Tag: UVA

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

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Conflicting accounts

Key points from the forceful removal of a pro-Palestine encampment from UVA by police May 4 remain a topic of debate. Photo by Eze Amos.

Administrators, faculty, students, and the broader Charlottesville community continue to grapple with the forceful removal of a pro-Palestine encampment from the University of Virginia by police on Saturday, May 4. No one can agree on exactly what happened.

University leadership, including President Jim Ryan and University Police Chief Tim Longo, outlined the timeline of events from their perspective at a virtual town hall on Tuesday, May 7.

“So I will start with the obvious,” said Ryan at the opening of the meeting. “Saturday was a terrible and terribly sad and upsetting day. I’m very sorry it got to that point.”

Though he acknowledged there were disagreements with the decision to dissolve the encampment and bring in state police, Ryan stood behind the choices made and outlined leaderships’ decision-making process.

In response to UVA’s event, faculty members organized their own within two days—billed as Eyewitness Perspectives: An Honest Town Hall—to provide clarity on the differing points of view, supplemented with photo and video evidence.

“By gathering eyewitness accounts from people who served in various capacities in the Liberated Zone, from observer to liaison to participant, we want to set the record straight on events as they unfolded,” said Professor Tessa Farmer at the opening of the Thursday, May 9, meeting.

Following the meetings, everyone—protesters, faculty, administration, and observers—are struggling with what comes next.

At press time, UVA has indicated that final exercises will proceed as planned. Leadership has repeatedly assured that freedom of speech is a priority on Grounds, and they will continue to engage student groups in conversations about the conflict in Gaza.

Points of contention

While the timeline of police presence on the scene is largely agreed upon, the details surrounding opportunities for
de-escalation, level of force, and resistance differ between UVA administration and faculty.

UVA SAID

  • The decision to end the encampment was made for the safety of the community. Reasons cited include protesters calling for more people and resources on social media throughout the week. Emergency alerts were required by the Clery Act, but leadership acknowledged at the Faculty Senate meeting on Friday, May 10, that they brought more people to the scene.

PROTESTERS SAID

  • Despite the calls for more attendees and supplies, the size of the encampment shrank throughout the week. More observers showed up on Saturday, May 4, after UVA issued multiple emergency alerts. Multiple attempts were made to contact leadership, including Ryan and Vice President and Provost Ian Baucom, throughout the morning and afternoon of May 4.

UVA SAID

  • Protesters were unwilling to take down the tents on Saturday, May 4, and clearly understood UVA’s tent policies.

PROTESTERS SAID

  • Early in the morning of Saturday, May 4, faculty liaisons reportedly notified administration of the exemption for recreational tents listed on the UVA Environmental Health and Safety website. Faculty also mentioned other students were simultaneously using similar tents by the volleyball courts on Grounds.

UVA SAID

  • Law enforcement identified four men dressed in black, at least two of whom “were known to law enforcement personnel as participating in violent acts elsewhere in the commonwealth.”

PROTESTERS SAID

  • No one at the faculty-led town hall indicated that they saw or were informed of the “four men dressed in black” at the encampment. 

UVA SAID

  • When he went to remove the tents, Longo said he became fearful given demonstrators’ use of umbrellas and protest chants.

PROTESTERS SAID

  • Video shows Longo approaching the encampment. Protesters can be seen holding open umbrellas, several with their backs to officers, while reciting a call-and-response: “We have a duty to fight for Palestine. We have a duty to win. We must love each other and protect one another. We have nothing to lose but our chains.” After several rounds of chanting, during which neither Longo nor any other officer is seen approaching the encampment, UPD walked away from the protest.

UVA SAID

  • UPD officers “were met with the use of umbrellas in an aggressive manner” when attempting to remove the tents and break up the demonstrators, precipitating the decision to involve Virginia State Police.

PROTESTERS SAID

  • A video from the faculty town hall shows UPD officers attempting to physically take the umbrellas as protesters hide behind them. One person can be heard yelling “What the fuck?” repeatedly before the crowd repeats “UPD, KKK, IDF, they’re all the same.” Faculty allege officers approached multiple times to take the umbrellas, with the video showing the third encounter.

UVA SAID

  • Some protesters resisted arrest or threatened police, with one attendee charged with assaulting an officer.

PROTESTERS SAID

  • VSP encircled and closed in on the encampment, cutting off bystanders and liaisons. Video shows professors attempting to deescalate the situation by standing between officers and the encampment, repeating, “These are our students, on their campus” as armed law enforcement officers moved in. Faculty and protesters broadly dispute claims of violence by encampment participants.

UVA SAID

  • Student protesters at the encampment would not engage directly with administration, instead acting through faculty liaisons, showing an unwillingness to hold conversations.

PROTESTERS SAID

  • UVA administration has demonstrated a willingness to hold conversations about Palestine, but with no substantive action taken.

UVA SAID

  • Longo claims people affected by chemical irritants deployed were given medical treatment on the scene, with no significant injuries occurring to protesters.

PROTESTERS SAID

  • No eyewitnesses recall any organized medical treatment center on site. Any first aid provided was given by demonstrators, observers, or faculty.
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Breaking camp

A heavy police presence was deployed to break up the demonstration at the University of Virginia on Saturday. Photo by Eze Amos.

Tensions between organizers and university leadership reached a boiling point underneath the gray skies on Saturday, May 4, when police forcefully broke up a pro-Palestine encampment at the University of Virginia. 

By all accounts, the UVA Encampment for Gaza organized peacefully on Grounds, with demonstrators intermittently chanting, decorating signs, and working on their finals throughout the week. But by noon on Saturday, UVA officials were instructing students to avoid the area around the University Chapel and Rotunda due to “police activity.” The gathering, which quickly garnered attention and attracted hundreds more to the scene, was declared an unlawful assembly. Streets were blocked off and traffic lights switched to flashing yellow as Virginia State Police officers in full riot gear surrounded the encampment. 

For the organizers on the scene, it was clear that they were about to be forcefully dispersed.

Footage and images from bystanders and protesters at the conflict’s inflection point depict heavily armed officers breaking up the encampment with the use of chemical irritants and riot shields. Videos posted to the @uvaencampmentforgaza Instagram page show police encircling a line of protesters linking arms and holding umbrellas before forcefully separating them using shields and tear gas. As of press time, 25 people have been arrested and released on bail in connection with the encampment according to UVA.

Tim Longo, University Police Chief, addresses the use of megaphones at the on-Grounds encampment on Wednesday. Photo by Eze Amos.

Rising action

The escalation at the UVA encampment comes on the heels of weeks of unrest at college campuses across the country. Students and community members in Charlottesville in particular have been organizing peacefully for months, with events like teach-ins, poetry readings, and demonstrations held by various groups concerned about the Israeli offensive and conditions in Gaza.

Pro-Palestine protesters have broadly condemned the Israeli offensive in Gaza, which has killed more than 34,000 people according to the Gaza Ministry of Health. Israel’s offensive was prompted by the October 7 attacks of Gaza-based terrorist organization Hamas, which killed roughly 1,200 people and saw hundreds taken hostage.

Organizers at UVA first started congregating near UVA Chapel in the evening of Tuesday, April 30, setting up an encampment and calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, Palestinian liberation, and action from the University of Virginia. According to a statement from University Communications, organizers were told they could not set up tents due to school policy at this time, and protestors complied with the policy.

The next day, UVA Dissenters and the UVA Apartheid Divest Coalition held a demonstration on the Lawn from 11am to 5pm. At the end of the event, the group quickly picked up and left the Lawn, with some gathering at the encampment in the green space nearby.

Numbers at the protest ebbed and flowed throughout Wednesday, but by early evening roughly 100 protesters remained, spread out on blankets and towels, crowding under trees to escape the intense heat.

Meanwhile, other students continued their day-to-day activities—taking graduation photos by the Rotunda, setting up slack lines near the Homer statue, and lounging in the grass.

A small counter-protest group gathered nearby for a short period but dispersed quickly.

Protesters declined to speak with the media at the encampment but led chants condemning Israel and UVA: “One, two, three, four, occupation no more. Five, six, seven, eight, UVA, you can’t wait” and “Israel, you can’t hide, you’re committing genocide.”

During a dialogue between concerned faculty members, University Police Chief Tim Longo, and other UVA officials overheard on Wednesday, all expressed a desire to keep the situation from escalating. University police started to remove one organizer for using a megaphone without a permit, but the situation quickly resolved.

“[The attendees are] committed to a kind of constantly mobilized, constantly negotiated, incredibly beautiful and peaceful protest,” one facu​lty member told C-VILLE. “They’ve been gentle, they’ve been open, they’ve come from every community in the U.S. to actually argue for something and speak and stand for something, which is to stop genocide.”

Students displayed signs with anti-war sentiments throughout the protests.
Photo by Eze Amos.

Call and response

Throughout the week, the encampment gradually shrank in size. Organizers posted their demands both on Instagram and on the Homer statue on Thursday: continuously disclose investments made by the UVA Investment Management Company, divest from “institutions materially supporting or profiting from Israel’s genocide, apartheid, and occupation of Palestine,” permanently cut ties with Israeli academic institutions, and allow faculty and students to support Palestine without risk of disciplinary action.

UVA responded to the demands the next day, outlining the processes for UVIMCO decisions and emphasizing its support for free speech on Grounds, while indicating it would not cut ties with Israeli academic institutions.

“Your request for permanent withdrawal from academic relations with Israeli institutions is not one we can support,” wrote Vice President and Chief Student Affairs Officer Kenyon Bonner and Vice Provost for Academic Affairs Brie Gertler in a letter released Friday, May 3. “To terminate study abroad programs, fellowships, research collaborations, and other collaborations with Israeli academic institutions would compromise our commitment to academic freedom and our obligation to enabling the free exchange of ideas on our Grounds, both of which are bedrock values of the University.

“We recognize that this is an incredibly difficult moment for our world. We are seeing disturbing images of arrests and bitter division on campuses across the country. The staggering loss of innocent lives as a result of the conflict in the Middle East is heartbreaking,” reads the final paragraph of the university’s response. “Throughout these times, members of our community have shown a willingness to engage, to debate, and to respect and care for one another and the University we call home, and we hope that you will be willing to participate in further discussion on the issues you’ve highlighted so that we can better understand one another.”

Those at the encampment dissented, posting images of the letter with the words “BULLSHIT” and “FREE PALESTINE” written in marker over the response. Attendees started setting up tents later Friday evening.

Friday night, UPD officers arrived at the encampment in response to megaphone usage and tents before leaving. “Given continued peaceful behavior and the presence of young children at the demonstration site, and due to heavy rain Friday night, officials allowed the tents to remain overnight,” said UVA in an official statement on Saturday, May 4.

Recreational camping tents were exempt from university tent regulations according to a UVA website which was changed the morning of May 4, shortly before VSP raided the protest.

Accounts of the escalation vary significantly.

“We hoped and tried to handle this locally. But when UPD’s attempts to resolve the situation were met with physical confrontation and attempted assault, it became necessary to rely on assistance from the Virginia State Police,” said UVA President Jim Ryan in the May 4 statement. “I recognize and respect that some will disagree with our decisions. This entire episode was upsetting, frightening, and sad.”

Protesters used water to aid those hit with chemical irritants employed by police dispersing the encampment. Photo by Eze Amos.

A statement from the University Communications elaborated on this claim by Ryan, reporting that “around 11:45 a.m. [on Saturday], the University Police Department announced again that the group was in violation of University policies and gave them 10 minutes to vacate the premises. Authorities were again met with agitation, chanting and violent gestures such as swinging of objects.”

Allegations of violence by protesters have been refuted by the encampment. “Welcome to the University of Virginia, where we encourage free speech unless you’re protesting genocide,” posted @uvaencampmentforgaza on Instagram on Monday, May 6. “Where we brutalize our students and mace our community members, where we will arrest your friends and call in militarized troopers when anyone threatens our profit.”

Not over yet

The forced removal of the encampment and arrest of protesters has rallied support among the university and broader Charlottesville community. Hundreds gathered on the Lawn on Sunday, May 5, with several student groups issuing open letters of support for organizers and condemning UVA’s deployment of law enforcement.

“We categorically REJECT President Jim Ryan’s comments and subsequent explanations regarding the events of May 4th,” shared Muslims United, the Black Student Alliance, Pakistani Students’ Association, Afghan Student Association, Black Muslims at UVA, the Environmental Justice Collective, the Asian Student Union, the Bengali Student Organization, and the Sikh Students Association in a joint statement on Instagram. “His portrayal was based on misrepresentations and biased views. Those who were present at the encampment have attested to its peaceful nature.”

Several other student groups and professors at UVA have since spoken out against the university’s handling of the encampment and students’ arrests.

Sunday evening, approximately 100 organizers went directly to Ryan’s residence at Carr’s Hill, chanting for the president to “drop the charges” against arrested demonstrators. Ryan and Provost Ian Baucom were notably absent during the VSP raid, only issuing statements hours after the scene was declared stable by UVA Emergency Management.

As of press time, UVA has not issued any additional public statements regarding the encampment or police action on Grounds.

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Shuttered

Following accusations of hazing, the University of Virginia suspended the fraternal organization agreements of the Theta Chi and Sigma Alpha Mu fraternities and terminated the FOA of Pi Kappa Alpha (pictured). Staff photo.

On April 18, 10 days after the termination of its fraternal order agreement with the University of Virginia, the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity posted an unlisted video to its YouTube channel.

In the video, Justin Buck, the national organization’s executive vice president, sternly addresses his fraternity brothers. 

“For the first time since March 1, 1868, Pi Kappa Alpha is without its Alpha chapter,” Buck says, referencing the organization’s founding at 47 West Range on the edge of Jefferson’s historic Academical Village, marking the UVA chapter Pi Kappa Alpha’s first (or “Alpha”) chapter. “The chapter [was] expelled from the University of Virginia for a minimum of 4 years … following the confirmed, detestable, and abhorrent hazing activities by individuals.”

Pi Kappa Alpha representatives did not respond to a request for comment for this story.

“The University found that Pi Kappa Alpha engaged in serious hazing behavior and decided to terminate the chapter’s fraternal organization agreement with the University,” says UVA Deputy Spokesperson Bethany Glover via email. “In addition, the Policy, Accountability, and Critical Events (PACE) unit in Student Affairs initiated disciplinary action against individual students for their alleged involvement in hazing.”

Aside from Pi Kappa Alpha’s termination, two other fraternities had their FOAs suspended pending an investigation: Theta Chi and Sigma Alpha Mu. If the charges are validated and confirmed, it would be the first time both organizations have had their FOAs revoked. 

It is, however, far from Pi Kappa Alpha’s first time in trouble, and that includes its Alpha chapter. The Cavalier Daily reported in 2022 that the university had terminated the FOA of both Pi Kappa Alpha and Sigma Nu in 2014, but they appealed the decision, and both frats were accepting new members in 2015. Glover did not provide a comment on the 2014 incident by press time.

The fraternity’s history of controversy goes back much further nationwide with over a dozen incidents reported in the last 20 years. As early as 1976, when a pledge at Texas Tech was killed by a train during a hazing activity described as a “scavenger hunt,” the fraternity has fought to keep itself on the straight and narrow—and not just for hazing. In 1988, a sexual assault was alleged to have occurred at the fraternity’s house on the campus of Florida State University. More recently, in March of 2021, the fraternity was again the subject of nationwide outrage when Stone Foltz, a pledge at Bowling Green State University, died due to alcohol-induced heart arrhythmia.  

Details about the recent incident at UVA have yet to be released publicly, but thanks to Adam’s Law, named for Adam Oakes, a VCU student who died in a hazing incident in 2021, the university is legally required to post the details on its school website. 

“Thanks to the transparency laws in Virginia, you’ll be able to read about [the incident] for the next 10 years on the University of Virginia’s website,” Buck says. “We will have a constant reminder of the embarrassment that these men have caused our fraternity. However, it will not be the names of these individuals who will be listed on this website, although they should be. It will be the name of our fraternity.”

Buck says the national Pi Kappa Alpha organization will seek civil litigation against the president and the leadership of its Alpha chapter for the “financial and reputational damages” caused by the incident. 

Glover says the timeline for the release of the details in all three fraternity actions is in “the coming weeks.”

“The university does not tolerate hazing activity,” she says, “and we act quickly to investigate and pursue necessary disciplinary action when reports are made.”

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Arts Culture

The Big Picture

Photo by Aaron Farrington.

Mythical monsters roamed the University of Virginia on the evening of Friday, April 26, when the SW2 Festival of the Moving Creature brought a parade of puppets to Grounds. The magical menagerie was comprised of art pieces designed, constructed, and operated by the university’s Art of the Moving Creature class, and honored festival namesakes Stan Winston, a Hollywood special effects artist and UVA alum, and the late Steven Warner, a longtime professor of the class.

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Hall pass

The 20th-century building that currently houses the UVA Alumni Association will likely be replaced with a new Alumni Hall. Centerbrook Architects and Planners.

On Tuesday, April 30, representatives from the University of Virginia Alumni Association will publicly present a site plan for “a new Alumni Hall” at the corner of Emmet Street and Lewis Mountain Road. 

The Alumni Association is a separate entity from the university, and pays property taxes to the City of Charlottesville. Unlike UVA, it also must comply with the city’s land-use regulations, which means paying $6,565 in fees for a recent application. 

A preliminary site plan was filed on August 3, 2023, under the former zoning, and this is one of several projects that is still being considered under the old rules that include site plan conferences. (That conference will be held in the Neighborhood Development Services conference room in City Hall on Tuesday, August 30, 2024, at 9am.) 

Under the city’s new Development Code, the zoning for the 3.15 acre property is Residential-A, meaning redevelopment would be difficult. However, the replacement building is allowed due to an existing special use permit for a private club that was first approved in 1980 and last updated in 2016.

“The applicants may redevelop their property for the new building, so long as they comply with all conditions of the existing special use permit,” says Dannan O’Connell, a city planner coordinating the review. 

O’Connell says the site plan is preliminary and could change depending on feedback. 

The UVA Alumni Association has been in the current building since 1936, when it moved in to what was then Kappa Phi House. For many years, the city used Alumni Hall for a voting precinct, but a new electoral map adopted last year ended that practice. The association uses the building for hundreds of events throughout the year, including home football game parties, and the facility is often rented for private events. 

The Alumni Association has hired Centerbrook Architects and Planners to take the project through the planning process. The Connecticut-based firm recently designed the Karsh Alumni and Visitors Center at Duke University. 

According to the preliminary site plan, the existing two-story building will be completely removed, but some of the signature trees on the property will be kept. The new building would be a maximum of 35-feet tall, with a max footprint of 29,075 square feet. 

If the project proceeds, it will be part of an era of transformation along Emmet Street. Just to the south, construction is nearing completion on the four-story Contemplative Commons, including a new pedestrian bridge to Newcomb Hall. Even further to the south, a private project called Verve Charlottesville has been approved by the city and will see several dozen residential units at Woodrow Apartments be replaced with an apartment with 446 new units. 

The project will not include an adjacent property on Lewis Mountain Road that’s owned by the University of Virginia Foundation, upon which two single-family homes currently stand. 

The leader of the Alumni Association said the current building does not meet the needs of the organization.

“Our vision is to build a wholly new facility on the same parcel of land that can serve the needs of our ever-evolving alumni, UVA, and Charlottesville community,” said Lily West, the associaiton’s president & CEO “We are calling it “A Home for Every Hoo.”

West said there’s a lot of work to be done to make the project a reality.

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Working it out

UCW UVA member Olivia Paschal has been working on the Cut the Checks campaign since January 2023. Supplied photo.

The local chapter of United Campus Workers of Virginia met with University of Virginia President Jim Ryan and other leaders on April 4 to discuss issues related to graduate student wages. The meeting was prompted by the union’s attendance at the March 1 Board of Visitors meeting.

Delegations from both UCW UVA and the university sat down at 1:30pm in Madison Hall.

Prior to the meeting’s start, negotiations were already underway over the meeting agenda, according to UCW UVA.

On April 2, organizer Olivia Paschal says she sent university representatives a proposed agenda, which allotted time for introductions, a presentation from the union, questions, potential solutions, and discussion. In an email shared with C-VILLE by UCW UVA, a representative of Ryan and Provost Ian Baucom sent a resequenced agenda at 11:35am on April 4—two hours before the meeting start time—which substantially reduced the union’s presentation time and discussion time in favor of a presentation on progress made by the university. Further, the email stated that the room would be used for another event at 2:30pm, and the meeting needed to adjourn by 2:25pm.

UCW UVA responded with a compromise agenda at 12:02pm, giving time for both delegations’ presentations and discussion time.

During the meeting, attendees reviewed progress made on stipend task-force recommendations by the university, and examples of graduate student workers’ concerns with ongoing payment issues. University officials did not agree to all of the proposed solutions from UCW UVA, but did agree to hold a follow-up meeting with the union.

“We’re disappointed that administrators failed to commit to solving late payments in our meeting,” the union posted on Instagram. The group emphasized the need for raising wages and benefits for Graduate School of Arts and Sciences departmental employees, and said late payment fees should be instituted.

After the meeting, UVA Deputy Spokesperson Bethanie Glover shared meeting notes with C-VILLE, saying the newspaper had previously written about “concerns related to the timely delivery of graduate student aid.” According to Glover, GSAS has processed graduate student payment with a 99.7 percent accuracy in the last year. “The 99.7% accuracy rate that we shared factors in all delivery errors in stipend and wage payments, including incorrect values, delivery delays, student errors such as incorrectly reported account/personal information, and more,” she wrote in an email.

But organizers with UCW UVA claim different accuracy estimates were provided by the university during the meeting. According to a quote from the meeting shared by Paschal in an email, attendees were told by a university official that “our estimation is that about 98% of students are experiencing no problems at all in GSAS. In terms of individual payments, that number is about 99.8%.”

Additionally, an organizer with the union argued that the characterization of graduate student wages as “aid” was misleading. “Some of the issues have been wage issues,” said union member Lucas Martínez. “When you run a business … you [don’t] call what you pay your workers aid.”

While UCW UVA acknowledges the progress made since issues with payments to graduate workers arose in December of 2022, members say current solutions to payment issues are not sustainable and require additional labor from the graduate student worker.

“All of the onus of this problem being solved relies on extra labor being done by the graduate worker, to let them know that they’ve been paid incorrectly,” said Martínez.

At press time, a follow-up meeting between UCW UVA and university leadership had not been scheduled.

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In brief

Charlottesville residents called on city councilors to pass the ceasefire resolution ahead of the vote. Image by City of Charlottesville.

Peace talks

Charlottesville City Council passed a resolution on April 1 that calls for an immediate ceasefire in the conflict between Israel and Palestine.

The resolution was first introduced at the March 18 council meeting and failed, with three councilors voting no. Though he originally voted against the resolution, Councilor Brian Pinkston joined Councilors Michael Payne and Natalie Oschrin in support of the measure.

“I believe it’s important to change your mind and to revisit a decision if upon new information or further reflection you believe you made a mistake,” said Pinkston ahead of Monday’s vote. The councilor emphasized the importance of the resolution, given Charlottesville’s large refugee population and the national defense industry’s role in the local economy.

“I realize that there are also concerns about unintended consequences, especially in a place like Charlottesville,” said Pinkston. “I can only say that I’ve thought about that, and I still believe that this is the right and courageous thing to do.”

The packed City Council chamber erupted with applause after Pinkston’s remarks.

Echoing their colleague’s statement, Payne and Oschrin also emphasized the importance of the resolution.

“We lend our voice to many, so alone we might not be effective … we join all of your voices individually to become one of many, and that’s where we have power,” said Oschrin. Payne referred to his previous statements on the measure, but added, “I do think we have a very small voice, but still a voice to weigh in.”

In addition to a ceasefire, the resolution also calls for the immediate and safe release of all hostages and the entry and provision of humanitarian aid to Gaza. Council passed the measure 3-1, with Councilor Lloyd Snook abstaining and Mayor Juandiego Wade voting no.

Payment pains

University of Virginia President Jim Ryan will meet with graduate workers April 4 to discuss payment concerns.

The meeting comes after months of organizing by the UVA chapter of United Campus Workers of Virginia, and was prompted by the group’s presence at a March 1 Board of Visitors meeting. Organizers report continued problems with late stipend payments, despite previous promises from university officials.

In a December 4 statement to C-VILLE, UVA Deputy Spokesperson Bethanie Glover said “the university is unaware of any systemic delays associated with graduate student stipends and funding. When isolated issues have occurred, schools and departments have acted quickly to resolve them.” This sentiment was echoed in March by Provost Ian Baucom, who acknowledged the protester’s presence and told the BOV that issues had previously been addressed, and more recent payment issues were limited in scope.

BBQ break in

Ace Biscuit & Barbecue will be closed for the next few weeks as the restaurant recovers from an apparent break in. On March 30, Ace posted photos on its Facebook page of smashed windows, bashed-in register screens, broken bottles, sinks, and toilets, and back rooms in disarray, writing that the incident happened overnight. According to CBS19, the damages totaled $50,000. In an April 1 Facebook post, Ace said, “We’re deeply moved by the overwhelming support from our community. Though our doors may be shut, our spirits remain unbroken.”

No smoke

Gov. Glenn Youngkin shot down a bill that would have legalized marijuana retail sales in Virginia, after previously stating, “Anybody who thinks I’m going to sign that legislation must have been smoking something.” The bill would have paved the way for retail markets to open in May 2025. Youngkin’s veto comes after his administration’s big push to open a new sports arena in Alexandria fell through. As a result, Virginians now live with uneven marijuana laws—it is legal to both possess and grow weed at home, but only medical marijuana is legal to purchase.

Station to station

Charlottesville Fire Department’s Station One, located along the 250 Bypass, will be rebuilt and reopened in spring 2025, with construction slated to be complete by that March and move-in by May. “The original Station One building has served this city well, and now the time has come for a much needed upgrade,” says Michael Thomas, CFD fire chief. “Station One will be built from the ground up to accommodate the 21st-century needs of the fire service and our growing city.” Concept drawings for the new station are available at charlottesville.gov.

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Work smarter, swim harder

UVA women’s swim and dive team celebrated its fourth consecutive national championship win on March 23. Photo by Jamie Holt/UVA Athletics.

The University of Virginia women’s swim and dive team brought home the NCAA Division 1 championship title for the fourth year in a row. UVA is now part of a small list of Division 1 women’s swim teams that have won more than three consecutive NCAA championships, joining the University of Texas and Stanford University.

There were ups and downs (mostly ups) for the Cavaliers last week. They won the first event of the meet, but touched fourth in the 800-yard freestyle relay. This meant the Hoos stood in second place at the end of day one—but that didn’t last for long. Gretchen Walsh took three individual NCAA titles, and also considerably lowered the NCAA record in each of the swims. Alex Walsh also took gold in all three of her individual events, and Jasmine Nocentini touched first in the 100-yard breaststroke. After the fourth-place finish on the first day, UVA won every relay during the meet, ending with a gold in the 400-yard freestyle relay on night four. The team ended the meet in first place, nearly 87 points ahead of second-place finisher Texas.

Before 2020, UVA women’s swimming was not nearly the powerhouse we know today. In 2019, the Cavs finished the NCAA championship meet in sixth place (268.5 points behind the first-place team), with no records. Now, UVA owns 11 of 19 possible records in NCAA D1 women’s swimming. But the team didn’t stumble across these accolades solely by luck—the Hoos stepped up their game during practice and increased their efficiency as they swam to the top of the rankings.

During her first year swimming at UVA, Cavan Gormsen was immersed in a new training program, which she says is very different from what she did in high school. One difference is the use of a statistical analysis program the team does in partnership with a professor at the university. This more scientific use of numbers in swim training helps swimmers learn how to improve their technique and get the most out of their stroke. “There’s been a big difference,” she says. “I’m going fast times, but in a more efficient way where I’m conserving more energy.”

Professor Ken Ono began working with UVA’s swim team in 2019. Although a statistics prof helping out a Division 1 swim coach might sound like a joke set up, Ono’s work on the pool deck provides helpful feedback and analysis that swimmers and coaches can look at together.
“What I do is not big data. I’m not doing machine learning, training for the average. I’m literally constructing a digital twin of everyone I test,” Ono says.

This creation of a “digital twin” is done by attaching an accelerometer and force sensor to the swimmer and using an underwater camera to capture data. This data includes information like moments of deceleration, and the force sensor measures the amount of force generated by a swimmer’s movements. “I look at the video trying to figure out what is causing [deceleration],” Ono says. “I write reports, I pass that along to the coaches, and the coaches keep an eye on that and help the athletes remove some of those sources.”

One swimmer who substantially improved over the past few years is Kate Douglass, who, since joining the team in 2019, has become an Olympic medalist, world champion, and NCAA and American record holder.
Douglass was a statistics major in college, and is continuing this academic pursuit in graduate school while training with the team. She doesn’t typically do any statistical analysis like this in the classroom—she is more interested in number theory—and says she is working on an independent study with Ono, but unrelated to swimming.

Even if it isn’t her academic interest, Douglass has benefited from Ono’s analysis methods. “It definitely was super helpful to kind of pinpoint exact areas in a race or a stroke that [wasn’t] efficient, and figure out how to make it more efficient so that you decelerate less or get more out of each stroke.”

Douglass started her career at UVA as primarily a sprinter, but Ono says he quickly recognized that she would be a strong breaststroker. “I remember telling [Coach] Todd [DeSorbo], ‘I know she’s gonna score a ton of points for you in relays and sprint, but she’s really the most gifted’—and I still maintain that—‘in 200 breaststroke,’” he says.

Douglass now holds both the American and NCAA records in the 200 breaststroke, and has medaled in the event at multiple world championship meets. Some consider her a favorite to make the Olympic team in this event.

“Making everything that I do more efficient is gonna make me better. And I’ve specifically seen that in my breaststroke this year especially. We’ve kind of just been working on making my stroke and my kick as efficient as possible to be able to get more out of each stroke,” Douglass says. “And I’ve already seen, I feel like, a huge improvement in my 200 breaststroke this year because of that work.”

DeSorbo speaks to the impact of Ono’s use of statistical analysis to help DeSorbo and the swimmers; it’s effective and has contributed to the team’s ascension to the top of the NCAA, but it isn’t everything—maybe 10 or 20 percent of the cause. “I think it has contributed to the success of the program, to certain individuals within the program,” he says. “But I think that without a lot of the other 80 percent of what goes on in our program, none of it would happen.”

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Winning streak

The University of Virginia’s women’s swimming and diving team racked up 17 wins while claiming its fifth-straight Atlantic Coast Conference championship. Photo by Jim Daves / UVA Athletics.

Last week, the University of Virginia swimming and diving team traveled to Greensboro, North Carolina, for the Atlantic Coast Conference championship. The women’s team returned to Charlottesville with 17 wins, six NCAA records, and a fifth-straight ACC championship title. The conference meet occurred about a month before the women’s Division I NCAA championship—a showdown with college swimming’s highest-performing athletes.

UVA Assistant Coach Tyler Fenwick couldn’t be prouder. “The team just works their tails off and they had big goals,” he says. “And just to be able to see those goals come to fruition this weekend and to be able to see all that hard work pay off—I mean, they performed at a really, really high level. As a coach, that’s fun to see.”

Every NCAA record broken at the meet was by either Alex or Gretchen Walsh. Gretchen, a third-year, grabbed NCAA, U.S. Open, and American records in the 50-yard freestyle, 100-yard freestyle, 100-yard butterfly, and 100-yard backstroke.

Alex, a fourth year, lowered the 200-yard butterfly NCAA record by 35 hundredths of a second, breaking a record that’s stood for six years. She also, along with her sister, was part of the 200-yard freestyle relay that broke NCAA, U.S. Open, and American records.

“When you have people who are as gifted as [Alex and Gretchen] are, who work hard, that’s a lethal combination,” Fenwick says. “And really what we’ve come to kind of expect is every time they dive in the water, we don’t know what to expect, but we do expect them to be great, and they seem to outdo themselves every time they hit the water.”

A new ACC champion was also born over the weekend, with first-year Cavan Gormsen bringing home wins in the long-distance events—the 500-yard freestyle and 1,650-yard freestyle (dubbed the mile). While she didn’t crack three-time Olympian Katie Ledecky’s NCAA records from 2017, it’s very likely Gormsen will swim the events again next month at the NCAA championship.

But the Walsh sisters and Gormsen weren’t the only ones standing on the victory podium: Final heats were frequently stacked with multiple UVA women. The Hoos went 1-2 in the 50-yard freestyle, and 1-2-3 in the 200-yard breaststroke.

During the meet, the women scored 1,637.5 points, crushing the second-place team (Louisville) by nearly 500 points. According to SwimSwam, this makes the Cavaliers the highest scorers in ACC swimming championship history.

Fenwick is now looking ahead to March 20, when the team hopes to bring home its fourth-straight NCAA championship, something the Cavs have been building up to all year. “This is a team that knows that meet really well,” he says. “And they know what it takes to win at that meet.”

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In brief

Photo by UVA Athletics Communications.

Hot streak

After a rocky start to the season, the University of Virginia men’s basketball team has hit its stride with a seven-game winning streak. The 18-5 Cavaliers are ranked second in the Atlantic Coast Conference at 9-3, and remain undefeated at home following a blowout win against the University of Miami on February 5. 

The Hurricanes held a brief early lead in the game, but the Cavs came roaring back for a 60-38 victory. Virginia’s win against Miami marks the team’s 23rd straight win at John Paul Jones Arena, the longest home-game winning streak in the country.

“We knew it was a good opportunity to play,” said UVA Head Coach Tony Bennett at a post-game press conference. “We’re trying to find ourselves in a spot where we have a chance to be considered at the end of the year, so every game’s important. … Just show up and play like there’s no tomorrow.”

Despite its recent success, UVA, which eked out a 66-65 win against Clemson on February 3, is still on the bubble for March’s NCAA tournament.  

The Cavaliers tip off next at Florida State on February 10 at 8pm.

CCS job fair

Charlottesville City Schools kicked off the spring hiring season early with a job fair on February 3. More than 80 candidates attended the event, and several attendees left with intent-to-hire letters, according to CCS officials.

The district is trying to fill both current and future open positions in several schools. Current job postings for CCS on salary.com include a LEAP functional skills teacher, school nurse, school psychologist, special education instructional assistants, and division-wide substitute custodians.

“By having a job fair early, we’re hoping to catch some of those candidates that will be transitioning,” CCS Director of Human Resources Maria Lewis told NBC29. “Some of them will be veteran teachers, veteran staff, and some will be brand new educators on the verge of completing their master’s program.”

Staff openings played a significant role in the unexpected closure of Charlottesville High School last November, when several staff members called out following a wave of student fights. The combination of staff absences and unfilled positions were a large contributor in CCS officials’ decision to close the high school for several days for a “cultural reset.”

In brief

True Grit

Grit Coffee is expanding with a Williamsburg location in mid-February, its ninth in the commonwealth. The new spot will open on Midtown Row, just minutes from William & Mary, echoing the Charlottesville business’ original establishment near the University of Virginia. Despite its wide reach across Virginia, the brand’s coffees are still roasted here in Charlottesville.

Trial date set

The man charged with the shooting and killing of three UVA student-athletes in November 2022 has a trial date: January 22, 2025. Christopher Darnell Jones, Jr. is accused of the murders of D’Sean Perry, Devin Chandler, and Lavel Davis, Jr., as well as the wounding of Mike Hollins, Jr. and Marlee Morgan on university Grounds.

Ski lift

An 8-year-old girl was transported by air ambulance to UVA Medical Center after sustaining an on-mountain injury at Wintergreen Resort. Wintergreen Ski Patrol responded to the incident on Lower Sunrise, an intermediate ski trail, the morning of February 3. Though Wintergreen claims the young skier did not present any injury symptoms, she was taken to the Ski Patrol First Aid Room for observation before being transferred via Wintergreen Fire & Rescue ambulance to a helicopter pad in Stoney Creek. Wintergreen expects the girl to make a full recovery.

New leaf

Charlottesville resumed its weekly Leaf Collection Service on February 5, so if you still have leaves to dispose of, get ’em to the curb before 7am on your days of service. Visit charlottesville.gov/leaves for more information about pickup schedules and locations.