic priority for the university. He says admission representatives have attended powwows and have been involved in the Pathkeepers for Indigenous Knowledge Native Youth Leadership Camp.

Programs on Native American history, culture, and social, legal, and political rights are under consideration, he adds.

Over the weekend, Lopez and his UVA-based committee hosted a symposium to facilitate conversations about the university’s relationship with its indigenous people, gain interest in an Indigenous Studies Center, and solicit advice from others on how to proceed with building it.

Among them was former San Carlos Apache tribal chairman Wendsler Nosie, who flew in from Arizona for the symposium. He says the observatory is “still a major issue back home,” where it adversely affects a sacred space called Dzil nchaa si’an in the Sonoran Desert, a critical habitat of the red squirrel and a place of worship and prayer for his tribe.

Now that conversation about the telescope is resurfacing, Wendsler says they want to be heard.

He and other Apaches, including acting tribal chairman Tao Etpison, requested a meeting with UVA President Jim Ryan over the weekend, and in a letter to Ryan, Etpison noted the school’s alleged “commitment to inclusion, diversity, and mutual respect,” after the events of August 11 and 12, 2017.

Ryan agreed to meet with the representatives of the tribe in a May 3 email, but it got overlooked, leaving the Arizonans to believe he declined to respond. Though they missed the opportunity for a meeting during their most recent visit, Wendsler says he’ll be back.

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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.