Tag: UVA

C-VILLE Weekly’s coverage of the University of Virginia.

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Free speech on shaky Grounds?

Many are unhappy that former Vice President Mike Pence is coming to UVA to speak on April 12. Photo: Gage Skidmore

By Kristin O’Donoghue

It was only a matter of time before the free speech debate was reinvigorated at the University of Virginia. Three years after the Miller Center’s decision to hire Trump administration official Marc Short sparked protests and faculty resignations from the center, the latest round of debate has been ignited by the impending arrival on Grounds of former U.S. Vice President Mike Pence on April 12.

Trump’s former second-in-command was invited by the UVA chapter of the Young Americans for Freedom. He plans to give a speech open to the university community titled “How to Save America from the Woke Left,” followed by a Q&A.

YAF issued the invitation because Pence is a “fighter for individual freedom” who represents the organization’s values, says YAF chair Nick Cabrera. Others at UVA see Pence in a different light.

Citing Pence’s “rhetoric that directly threatens the presence and lives of our community members,” the editorial board of The Cavalier Daily argued that the university should not provide a platform to Pence. 

“The LGBTQ+ individuals Pence has attacked, the Black lives he refuses to value and the successful stories of immigration he and the former president hope to prevent—these very people are our peers, our neighbors and our community members,” the editorial board asserts. “We refuse to condone platforming Pence.”

Fox News caught wind of The Cavalier Daily op-ed, and ran a story citing responses from several journalists and political commentators who criticized the students’ position. Daily Mail and The Washington Post have also reported on the students’ opposition. 

Cabrera thinks the opposition expressed in The Cavalier Daily “sets a dangerous precedent” for barring speech. 

“If the board tells us anything of substance, it’s that they more than anyone need to come hear Pence speak,” Cabrera says. “Hear a dissenting viewpoint, and come ask a question.”   

In mid-March, The New York Times published an essay by UVA student Emma Camp titled “I Came to College Eager to Debate. I Found Self-Censorship Instead.” Camp, a fourth-year who describes herself as a liberal, decried a university culture in which “backlash for unpopular opinions is so commonplace that many students have stopped voicing them, sometimes fearing lower grades if they don’t censor themselves.” Her piece has added to the fervor of the campus free speech debate, though she wrote the piece months before the invitation to Pence was sent. 

“We need a campus culture that prioritizes ideological diversity and strong policies that protect expression in the classroom,” Camp wrote in the piece. “We cannot experience the full benefits of a university education without having our ideas challenged, yet challenged in ways that allow us to grow.”

University President Jim Ryan and Dean of Students Ian Baucom appear to share Camp’s position, and expressed support for Pence’s visit in an op-ed they co-wrote and submitted to The Cavalier Daily.  

“We should all be proud that this University is a place where students have the courage and the platform to raise perspectives about events like these—regardless of their popularity among their peers or with prominent figures from outside of this community,” they wrote.

The university’s board of visitors recently endorsed a statement about free speech that expressed a commitment that “all views, beliefs, and perspectives deserve to be articulated and heard, free from interference.” 

Cabrera says it’s only fair that conservatives get a voice. “We as conservatives in YAF are being canceled for sharing our beliefs in the classroom, yet woke liberals are praised for their progressive tactics under the guise of diversity, equity, and inclusion principles.”   

Ryan and Baucom argue that sometimes the most important work of education happens in the “vigorous, messy and sometimes heated discussions that take place between empathetic speakers and generous listeners tackling important questions.” 

Camp believes that university policies effectively teach students “learned helplessness,” and that “if there’s speech that makes you uncomfortable…the solution is not to speak…it’s to run to an adult and report the person.”

The Cavalier Daily has published multiple op-eds on the vice president’s upcoming visit that represent different opinions. The student member of the board of visitors, fourth-year  Sarita Mehta, echoed Ryan and Baucom’s support for Pence’s speech. “Hosting Mike Pence does not validate his opinions, but presents them for our debate,” Mehta wrote. “The measure of our unity and the horizon of our collective future depends upon this confrontation.”

Another Cavalier Daily piece, written by first-year Elisabeth Bass, shared the board’s objection to platforming Pence, citing her own experience of feeling “othered” as a lesbian at the school, and Pence’s anti-LGBTQ positions, including his opposition to gay marriage and support for federally funded conversion therapy. “We cannot invite people into our home who deny any part of our community or its humanity,” Bass wrote.

Professors have chimed in on the debate, too. 

“Mike Pence should certainly be allowed to speak at UVA,” says history professor William Hitchcock, one of the two UVA faculty members who resigned from the Miller Center in 2018 over Short’s hiring. At that time, Hitchcock differentiated between the university allowing someone to speak on Grounds and paying them a salary. “I think that he should be under the microscope rather than a member of the team doing the forensic analysis,” Hitchcock told NPR at the time.

Of Pence, Hitchcock says, “Students should listen to his views. If they do not like his words, they should mobilize with other students and make their voices heard in print and online.”

Camp believes that students must learn ideological resilience. If they oppose Pence’s viewpoints, they should protest his appearance rather than demand that the university silence him, she says. 

University Democrats president Carissa Kochan has the following advice for students who are unsure about whether or not to attend the event: “I encourage students to make the best decision for themselves based on their interest in hearing from a person who supports policies that directly contradict the notions of equality and personal freedom.”

Cabrera asserts that YAF “will continue to fight for everyone’s right to speak their mind.” The question about how community members respond to speech they disagree with, remains. 

Camp hopes that attendees will use their right to protest, but also remain civil. “While you have the right to scream racial slurs, you shouldn’t do that.” 

In their op-ed, Ryan and Baucom referenced Clark Kerr, former president of the University of California, who said, “our task is not to make ideas safe for students, but to make students safe for ideas.”

“The exchange of ideas about Mr. Pence’s presence on Grounds is not a sign that free expression is dead on Grounds—it’s a sign that it is alive and well,” they added.

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‘A serious world’

UVA students and others gathered at the amphitheater for a vigil in support of Ukraine. Photo: Eze Amos
By Kristin O’Donoghue and Maryann Xue

UVA’s McIntire Amphitheater was bathed in the warm glow of hundreds of LED candles on Thursday evening, as members of the UVA and Charlottesville communities gathered for an hour-long vigil to stand in solidarity with Ukraine. The Ukrainian flag was projected at the front of the stage, a show of support as the country fights off a violent Russian invasion.  

People held posters and candles as they listened intently to faculty and Ukrainian students, who shared their personal experiences through songs, poetry, and speeches. Organizers collected donations for The Voices of Children, a Ukrainian-based organization that provides counseling to children impacted by the war, and World Central Kitchen, which is providing free meals to Ukrainian refugees. 

Student Lisa Kopelnik spoke about how important it was for governments to provide as much help as possible to protect Ukraine.

“As students at UVA, every day we have the privilege of speaking our minds, advocating for our needs, and working together to achieve our vision,” she said. “The youth of Ukraine deserve the same. They deserve to be able to live freely, love their cities and nation, [and] envision a future for themselves. They cannot be deprived of a basic human right to exist.” 

Sophia Baraban, also a student, read a poem from her Ukrainian father and relatives that described how they longed to be able to look upon their native land once more, free of any attempts at obstruction. 

“I have neither fate nor freedom. Only one hope is left,” she read. 

The vigil ended with a moment of silence, and attendees were encouraged to line up their candles at the front of the stage before silently departing the venue. 

Two days earlier, a group of professors held a teach-in to provide cultural and historical background on the events unfolding in Europe.

“The invasion brought together Ukrainian identity in a way we had not yet seen,” history professor Kyrill Kunakhovich told the 250 students and faculty who were there (another 250 tuned in over Zoom). 

“This is what it looks like when a war of dictatorship and kleptocracy is launched against a people demanding freedom and democracy,” added history professor William Hitchcock.

The professors tried to offer students and faculty some guidance on how to help those suffering. They suggested making donations to Voices of Children, Kyiv Independent, World Central Kitchen, Care.org, and Razomforukraine.org. 

Todd Sechser, who teaches politics and public policy at UVA’s Batten School, offered background on the possibility that the crisis could escalate to nuclear war, and national security expert Philip Potter shared how the “radical transparency” of the Biden administration has encouraged the United States’ allies to quickly coordinate around a package of economic sanctions and other measures. 

Philip Zelikow, a history professor who served on George H.W. Bush’s National Security Council, closed the event by urging the students to remain engaged and work to “build a new world order.” 

“You are living in a serious world in which serious things are happening,” he said.

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In brief: Newspapers threatened, anti-vaxers out

aerial photo of UVA hospital
UVA Hospital PC: Skyclad Aerial

Vultures circle Virginia newspapers

A feature story in The Atlantic last month dubbed Alden Global Capital “the hedge fund killing newspapers.” On Monday, Alden announced that it’s hoping to acquire Lee Enterprises, which owns 13 newspapers in Virginia, including The Daily Progress, Richmond Times-Dispatch, and The Roanoke Times.

The acquisition should set off alarm bells for anyone who cares about local news. In a letter announcing the offer, Alden wrote, “our interest in Lee is a reaffirmation of our substantial commitment to the newspaper industry and our desire to support newspapers over the long term.” The firm’s actions over the last decade suggest the exact opposite is true.

Alden owns more than 200 newspapers. After acquiring a paper, it follows a standard model: “Gut the staff, sell the real estate, jack up subscription prices, and wring out as much cash as possible,” McKay Coppins writes in The Atlantic. That plan turns a quick profit for Alden, and has turned venerable institutions like The Baltimore Sun and Chicago Tribune into hollow husks of their former selves.

In recent years, Progress staff have unionized, in an effort to maintain some autonomy as the newspaper industry further consolidates. “Lee Enterprises is pretty terrible,” tweeted Nolan Stout, a former Progress reporter, “but this would be even worse.”

Atlanta’s Dewberry rots, too

The pile of steel on our Downtown Mall isn’t the only half-finished building owned by John Dewberry that’s rotting on prime real estate. In Atlanta’s desirable Midtown neighborhood, a 21-story office tower called the Campanile has been falling into disrepair for the last two years. “The neglect is starting to show,” reported The Atlanta Journal-Constitution last week. “Weeds grow through a chain link fence. Sheets of protective plastic wrap are peeling off the building’s exterior.” Sound familiar?

PC: Ashley Twiggs

Dewberry says construction on the project will resume by Christmas. But Atlantans are skeptical: Dewberry has developed a reputation there for leaving desirable properties unfinished, earning himself a 2017 Bloomberg profile dubbing him “Atlanta’s Emperor of Empty Lots.” Meanwhile, here in Charlottesville, the peeling advertisement on the front of the downtown building still says “Coming spring 2009.”

In brief

Anti-vaxers out at hospital

UVA Health lost 121 of its more than 7,000 employees because they refused to get a COVID-19 vaccine, which was required by November 1. Thirty-nine employees resigned, 64 were fired, and 18 were suspended without pay for refusing to comply. In total, the system has lost 38 nurses and two doctors, reports Charlottesville Tomorrow. UVA Health’s spokesperson says the system anticipated some degree of noncompliance and has been able to manage the losses.

Dominion pays up

The State Corporation Commission and Dominion Energy have agreed on a settlement in which Dominion will dish out $330 million in refunds to customers. The average Dominion Energy user is in line for a $67 refund (in the form of bill credits), and will see their monthly bill decline by 90 cents in the coming years. The settlement averts what could have been a contentious case between the corporation and the state attorney general’s office, which alleged that the energy company had been taking in excess profits over the last three years.

Students protest Rittenhouse verdict

About 200 UVA students and members of the Charlottesville community chanted “no justice, no peace, no racist police” as they marched from the UPD station on the Corner to Carr’s Hill on Saturday afternoon, in protest of the verdict in Kyle Rittenhouse’s trial. Rittenhouse was acquitted Friday on all five counts brought against him after he shot and killed two men and injured a third during a protest in Kenosha, Wisconsin, in 2020. Saturday’s demonstration was organized by student groups such as the Black Student Alliance and the Young Democratic Socialists of America at UVA, and included a series of speakers.

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Filling the spaces

Photo: Eze Amos.

Charlottesville finally removed its statues of Confederate generals Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson in July. Since then, the spaces where the racist monuments once stood have been empty, as the city decides what should go there.

During a virtual forum hosted by the UVA Democracy Initiative’s Memory Project last week, Black activists Bree Newsome Bass and Emil Little shared their experiences confronting Confederate monuments, and discussed how public spaces like the ones in Charlottesville should be treated after the Confederate iconography is removed. Atlantic columnist and poet Clint Smith moderated the event.

After 21-year-old white supremacist Dylann Roof shot and killed nine Black people at a church in Charleston, South Carolina, in 2015, the state lowered its American flag atop the capitol to half-staff to honor the victims—but kept its Confederate flag flying high. Due to state law, the rebel flag could only be lowered after a two-thirds approval by the state legislature.

Instead of waiting for legislators to “essentially decide that our lives matter,” Newsome Bass felt she needed to take action and show defiance against white terrorism. Ten days after the horrific shooting, she scaled the flagpole outside the state capitol, and tore down the Confederate flag. She was immediately arrested.

“So much of the national focus of discussion was on the display of the flag, not the circumstances that led to a white man in his 20s being so errantly racist that he decides to go into a church and murder people,” said Newsome Bass. “It highlighted the disregard for our lives as Black people.”

The next month, South Carolina finally removed the Confederate flag from statehouse grounds—something Black activists had called for for decades.

Following the deadly Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville in 2017, students at the University of North Carolina held their own protest against the university’s Silent Sam statue, which commemorated a Confederate soldier. For months, white supremacists had been visiting the racist monument, causing many Black students to feel unsafe, explained Little.

“I’m thinking the school’s going to have our back on this,” said Little, who was a doctoral student at the university. “But I’m watching police shove students, laughing at them, mocking them, hitting them.”

Over the next year, Little participated in sit-ins in front of Silent Sam, and passed out materials about the racist history of the monument. Fed up with the university’s refusal to take action, Little smeared red ink—mixed with their own blood—onto the statue during a protest in 2018. Little was arrested and later found guilty of vandalism.

“If you’re so proud to have this armed solider still standing for this cause, why not depict what he stood for, which was the murder of Black people and their enslavement,” said Little.

Little was inspired to smear real blood on the statue by a protest they witnessed while studying in China, during which migrant workers threw blood on a police station.

“The next day, even though there was no blood, people were like, ‘This has been tainted.’ They wanted to avoid it,” said Little. “I knew that doing [my protest] during the day meant that people would see the red ink and blood…and we believe that when something is bloodied it’s tainted.”

Four months later, hundreds of student protesters toppled Silent Sam. A tree has since been planted at the former site of the statue.

When recontextualizing the spaces where Confederate monuments once stood, Newsome Bass said it’s important to go “a step beyond” replacing them with a statue of a Black historical figure, like Harriet Tubman.

“It has often been about idealizing particular figures, which goes to the way that society itself is organized around capitalistic ideas of individualism, white patriarchy, the idea that we have supreme white men that are elevated above the rest of humanity,” said Newsome Bass.

“How do we transform public space in a way that honors and celebrates the ideals of humanity or the inclusion of everyone?” she asked.

Little wishes the Silent Sam monument had been left, toppled, on the ground. “UNC getting rid of it was convenient,” Little said. “Not only did the monument disappear, but the history of contention around the monument disappeared when it was taken away.”

For people like the Sons of Confederate Veterans, Confederate spaces are sacred because of their family lineage and belief in the Lost Cause myth, Smith pointed out. “How are you thinking about what it means to…make clear that these things that are rendered holy are manifestations of harm?”

Newsome Bass said she classifies white supremacy as a religion, upheld by centuries of colonization and state-sponsored violence.

“One of the main ways we desacralize something is to name it and classify it as a thing,” she said. “When we are talking about taking down a monument, it’s never just about the monument—it’s about the deconstruction of this ideology of whiteness.”

Both activists encouraged the audience to educate themselves on white supremacy, and support activists and organizers fighting for Black liberation.

“You cannot enter into this kind of a thing without taking a side,” Little said. “To be an observer in a struggle for life and death for Black people to me means you’re already against me.”

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Shop talk

Denver Riggleman was among the panelists at UVA’s Democracy Biennial event over the weekend. Courtesy of Denver Riggleman.

By Kristin O’Donoghue

Tired of government regulations standing in the way of his wife’s whiskey distillery, Denver Riggleman decided to enter “the belly of the beast” and run for public office. 

Riggleman hoped to help understand the rule-making processes and regulations that affect small businesses. “We need people who understand how that dance happens,” he said at UVA’s Democracy Biennial conference over the weekend.

Riggleman was one of a dozen panel participants at the opening event of UVA’s Miller Center of Public Affairs’ two-day conference. UVA has invested a lot in the study of democracy: The school hosts The Miller Center of Public Affairs, the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy, the Center for Politics, the Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service, the Democracy Initiative in the College of Arts and Sciences, the Karsh Center for Law and Democracy, and, most recently, the $50 million Karsh Institute for Democracy.  

Friday’s panel was entitled Democracy and Capitalism. The event featured five CEOs, two UVA professors, two former presidential cabinet members, the mayor of Champaign, Illinois, the leader of a Chicago-based Muslim charity, and Riggleman.  

University Provost Liz McGill introduced the roundtable event, proclaiming that the University of Virginia is “uniquely positioned” to be a leader in combating disinformation and repairing our fractured democracy. 

Panelists were asked to share their thoughts on whether democracy in practice could live up to its rhetorical aspirations.

Tom Perez, Barack Obama’s secretary of labor and the chair of the Democratic National Committee, pushed against the idea that government and business interests were at odds with one another. 

“When we move away from the false choice dynamic, we can really improve our democracy,” Perez said. “As long as we live in a world of false choices, it’ll be harder to solve civil rights challenges, income inequality, and climate challenges.” 

Robert Bruner, moderator and dean emeritus of the Darden School of Business, said that government should begin at the “ground level,” adding that “success begins with an understanding of the customer. Democracy is messy and capitalism can be turbulent, but each delivers profound benefits to society.” 

Riggleman said that after working in Congress, he gained “a new appreciation for how government and markets can work together.”

“I’m also always going to err on the side of the companies and what they have to endure,” the former Republican legislator continued.

Carolyn Miles, former president and CEO of Save the Children and current special advisor and executive fellow at Darden, said she sees hope in Darden students who demonstrate a commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion and environmental, social, and governance initiatives. 

Darden professor R. Edward Freeman said that it’s possible to create a system that allows businesses to be both sustainable and successful, but that the country’s policymakers have to “see the need to do it.” 

UVA students lambaste Lawn poster regulations

“I think without freedom of speech and open inquiry, you just can’t have a functioning university,” says Emma Camp, a UVA student who lives on the Lawn.

The doors of UVA’s Lawn rooms have become the latest stage for campus free-speech debates. Last year, a student hung a floor-to-ceiling “Fuck UVA” sign on her Lawn room door. That prompted the university to pass new regulations limiting the size of what students are allowed to display on the hallowed Lawn. This week, Camp hung a poster criticizing the poster regulations, and the school’s facilities management team took it down. 

The new rules require all signage to be affixed to two message boards on the Lawn doors. Some of the boards are less than 8.5 inches wide, making it impossible to hang a regular sheet of paper.

Noah Strike hung an advertisement for a Planned Parenthood volunteer opportunity on his door last week. Soon after, facilities management asked him to either remove the poster or trim it to fit his 7-inch message board. Strike cut the edge off the paper and hung it back up. 

“It was very confrontational,” he says. “We got a knock on the door and they told us we had to take stuff down, and they refused to leave until we did.”

Camp knew she was breaking the rules when she affixed a large sign with the full text of the First Amendment on her door on September 17. But she felt it was important to point out the hypocrisy of the new policy. “When students use freedom of expression in a way they don’t like, the reaction is to limit speech,” she says. “And to me that’s deeply hypocritical.”—Amelia Delphos 

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They’re back

The graph above shows that UVA cases among students, staff, faculty, and contract workers spiked at the beginning of each semester in the 2020-21 school year. Photo: UVA.

This week, more than 27,000 undergraduate and graduate students descended on Charlottesville in preparation for the first week of UVA’s fall semester. The two largest spikes in COVID cases in the city occurred during the first two weeks of the fall semester in 2020 and the first two weeks of the spring semester in 2021.

Despite this, UVA is anticipating a “normal” semester. Students were required to submit proof of vaccination by July 1. Currently, 96.6 percent of UVA students are vaccinated, including 97.1 percent of students living on Grounds. Of those students who are unvaccinated, 335 permanent waivers were granted to those unable to receive a vaccination due to medical or religious reasons, and 184 temporary waivers were granted to students unable to be vaccinated over the summer but who intend to get vaccinated as soon as they return to Grounds.

UVA made headlines this week when it announced that 238 students, less than 1 percent of enrolled students, had been disenrolled for failing to meet the vaccination requirement. Of those 238 students, only 49 were enrolled in classes. According to UVA spokesman Brian Coy, the university reached out to these students multiple times before they were disenrolled.

If the students want to return to Grounds, they have until August 25 to comply and re-enroll for fall semester. Students may also choose to return in the spring, but only if they complete the vaccination requirement.

Students were not the only members of the UVA community required to be vaccinated this fall. All faculty and staff were expected to be vaccinated by the start of the fall semester. Currently, 92 percent of UVA’s academic division is fully vaccinated, including 96 percent of teaching and research faculty. 

However, it is unknown how many contract workers, such as those in food service, on the custodial staff, and in child care centers have been vaccinated. Because the workers are contracted through third-party companies, the university cannot require vaccinations for these workers. On September 1, an executive directive from Governor Ralph Northam will go into effect, requiring contractors to disclose their vaccination status to their employers.

Everyone entering a UVA property is required to wear a mask indoors unless actively eating or drinking or when alone in an enclosed space like an office until September 6. Masks are not required in common spaces in residence halls, but they are required on buses. Unvaccinated students, faculty, and staff are required to take a weekly COVID test and wear a mask when indoors, outdoors, and in common spaces.

“The entire community—faculty, staff, and students—is responsible for enforcing the masking requirement,” says UVA spokesman Wes Hester. “It is a shared responsibility. If necessary, disciplinary action would be contemplated for repeat offenders or anyone who refuses to comply.”

Some students have petitioned for the school to continue the regular prevalence testing that it conducted last year, especially after a raft of false positives among Rice University students sent a wave of panic through the higher education world. 

“In the event of new cases and clusters, we plan to implement targeted prevalence testing to mitigate further spread,” Hester says. “Unvaccinated people who are on Grounds will be subject to at least weekly prevalence testing.”

Employees, faculty, staff, and students who work in or enter UVA Health properties, the medical school, nursing school, or Health Sciences Library are required to log their symptoms in UVA’s Hoos Health Check app every morning.

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You’ll never walk alone

UVA’s new app, Rave Guardian, is designed as a one-stop safety resource for students. Supplied photo.

This fall, UVA will debut a new app, Rave Guardian, designed to help keep students safe on Grounds.    

The app is a one-stop shop that allows users to read safety alerts, locate phone numbers for SafeRide, Dean on Call, and CAPS on Call, submit tips to the school’s Just Report It tip line, anonymously text the university police department, and call 911. The app also has a virtual escort feature, where users can invite trusted people to virtually walk with them when they’re walking alone. 

The Rave Guardian app was developed by a third party and sold to organizations that want to provide safety resources for their people. (Other customers include Cornell and the University of South Carolina.) The app came with an upgrade to UVA’s emergency alert software and costs the school’s emergency management office around $7,800 annually. Downloading the app is not required for students, but it is encouraged. Users will need a virginia.edu email address to log in. 

According to Sergeant Ben Rexrode of UPD, the app is anonymous. UPD does not know who is using the app unless the user allows, such as identifying themselves when reporting a tip. Rexrode did clarify that in an emergency situation, the police are able to ping users’ locations, just like when someone calls 911. 

“We’re not able to gather data off of it, or anything for our personal use or gain,” Rexrode says. “We’re really just trying to offer it to the community for larger community safety.”

Student safety is a concern among students, parents, faculty, and staff alike. On June 29, a woman was sexually assaulted after falling off a scooter near the UVA medical center. On July 3, a woman was raped in the area of 14th Street NW and Grady Avenue, a popular residential area for students. 

Abby Palko, director of the Maxine Platzer Lynn Women’s Center at UVA, says the app looks promising. “I think safety tools that empower students, particularly women, and empower them to feel confident moving across Grounds are important,” she says.

“At the Women’s Center, we are huge fans of having multiple options for students,” Palko continues. “The issues that we work on and engage with students on are really big, complex issues, and there isn’t a one-size-fits-all answer to them.” 

Palko points out that due to the pandemic, 75 percent of undergraduates this fall will have never completed a full year on Grounds. Many students, women especially, share their locations with others while walking at night, but new underclassmen may not have people  they trust enough to track them in Apple’s Find My Friends app or Snapchat Map. The new app’s virtual walk feature could help in those situations. 

“Something we try to discourage is traveling alone, especially at night,” says Rexrode. “As a student, you’re sometimes just going to be by yourself at night. It’s not realistic to say never walk by yourself.”

When asked whether there’s more the Office of Emergency Management and/or UPD could be doing to increase student safety, Palko says that safety is a community issue. She encourages people to think about how they move through the university and city, and how they might contribute to community safety. “It sounds corny but it really is on all of us,” she says.

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Mask on

A rise in coronavirus cases across the United States prompted UVA to reinstate its mask mandate last week. The university says it will re-evaluate the decision in September. Photo: Karen Blaha.

On Friday, UVA announced that all students, faculty, staff, and contract workers, both vaccinated and unvaccinated, will be required to wear a mask when on UVA property. The policy took effect at the beginning of this week, and the school says it’ll re-evaluate in September. The university made this announcement as cases of the delta variant surge across the country.

“This policy will allow us to start the year at full capacity and reduce the likelihood of a spike in cases driven by the delta variant and a coming together of students from many places,” an email from Executive Vice Presidents Liz Magill and J.J. Davis says. “Over the next few weeks we will be monitoring case counts, hospitalizations, and other conditions, with a goal of modifying or lifting this masking policy for fully vaccinated people by Sept. 6.”

Under the new policy, masks are required at all university-owned or leased public spaces like academic or administrative buildings, libraries, labs, dining halls, intramural/recreation facilities, and UVA Health properties. Students are not required to wear masks in dorms, and the policy does not apply to people alone in a closed space like an office. 

Additionally, all students, faculty, and staff are required to be vaccinated unless they have a medical or religious reason that prevents it. Those who are unable to be vaccinated will be required to undergo weekly testing and wear a mask once the temporary masking rule expires.

“The university has an obligation to protect its students and workers from COVID-19 beyond this temporary mask mandate,” Student Council President Abel Liu says, pointing to hazard pay,
asymptomatic testing, mental health resources, and readily accessible vaccines as other key initiatives for the school. “UVA is one of the wealthiest universities in the country, and these resources should be readily available for its students and workers.”

Other state universities—including Virginia Tech, VCU, and James Madison—have adopted mask mandates for returning students and faculty. The restrictions align with current recommendations from the CDC, which advise everyone to wear a mask indoors in public regardless of vaccination status.

The reaction to the new policy has largely been positive. “The pandemic isn’t over yet,” says Cheyenne Butler, a rising second-year student. “We still have multiple variants going around, and I think the best way to keep us safe—students and faculty and also the greater Charlottesville community—is to still wear masks.”

Liu agrees. He says that although most of the university community is vaccinated, only 61.6 percent of the adult population is vaccinated in Charlottesville. “With students pouring into UVA from all over the world, we must be mindful of the needs of Charlottesville residents. UVA students are guests in their city.”

Of course, the mandate is a reminder that much of the summer’s progress in combating the virus has slipped away. “I remember the first day when we could come into the office without wearing a mask,” says David Kittlesen, an associate professor of biology. “It was just joyful.”

After two and a half semesters and two summer sessions on Zoom, Kittlesen is excited for a return to in-person instruction. Last week he checked out the room where he is slated to teach first-year biology to over 400 students in the fall. “I pictured everybody there, no masks, and me without a mask,” he says. That’s not to be, at least at first. “With freedom comes responsibilities,” the professor says, “and this is a responsibility that we have now that seems reasonable to me.”

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In brief

front view of Montpelier during sunset showing four white columns topped by triangle archway
PC: Jennifer Glass

Descendants will have equal say at Montpelier 

The Montpelier Foundation voted last week to share governance of the historic property with the Montpelier Descendants Committee, an organization comprised of descendants of the enslaved laborers who once lived and worked on the plantation. 

Montpelier is widely known as the estate of James Madison, the fourth U.S. president, but the Orange County property was also home to more than 300 enslaved laborers. In recent years, the organization has sought to bring their history to the fore. The move to formally share control of the property with the descendants community is “unprecedented,” says the foundation.

James French, the chair of the Descendants Committee, praised the decision in a statement. “This vote to grant equal co-stewardship authority to the Descendants of those who were enslaved is groundbreaking,” said French, who’s a financial technology entrepreneur by day. “The decision moves the perspectives of the Descendants of the enslaved from the periphery to the center, and offers an important, innovative step for Montpelier to share broader, richer and more truthful interpretations of history with wider audiences.”

COVID cases remain steady—and low—in the Charlottesville area 

From June 7 to June 21, Charlottesville and Albemarle combined reported 20 new cases of coronavirus. That’s the smallest number of new cases in a two-week stretch since the early days of the virus in the spring of 2020. The Blue Ridge Health District, which includes Charlottesville, Albemarle, and four neighboring counties, reported just two new cases on Monday and two new cases over the weekend. 
Sixty-eight percent of Albemarle adults and 57 percent of Charlottesville adults are fully vaccinated. Statewide, 60 percent of adults have had both shots. 

I hate losing at pretty much anything. My girlfriend hates playing Mario Kart with me due to this fact.


UVA closer Stephen Schoch, discussing his competitive mentality ahead of the baseball team’s College World Series appearance this week

In brief:

Masks won’t be prosecuted

Virginia state law says it’s illegal to wear a mask in order to conceal your identity. For obvious reasons, that law was put on hold during the pandemic, but it’ll go back into effect on June 30, when the state government’s COVID-inspired state of emergency ends. Locally, however, people who plan to continue masking shouldn’t worry—the Charlottesville and Albemarle Commonwealth’s Attorney’s offices released a joint statement this week saying, “Those who wish to continue to wear masks in public to mitigate the risks of COVID-19 spread and exposure may do so without fear of prosecution.”

Affordable Albemarle

The Albemarle Planning Commission voted 6-1 in favor of a proposed development that will see 190 affordable units, and 332 total units, constructed near the Forest Lakes community off Route 29, reports The Daily Progress. Since the proposal’s debut in March, some Forest Lakes residents have voiced their opposition to the construction, but the planning commission cited the high cost of living in the county as a key reason for allowing the project to move ahead.

Sue me? Will do, said hospitals  

A study from Johns Hopkins University highlights just how aggressive UVA and VCU hospitals were in suing patients for unpaid medical bills, reports the Virginia Mercury. Both facilities stopped suing patients in 2020 after facing public pressure over the practice, but the study reports that the two hospitals were the most litigious of 100 hospitals analyzed. From 2018 to 2020, VCU initiated legal action 17,806 times. UVA finished second at 7,107. 

Categories
News

Democracy dialogues

Capitol rioters hold Trump flags near Capitol building
With the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol just six months in our rearview, the timing for UVA’s new Karsh Institute of Democracy couldn’t be better. PC: Starmax/Newscom Via ZUMAPress

The University of Virginia is deeply invested in the study of democracy. On Grounds, you can study democracy at the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy, or the Miller Center of Public Affairs, or the Center for Politics, or the Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service, or the Democracy Initiative in the College of Arts and Sciences, or the Karsh Center for Law and Democracy at the law school.

Now, the school is adding another institute to the collection. In May 2019, UVA President Jim Ryan opened the university’s Presidential Ideas Festival with a vision for an institute of democracy at the university, and in June 2021, his vision is coming to fruition, thanks to a $50 million donation from Martha and Bruce Karsh.

The Karsh Institute of Democracy, complete with shiny new facilities on the Emmet-Ivy corridor, will serve as a collaborative enterprise, bringing together scholars from all over the university to research and strengthen American democracy.

“The idea behind the institute started with a way to not take over those schools or centers, but to enhance and accelerate collaboration, so that we can do it in a more robust fashion,” says Melody Barnes, former director of the White House Domestic Policy Council under President Barack Obama, co-director for policy and public affairs at UVA’s Democracy Initiative, and inaugural executive director of the Karsh Institute.

The Karshes made their money in investing, and are now part owners of the Golden State Warriors, among other endeavors. After getting his UVA law degree, Bruce Karsh clerked for Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, who was known as the swing judge during his time on the court.

William Antholis, director and CEO of the Miller Center, is excited for the new institute because it is, by design, a “collaborative enterprise, with the goal to make the whole greater than the sum of the parts.” 

In addition, Antholis says Barnes is the perfect person to lead it. “Melody is a uniquely gifted collaborative partner,” he says. “She has already proven in the College of Arts and Sciences that she can help meld together a disparate set of academic disciplines and perspectives on democracy.”

“It will be really valuable to have somebody who can look across the water and bring us together on an ongoing basis.”

I don’t want to see

the Karsh Institute end up being a mealy-mouthed, mediocre forum for talking about how we all need to get along better.

Siva Vaidhyanathan, UVA media studies professor

Certainly, now seems like the perfect time to study democracy, with an unprecedented insurrection just six months in the rearview.

According to Barnes, anyone  you talk to might identify a different problem with our system, whether it’s white supremacy, or attacks on the media, or the rollback of key voting rights. 

Barnes will be working this summer to create a programming plan for the first couple of years, with a focus on how the university can be legitimately helpful in strengthening American democracy. 

To Barnes, the announcement of the institute was a “significant commitment by the university to the challenges facing democracy, to leverage these really wonderful assets that we already have at the university, and to bring new and original ideas with the heft of a pan-university institute to the table.”

“We really are in desperate need of a deeper understanding of what has happened to American democracy,” says Siva Vaidhyanathan, professor of media studies and director of the Deliberative Media Lab, which is a part of the Democracy Initiative. “We need historical, sociological, and economic, as well as political analysis to really understand how we might rebuild American democracy.”

However, Vaidhyanathan worries about what the Karsh Institute will become. “I don’t want to see the Karsh Institute end up being a mealy-mouthed, mediocre forum for talking about how we all need to get along better,” he says. Ryan’s introductory words on the institute made Vaidhyanathan worry that a safe space, rather than a space for truth, was his goal.

In an op-ed posted shortly after the announcement of the gift, Ryan wrote that universities “have our own work to do in rebuilding trust and credibility with all Americans, especially the skeptics who portray us only as instruments of liberal indoctrination or protectors of ingrained systems of power.”

“The most valuable work universities can undertake to support democracy is purposeful and nonpartisan,” he added. 

“The worst thing that can happen to the Karsh Institute is that we become merely academic and merely committed to making UVA look like a safe space for convening,” Vaidhyanathan says. “We have to tell the truth first.”