Tag: UVA

Controversial conservative businessman Bert Ellis has been confirmed to the University of Virginia Board of Visitors.

On February 7, the Virginia Senate struck down a resolution brought forth by state Sen. Creigh Deeds to remove Ellis’ name from the final list of appointees. Democratic state Senators Lynwood Lewis and Chapman Petersen rejected the resolution alongside Republicans, bringing it to a 20-20 vote. Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears broke the tie.

Since Gov. Glenn Youngkin appointed Ellis, Ellis Capital CEO and Jefferson Council president, to the board in July, UVA students, faculty, and community members have called for his removal, pointing to Ellis’ recent actions against a UVA student, and his criticism of diversity, equity, and inclusion reforms at the school.

In 2020, Ellis confronted Lawn resident Hira Azher in front of her room about a sign she put on her door that said: “Fuck UVA. UVA Operating Costs: KKKops, Genocide, Slavery, Disability, Black and Brown Life.” According to Ellis’ own account, he “was prepared to use a small razor blade to remove the [Fuck UVA] part.” (Two UVA ambassadors stopped him from cutting the sign.) In a 2021 Jefferson Council blog post, Ellis also wrote that replacing BOV members was Youngkin’s “only opportunity to change/reverse the path to Wokeness that has overtaken our entire University.”

Azher was “deeply appalled” and “infuriated” by Ellis’ confirmation. 

“It is clear that he is willing to endanger students, especially marginalized students, in the name of his own deeply racist values,” says Azher. “The governor [and] Senate … have directly chosen to not only disregard, but actually harm BIPOC students, and to continue the legacies of white supremacy at this institution.”

Though disappointed in his resolution’s failure, Deeds remains optimistic.

“We sent a message that there’s a whole lot of people concerned about Mr. Ellis’ behavior,” says Deeds. However, “I’m convinced Bert Ellis cares about the university … I know there will be conflicts, but I’m hopeful they will be worked out.”

Ellis faced even more backlash after an August Cavalier Daily article revealed that, as a UVA undergrad, he invited eugenicist William Shockley to the school for a debate titled “The Correlation Between Race and Intelligence” in 1974 during Black Culture Week, despite backlash from Black student groups. Ellis, then chairman of the University Union, also denied the school’s Gay Straight Union’s request to co-sponsor a 1975 event featuring gay rights activist Frank Kameny.

Since summer, the UVA Student Council, University Democrats at UVA, UVA Faculty Senate, Cavalier Daily editorial board, and Democratic Party of Virginia have called for Ellis’ resignation or removal.

Following Ellis’ confirmation, the University Democrats criticized Lewis and Petersen for ignoring student and faculty concerns, while the UVA Student Council Executive Board vowed to continue to stand up for marginalized students.

“The fight to make our institution a better place is not over yet,” said the Cavalier Daily’s 134th Editorial Board in a statement. “We will be watching the Board closely in the coming months.”                                 

Ellis will serve on the board until June 30, 2026.

In brief

On the run

As of February 13, the Charlottesville Police Department is searching for 40-year-old Demetrius Andre Brown of Palmyra, who has been named as a suspect in connection to a February 8 shooting at Wicket Hits on Harris Street, which left an adult male injured. Brown has been charged with five crimes, including malicious wounding and maliciously shooting an occupied motor vehicle. Anyone with information regarding Brown’s location should call Detective Ross Cundiff at 970-3280

CASPCA investigation

The Charlottesville-Albemarle SPCA Board of Directors has hired international law firm McGuireWoods to independently review “criticisms and complaints” about the shelter, and speak with “all relevant parties,” reads a February 8 press release. After the investigation, which is expected to be completed in May, the board will “assess the results and recommendations, [and] take appropriate actions.” Since last month, a group of more than 100 current and former staff and volunteers have made allegations of internal dysfunction and animal mistreatment at the shelter, and called for the removal of CEO Angie Gunter. The group, calling itself CASPCA Concerns, wants Gunter to be placed on administrative leave during the investigation, and the law firm to reach out to them. 

Shots fired

On February 12, Albemarle County police responded to a shots fired report in the Red Crab restaurant parking lot at around 11:30am. When officers arrived, they learned that an adult female had been injured, and was taken to the hospital in a private vehicle. Anyone with information about the shooting should contact Detective Garrett Moore at 296-5807.

Video games are complicated. Even a game as deceptively simple as Pac-Man is composed of a delicate concoction of level design, character art, artificial intelligence, and audio/video signals, all powered by lines upon lines of code. Today, the biggest games in
the industry, which draw revenue eclipsing Hollywood blockbusters, take years to develop and can involve hundreds of artists, designers, and programmers. The Last of Us took four years to make; a project as small as an iPhone game can take months. So when a group of University of Virginia students decided to make two games in just 48 hours, they were shooting for the moon.

Despite such a daunting challenge, students were relaxed as they trickled into UVA’s Rice Hall, home of the Department of Computer Science and the computer engineering program, on a chilly Friday evening. The occasion was the 2023 Global Game Jam, and it was the first that the Student Game Developers would participate in since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

A game jam can take all sorts of forms, from a massive formal competition to a creative exercise in a small office. The annual Global Game Jam, which was founded in 2008 and is managed by the nonprofit of the same name, is among the largest of its kind in the world. But no matter the size, the general idea remains the same: Game jams are about creating an entire video game in an extremely limited amount of time. It’s similar to a hackathon, or the 48 Hour Film Project held each year across the country—solo participants or teams register for the jam and are faced with a singular challenge, like a common theme, and a set deadline to submit their work.

Game jams tend to be makeshift affairs—anywhere you can plug in a laptop will do. For this year’s Global Game Jam, around a dozen UVA students gathered in a conference room with two whiteboards and a writable wall. They formed one of hundreds of sites, across more than 100 countries, with participants whose work would sit alongside thousands of others’ creations.

The Global Game Jam kicks off with the announcement of the year’s theme. This time, it was “roots.” Club president Jimmy Connors wrote the word in the center of one of the whiteboards.

How do you turn “roots” into a video game? You start, like with any creative project, by brainstorming.

So, Connors asked, what do we think of when we think of roots? 

“I have no idea where to take that,” he said.

But ideas came fast from around the room: family roots, square roots, trees, plants, linguistic roots of words, root canals, hair roots, rooting for a sports team, musical roots of chords. The board filled up fast as participants played off of each other’s suggestions.

“You could do a game where you control a plant whose roots are continually growing, and you have to steer it into nutritious deposits.”

“The farther down you go, the rockier it gets and the harder it gets.”

“Well, there’s that restaurant, Roots.”

“So, trees can communicate through mycorrhizal networks, which are just root networks. So we could do some tree communication game that involves roots and networking.”

“Game that teaches you the basics of networking.”

“You control the roots of a tree and you can then discover things like fossils, like an archaeology game. You can pass by bones or discarded items.”

“A mystery deduction game where you’re trying to trace back the roots of what led to whatever event.”

“You want to guide the tree roots towards water, you want to guide them towards mineral deposits.”

“There are pollution spills that you have to steer away from.”

“And your score at the end is how deep your roots got.”

“A genealogy game?”

“The root of a computer. Think plants growing on a computer chip.”

“You have a little character that’s navigating in the computer file system, and you’re trying to get to the root of the computer so you can hack it.”

“Oh, trying to get root access!”

Connors went around the room again and again, whittling down everyone’s ideas. One by one, different roots were crossed off, until they had two promising concepts to pursue: a game about growing roots in a pot, and a game about exploring a computer as if it were a dungeon. The group would need to split up and complete both of these games by Sunday at 5pm.

But so many questions still lingered. How are they going to manage two projects? Who in the room can program? Who can create artwork, like characters and backgrounds, for the games? Who can write background music? And, most importantly, who has time to devote to the game jam? When can people drop in over the weekend to work?

Some people had homework and exams to prepare for. Others weren’t experienced in Unity, the popular game development software the club used for the jam, which meant they’d need to spend time learning it.

There was so much to deliberate over. But first: pizza. They’d begin working in earnest Saturday morning.

Day two started with a Bodo’s run, which Connors considers crucial to the success of the game jam. “Food is big and good,” he says. “As an SGD president, sometimes it’s hard to get people to show up to make games for 10 hours on a weekend. Bodo’s helped a lot with getting people in the room.”

It was heads-down work in the conference room as the two teams set about designing and coding each game. The first, titled Overgrowth, would be about carefully drawing roots in a planter as they get longer and longer. It was inspired in part by Snake, a game famous for coming pre-installed on Nokia phones, in which the player controls an ever-growing snake in a constrained space. The second game, Root Access, would be about exploring a maze-like computer system resembling a dungeon and cleaning out the viruses mucking up the place. This was inspired by another game jam game, The Binding of Isaac, which tasks players with navigating a procedurally generated series of rooms.

Oliver Mills, a third-year computer science student, worked on the textures for the roots in Overgrowth. This was his first game jam with the Student Game Developers, which he joined so he could learn to make his own game. “I’m working on a little self-project right now that reflects the weather, that has some realtime reflection of the weather in a game,” said Mills. “And I realized that I had no clue how to do anything with games.”

Fellow third-year CS student Ian Harvey is an officer in the club, and designed the computer terminal for Root Access, where players can input slash commands that trigger various effects. “We’re basing it around the idea of what is a computer’s structure, what the traversal may be in a theoretical world where you’re trying to get to the root of the computer,” said Harvey. A challenge his team faced was in filling the game with things to interact with. “It comes down to assets, or actually making a dungeon that feels like it’s fun to traverse. Assets are one thing, being able to [code] a bunch of enemies to do specific things.”

Harvey is a seasoned game dev for an undergraduate, having directed a game in the club and worked on many others. Though he’s participated in other game jams, this is his first with the Student Game Developers. “I typically do one game jam a year in the summer,” he said. “I never do well in it, but it’s always fun to just spend the weekend losing all my sleep and making whatever I can.”

Catherine Xu, a second-year CS major, joined the event as her first game jam. On Root Access, her focus was on character movement and designing “mobs,” or mobile objects, like enemies. Some of the programming already existed for these elements; her job was then to assign them animations.

“The challenging part is trying to balance where we want the player to explore, but then also the necessary set path of actions they need to take to unlock the rooms [and] get to the destination,” said Xu. “So, we want it to be somewhat challenging, we want them to have fun exploring, but we also don’t want it to be too easy to figure out how to open doors and passwords and stuff.”

The final projects, available to play on the Global Game Jam website, reflect the project management skills, prioritization, and quick thinking of both teams.

In the finished version of Overgrowth, the player is presented with a cross-section of a houseplant as it first starts to take root. The player’s job is to click and drag the snaking roots to fill the limited space in the pot. Once each root reaches its maximum length, two more roots will sprout from it, which can also be dragged and drawn out to fill the pot. A bar rises on the right side of the screen to track the player’s progress, and at specific intervals the plant will be repotted and a new larger level will begin.

Root Access took shape as an action game, where the player navigates a virus-riddled computer as if it were a treacherous dungeon. Using the WASD keys to move from folder to folder, the player needs to eliminate bugs—represented as flies and spiders—from files. A computer terminal can be brought up with the forward slash key, where the player can input various commands that allow them to teleport to different locations or switch weapons.

Both feature all sorts of sensory flourishes, from the colorful hand-drawn aesthetic of a growing plant in a sunny greenhouse to the gritty pixel art representing an infected computer. Pensive music accompanies the leisurely atmosphere of Overgrowth, while pounding techno thumps behind the intense gameplay of Root Access.

As president, Connors was most concerned with making sure the Global Game Jam was a fun and worthwhile event for everyone involved. But, personally, he was nervous about how developing a game as a team would play out. He’d only ever jammed by himself. How would splitting up roles work? Would the files all break each other if they were separated between different computers? 

To his surprise, everything worked out fine.

“Definitely both [games] were constrained,” says Connors, who will graduate this spring. “I think that’s basically always true for game jams. You always have to cut half the stuff you thought of. … But that’s kinda how game jams are. It’s all about doing stuff quick, learning a bunch, and working with other people, doing cool things.”

You can play Overgrowth at globalgamejam.org/2023/games/overgrowth-3 and Root Access at globalgamejam.org/2023/games/root-access-4-1.

Six months after UVA Student Council’s executive board called for the immediate resignation of Bert Ellis, one of Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s first four appointees to the UVA Board of Visitors, the controversy has reached the Virginia General Assembly.

On January 31, a resolution brought forth by state Sen. Creigh Deeds to remove Ellis’ name from the final list of appointees passed the senate’s Democrat-led Elections and Privileges Committee. A vote to adopt the resolution by the full senate was pending at C-VILLE press time. 

“I have real concerns about a 60-year-old man who’d travel to UVA with a razor blade to remove a sign from a student’s door,” Deeds said in an interview on WINA referencing a 2020 event that was widely publicized after Ellis’ appointment was announced. At that time, however, Deeds also noted that if Ellis were removed from the BOV, Youngkin’s next appointee might also be controversial or unacceptable to some.

In a February 3 statement released after the senate committee voted to adopt Deeds’ resolution, the student council executive board expressed optimism that Ellis would be removed. 

“We hope our elected officials recognize that Mr. Ellis’ conduct is not fitting of someone possessing the responsibility and powers of those serving on our Board of Visitors. Our community is paying close attention to Richmond right now,” the statement reads.

Ellis’ appointment has divided UVA faculty.

UVA media studies professor Siva Vaidhyanathan applauded the push to remove Ellis from the BOV and called him an “active enemy” of UVA, despite being an alum.

“Mr. Ellis is clearly hostile to the University of Virginia,” Vaidhyanathan said after the committee vote. “I mean, he has shown for years that he does not respect students. He doesn’t respect them for having independent minds. He doesn’t respect them for wanting to pursue intellectual pursuits that they decide they want to pursue. He doesn’t respect their freedom of speech. … So the idea of him actually serving as some sort of custodian for the university is kind of absurd.”

UVA Center for Politics Director Larry Sabato, however, wrote a letter to the General Assembly in support of Ellis.

“Bert and I have different political takes on quite a few subjects, but I know Bert to be loyal to the university and dedicated to its best interests,” Sabato wrote in an email, according to the Virginia Mercury. “He’s proven as much many times.”

The controversy over Ellis began building in the weeks after his name was announced by the Youngkin administration on July 1. The Cavalier Daily published a series of articles and op-eds last summer describing an episode between Ellis and a Lawn resident, a minority student whose door was covered with signs of protest against the university’s racist history. According to the paper’s reporting and his own essay, Ellis, a South Carolina businessman and member of the conservative-leaning Jefferson Council alumnae group, said he hoped to remove the portion of the sign that included an obscenity. He was stopped by two UVA ambassadors.

“I was prepared to use a small razor blade to remove the Fuck UVA part of this sign and they said I could not do that as it would be considered malicious damage to the University and a violation of this student’s First Amendment Rights and they were prepared to restrain me from so doing,” Ellis wrote on Bacon’s Rebellion, a libertarian blog founded by Ellis’ fellow Jefferson Council member Jim Bacon.

Soon after that incident became public, The Cavalier Daily published a lengthy investigative piece detailing Ellis’ role as a UVA undergrad in inviting well-known eugenicist William Shockley to Grounds for a debate during the 1974-75 school year titled “The Correlation Between Race and Intelligence.” At the time, Ellis was one of three chairs of a student-led events planning organization called University Union. Despite repeated vocal opposition to the event from Black student groups and a vote to cancel it by UVA Student Council, the Union held the event.

“Shockley is an insult to our intelligence,” University Union Minority Culture Committee Co-Chair Sheila Crider said at the time, according to The Cavalier Daily. “And as a representative of the Black community, I expressed my opinion that we didn’t want to see Shockley here.”

Bacon says Ellis has been unfairly portrayed, including The Cavalier Daily’s representation of the Shockley debate.

“The point was, by promoting free speech the student union advanced the cause of anti-racism,” Bacon said. 

He described Ellis as “a proponent of free speech, diversity of thought, and upholding the Jeffersonian tradition. So all these [things have gone] totally unacknowledged and unrepresented in the debate. And I just think that’s just outrageous.”

Attempts to frame the Shockley event as a healthy debate, however, appalls Vaidhyanathan.

“The pursuit of knowledge at the university is a very, very busy and advanced process, and we don’t have time to step back two centuries and take something seriously like eugenics,” Vaidhyanathan says.

Ellis declined an interview request from C-VILLE Weekly, but said he would speak publicly after the state Senate’s final vote on the resolution to remove him.

Courteney Stuart is the host of “Charlottes­ville Right Now” on WINA. Full interviews with Siva Vaidhyanathan and Jim Bacon are at wina.com.

The UVA chapter of The United Campus Workers has long demanded that the university pay graduate students a living wage, which they currently estimate to be $38,173 a year. Recently, the union found itself fighting for the right to be paid anything.

“We’re hearing from multiple grad student workers @UVA that they haven’t been paid their stipends for December,” announced the official Twitter account for UCW-UVA on December 26. For many students, this was not the first time their pay was late.

“In the history department, we have been dealing with a delayed stipend and graduate teaching assistant wage payments since at least last spring—this is the third time this year that I’ve been paid late by a week or more,” one student anonymously told C-VILLE.

“We haven’t been given any explanation for these errors, which the department, SFS, and administration all seem to blame on each other. It is beyond insulting and degrading, especially when graduate students at UVA are already paid so far below a living wage for the crucial work we do for our students and departments,” the student said.

Laura Ornée, a Ph.D. candidate in the history department, says she knows of “multiple examples of individual graduate students, where something went wrong administratively with their stipend, and it was late. Every time we have to get together and do collective action because one individual saying their payment is late is apparently not enough.”

Ornée also serves as the elected Chapter Chair for UCW-UVA, and has advocated for a living wage, expanded health care benefits, and better terms of employment. “UVA has recently announced that starting next year, our stipends are going to go to 30,000 a year at minimum, but it’s still not a living wage,” she said.

“And there is no cost of living adjustments built in. So in four years, we’re going to be exactly where we are now. And we’re gonna have to fight and ask and demand again.” 

Ph.D. candidate Oliva Paschal echoed these concerns: “We get paid scraps. And then sometimes we don’t even get paid the scraps.” She also mentioned some of the limits of organizing in a state without collective bargaining rights.

“If you don’t get paid, you can’t just stop working. I mean, you could, but you are forfeiting your job if you do that.”

Financial delays extend beyond living stipends, according to one physics student who said there have been issues getting reimbursed for travel and conferences in a timely manner. “I am owed thousands of dollars. And I realize now the only way I will get this money is if I go to the finance office, walk in there, and complain to them and say, ‘Let’s figure this out.’ It’s been months, I don’t see how else I will get this money.”

Bridge fellows—who are part of a program that supports students from groups that are underrepresented in their disciplines—were also affected. Crystalina Peterson reported to UCW-UVA that “the vast majority of the Bridge fellows currently enrolled are people of color, first-generation students, and/or from low-income families, and we do not have the ability to ask our parents for help when the university does not follow through on its financial commitment to us.” Another fellow anonymously told C-VILLE that two of their classmates had to leave the program last year due to financial struggles.

“I feel like that kind of says a lot about the Bridge program,” the fellow said.

A spokesperson for UVA told C-VILLE that the delay was caused by “a shift in the processing date due to UVA’s winter break” and that “stipends are now expected to arrive on January 3.” In an email sent to student leaders, provost Ian Baucom said the administration would personally speak to landlords and assist in covering late fees.

UCW-UVA started a Twitter storm on December 29, with graduate students, undergraduates, professors, and alumni alike tagging President Jim Ryan and demanding the university #cutthechecks. On December 30, the union announced that some of its members had received payment. Baucom agreed to meet with the union at 3pm on Tuesday, January 3.

A wide variety of women-owned small businesses from across the Charlottesville community came together at the University of Virginia Women’s Center on December 12. The vendors sold locally crafted goods at the free holiday market, including cards, candles, jewelry, calendars, books, and soul food. 

Cary Oliva, owner of ByCary handmade goods, creates and sells unique greeting cards, calendars, trivets, journals, and similar items. Many of her designs include her original photography, which she describes as her “true love.” Using several different photography techniques, she crafts distinctive prints to feature on her merchandise.

Oliva was inspired to start her business when she realized she could never find a greeting card that pleased her, she said. Thanks to training and support from the Community Investment Collaborative, she was able to learn about the many critical aspects of entrepreneurship, like pricing, as well as the importance of both sides of running a business—the creative and the financial. She encouraged other local women interested in starting small businesses to reach out to the CIC to help get their ideas off the ground. 

After spending time in area communities educating young children in various fields, UVA Ph.D. candidate Merci Best founded STEAMKITX in 2020, offering innovative educational kits that explore careers in science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics. Each research-based kit includes five different engaging activities for students ages 5 through 18 and their families to do together. The company’s two current kits explore the STEM and arts fields, and their connections to ice cream and football.

Best cited her biggest accomplishment as being interviewed on TV about her business, and she hoped to get more media exposure in the future. She would also like to see more hands-on programming within local business circles in Charlottesville, and even more collaboration among female entrepreneurs, she said.

JBD Catering founder and owner Jeanetha Douglas had hot, home-cooked meals for sale, including collard greens, mashed potatoes, honey-baked ham, and cornbread. She’s been catering events for over a decade, serving both soul food and other food items. Douglas expressed joy at being able to own a successful business in her hometown, and espoused her love for food and cooking. She called for more financial support for women-owned businesses in the community. 

Fatima Shakeri’s Mystical Sunshine Co. sold an array of crystal jewelry at the market, including pendants, bracelets, earrings, and rings. Shakeri, who has Afghan roots, said she often thought about selling her handmade tasbihs, Afghan prayer beads, before finally starting her business last year. In addition to crafting her own gemstone jewelry, Shakeri offers tarot card readings. She said she felt very supported by the other women in the local business community, and that they often encourage each other’s ventures. 

Shakeri designated the holiday market as one of her favorite events of the year, and said she hoped to see more events like it in the future. 

“I am a journalist, and the subject that I’m investigating is human prehistory,” Graham Hancock confidently asserts over stunning footage of ancient archaeological sites and a booming soundtrack. In “Ancient Apocalypse,” Hancock tells an alternative story of the dawn of human civilization. He claims that an advanced ice-age civilization existed, and after a flood of apocalyptic proportions wiped out most of humanity, survivors helped less-advanced cultures develop.

It’s a story that brings out a sense of childlike wonder, especially when Hancock mentions how this civilization could have inspired the Atlantis story. The production value of the eight-episode Netflix series is fantastic: drone footage of UNESCO World Heritage sites, animated retellings of ancient myths, and incredibly tight editing. 

At the same time, I couldn’t help but wonder how someone like Hancock was able to secure a Netflix series. Hancock admits he is on the fringes of intellectual society: The first episode opens with footage of him being called a “pseudo-archaeologist,” “dismissed by academics,” and a “pyramidiot.” The series also cuts to clips of Hancock speaking with podcaster Joe Rogan, who has come under heavy fire before for pushing conspiracy theories.

While Hancock claims that this advanced ice-age civilization helped all of humanity develop, he only investigates structures made by non-white people. He doesn’t specifically say the advanced civilization was white, yet his choice still reads as an insult to the capabilities of Indigenous people.

Kenny Fountain, an English professor at UVA who specializes in conspiracy theories, notes that there is an explicit connection between pseudo-archeology and white supremacy. Hancock’s work, Fountain explains, is influenced by Erich Von Daniken’s book The Chariot of the Gods, which claims the Egyptian pyramids, among other historical structures, were actually made by aliens. “The white supremacist sort of undercurrent, sometimes overcurrent, is that idea that these backward people couldn’t make this thing without help,” Fountain says.

The appeal of conspiracy theories like “Ancient Apocalypse” is that they offer “a counter-narrative against the elites,” says Fountain, “and we all think of ourselves as fighting against the man.”

 “It’s very seductive to think I’m going to be in [on] something that others don’t know about.”

Science journalist and nonfiction author Jackson Landers finds truth to be more appealing than fiction. “There are lots of coastal cities that as the sea levels have risen, have been sunken. It’s so pointless to try to make things about Atlantis when the real thing is so cool.”

Landers also argues that “Ancient Apocalypse” takes advantage of the lack of education people have about ancient history. “The range of what was going on in the ancient world is a lot bigger than the white-centric story of the Greeks and the Romans,” Landers says, before delving into the history of the Americas specifically.

“People should read books like 1491, which gives you the history of the incredible situations that existed in the Americas before Columbus showed up. And that they had these amazing cities, they had economics, they had domesticated animals, they had all kinds of crops.”

If one of your family members brings up this conspiracy—or another one—over the holidays, Fountain advises that you don’t directly try to debunk them. “I think it’s important to find other ways to connect with them. So if you can find a common interest, talk about those things. I think it’s okay to say to someone, a loved one, a friend, ‘We are not going to agree with this. I don’t think we should talk about this anymore.’”

French soccer legend and activist Lilian Thuram joined students, faculty, and community members at the University of Virginia on December 2 for a live screening of two World Cup games. During the event, hosted by UVA’s Karsh Institute of Democracy, Thuram discussed his experiences as a Black player on France’s national soccer team in the 1990s, and the role activism has played in his life up to the present day. 

Thuram was a heavy-hitter on the French team during the 1998 World Cup, which France won 3-0 against Brazil. Today, he is still the most capped French international player—he appeared in 142 matches over the course of his career. 

Since retiring from international soccer in 2008, Thuram has authored several books about racial bias and Black history, including White Thinking and My Black Stars. He aims to educate people about the history of racism in France, and the ways in which entrenched thinking patterns can reinforce subconscious prejudices—all while taking time to cheer on his two sons at their professional soccer games. His son Marcus is playing on the French team in the 2022 World Cup.

After a viewing of the Cameroon-Brazil and Serbia-Switzerland World Cup games, Thuram sat down with Professor Laurent Dubois, director for academic affairs at UVA’s Democracy Initiative, to discuss his groundbreaking career and activism.

Thuram recounted moments of his childhood, and the important role his mother has played in his life. After moving to France from his birthplace of Guadeloupe at age 9, he found himself feeling alienated from some of his school peers, who called him “sale noir,” meaning “dirty black.” Thuram asserted that this is when he “became Black”—he had no awareness of the importance of skin color until then. He admired the sacrifices his mother made over the course of his childhood, and expressed disappointment at how long it took him to understand the difficulties she faced. “Be conscious of what certain people do for you, and don’t forget to thank them,” he said.

Thuram highlighted the role of soccer in the battle against racism. As a team sport, soccer can break down stereotypes, and create unity across races and religions. However, that sense of belonging can also lead to a collective perception of the opposing team as “the enemy,” which often divides people, he said. He drew attention to the many people who capitalize on this division—the more extreme the division, the more merchandise can be sold. 

Additionally, Thuram emphasized the importance of educating the French populace on the history of racism in the country, which is not taught well in schools. Education, he argued, empowers people to speak out against racism when it occurs. “Education makes visible the violence of racism,” he said.

When questioned about the differences between race relations in the U.S. and France, Thuram asserted that those who speak up about racism in France are often accused of incorrectly applying “American modes of thinking” to “colorblind” French society—an example of the common denial of racism and white supremacy in France.

Closing out the event, the soccer star spoke with pride about his team’s World Cup win—many of his teammates were also members of minority groups. He expressed gratitude at having been a part of changing the collective imagination about what it means to be French, and what a French person can look like. 

“We had the chance to say, ‘This is France,’” he said.

When Amaka Agugua-Hamilton was growing up in Herndon, Virginia, she didn’t want to be a coach.

Long before she earned the nickname “Coach Mox” as an assistant coach at VCU, or recorded a historic inaugural season as head coach at Missouri State, or was named the sixth head coach of UVA’s women’s basketball in March, Agugua-Hamilton did not plan to be on the sidelines.

She wanted to be the first woman to play in the NBA.

Agugua-Hamilton saw herself in Charles Barkley, who muscled his way past players six inches taller to become one of the best rebounders in basketball history. At 5-foot-11-inches tall, she needed similar tenacity to earn a spot on a college roster. When she was accepted at Hofstra in the early 2000s, her dream—especially since the WNBA was founded—felt within reach.

Then, her knee gave out.

The injury sidelined her for the majority of her freshman season. She was considering transferring by the time Felisha Legette-Jack, now head coach at Syracuse, took over and shocked Agugua-Hamilton by naming her team captain as a sophomore.

“At first, I was like, ‘Are you sure? Me?’” says Agugua-Hamilton. “But she saw something in me, and it’s something that a lot of people had already brought to my attention, but I just didn’t really tap into it yet.”

Agugua-Hamilton’s injury troubles persisted throughout college. She fought through everything from stress fractures in her feet to sciatica in her back. One of her six knee surgeries forced Agugua-Hamilton to redshirt her senior year, so she spent it on the sidelines with the coaching staff. 

“I started seeing how my teammates reacted to me,” says Agugua-Hamilton. “I got a lot of gratitude, and it filled me up, helping others and being a mentor to others. That’s where I started falling in love with coaching.”

Agugua-Hamilton received offers to play professionally overseas, but when her surgeon mother looked at scans of her daughter’s knees, she turned to Agugua-Hamilton and warned her she had to stop playing basketball if she ever wanted to be able to play with her kids.

Into the thick of it

After honing her leadership skills with assistant coaching jobs at VCU, Indiana, and Old Dominion, Agugua-Hamilton worked her way up to associate head coach at Michigan State.

Then, in early 2017, head coach Suzy Merchant fainted on the sidelines during a game and took time off to recover. Suddenly, Agugua-Hamilton was an interim Big Ten coach in charge of everything from game planning to radio interviews. “My head was spinning for the first couple of weeks,” she says. “And then, I found a rhythm.” 

This trial by fire ensured Agugua-Hamilton was ready two years later, when she was offered her first full-time head coaching position at Missouri State. 

“People there told me, ‘You know, as a first-time head coach, it seems like this isn’t your first rodeo,’” she says. “And I think it’s all because of those experiences I had at Michigan State, so I’m grateful for that. I’m also grateful that Suzy’s in better health.”

Merchant, who still coaches Michigan State today, recovered and was able to attend Agugua-Hamilton’s wedding that May, when Agugua-Hamilton tied the knot on a romance that, like her career, blossomed beside a basketball court. She met her husband, Billy, at the San Antonio Final Four, while she was an assistant coach at Indiana and he was an assistant at Savannah State. The two now have a son—and with every lingering twinge of old injuries, Agugua-Hamilton remembers how close she came to not meeting him.

As Agugua-Hamilton prepared her family to move to Springfield in 2019, she knew she was headed for more than just her first head coaching gig. She was also getting ready to be the first African American woman coach in Missouri State history. 

Some would have seen it as pressure. She saw it as an opportunity.

Her 26-4 record in 2019-20 marked the best inaugural season by a head coach in the history of the Missouri Valley Conference. “I’m a believer and a God-fearing woman, and I truly believe I was called there,” says Agugua-Hamilton. “It’s a community that’s more of a conservative community, and maybe I was able to open some closed eyes.”

Despite the heartbreak of that first promising postseason being lost to COVID-19, Agugua-Hamilton returned to lead the Lady Bears to a 16-0 conference record and the NCAA Sweet 16 in 2020-21. She hopes her legacy will not be just that she broke racial barriers, but that she excelled at her job while doing so.

“At the end of the day, I do want to represent my community, and I want to make sure women of color have a platform and get more opportunities to get jobs, and to lead, and to help grow the next generation,” says Agugua-Hamilton. “But at some point, I just want to be known as a great coach, no matter what my skin color is.” 

Coming home

UVA athletic director Carla Williams was part of the coaching staff that took Georgia to two Final Fours and the 1996 NCAA championship, so she knows what a good coach looks like. And she knew she’d found one in Agugua-Hamilton during their first Zoom call. 

“Coach Mox talked about academics first, and developing young ladies off the court first,” says Williams. “Once I realized how passionate she was about their lives outside of basketball, I already knew she was a great coach.”

When Williams extended the offer to coach at UVA, Agugua-Hamilton jumped at the chance to move her son and husband closer to extended family—and also to make the leap from mid-majors to the ACC. 

It took her just two weeks to secure a high-profile commitment from Notre Dame transfer Sam Brunelle. After leading ACC freshman in scoring in 2019-20, Brunelle’s next two seasons were cut short by injuries, the last of which required intensive surgery last summer. Agugua-Hamilton and her staff have helped Brunelle through the agonizing process of relearning how to use her healing shoulder.

“I’m one of those coaches that holds kids out a little bit to make sure that they’re prepared to come back physically, but also mentally,” says Agugua-Hamilton. “Coming back from injuries is really taxing on the mental side, and that sometimes is overlooked.”

This guidance is part of why Brunelle, who first met Agugua-Hamilton as the former No. 1 overall high school recruit out of Greene County’s William Monroe High School, says Virginia’s new coach played a major role in her transfer decision. “Coach Mox has been through it as well, with her knee injuries, and she really understands where I’m coming from with the adversity I’ve had to face,” says Brunelle. “It’s really nice to have someone who understands that in the forefront of helping you with rehab.”

Last year, Virginia women’s basketball missed the NCAA tournament for the fourth straight year after winning just five of 27 games. 

That’s not the UVA Agugua-Hamilton remembers while watching coach Debbie Ryan and Dawn Staley, Wendy Palmer, and Tammi Reiss play in orange and navy blue.

“I understand the program kind of went on a downward spiral the last couple of years, but my vision of this program is the Final Fours, the Elite Eights, because that’s what I grew up knowing about UVA,” says Agugua-Hamilton.

The first thing she wanted to do to jolt the Cavaliers out of this spiral was change the team culture, which she found was easier than expected. “I think I was a little bit surprised with how hard we work, and how competitive we have been from day one of getting on the court with them,” says Agugua-Hamilton. “I thought that was going to be something that I was going to have to change a little bit, just based on last year. But our kids want to win, and they work hard.”

With family culture in place, Agugua-Hamilton can focus on emphasizing her players’ versatility and athleticism with up-tempo basketball. Alongside the bulk of her Missouri State coaching staff, she pushes her seven returnees, two transfers, and two first-years through energetic practices. 

Shooters rotate briskly around the floor. Defensive drills are frenetic. Agugua-Hamilton is readying her players to push the ball.

Whenever Williams stops by practice, she sees joy in everyone’s face, even through the pain. “We’ve got a long way to go, but we’ve come a long way,” says Williams. “I think that she is exactly what college athletics, women’s basketball, and UVA athletics needs, and that’s a coach who cares about the student athlete outside of their sport and is truly invested in their development as people.”

UVA shooting investigation continues 

New details have emerged since a shooter killed three students and injured two others at the University of Virginia last week.

On November 13, suspect Christopher Darnell Jones Jr. and 21 other students, along with a professor, traveled to Washington, D.C., to see a play. As the group’s bus arrived back at UVA at around 10:15pm, Jones allegedly shot at students, fired additional rounds while exiting the bus, and fled in his vehicle. Officers found a handgun near the scene, according to the Virginia State Police, which is leading the multijurisdictional investigation.

After a more than 12-hour manhunt and campus lockdown, police arrested Jones, 23, in Henrico County on November 14. Jones is accused of killing Devin Chandler, 20, Lavel Davis Jr., 20, and D’Sean Perry, 22, and injuring Michael Hollins, 19—all UVA football players. Student Marlee Morgan, 19, was also injured during the shooting. GoFundMe has verified fundraisers for Davis, Chandler, Perry, and Morgan.

On November 21, Hollins—who told his family he was shot after running off the bus and then returning to help his classmates—was released from the hospital after undergoing surgeries. Morgan was discharged on November 15. 

Jones, a walk-on member of the football team during the 2018 season, has been charged with three felony counts of second-degree murder, among other crimes. On November 16, Jones appeared via videostream in Albemarle General District Court, and was ordered to be held without bond at Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail. He agreed to be represented by a public defender, but said he planned to hire a lawyer. The judge set a status hearing for December 8.

According to Albemarle County Commonwealth’s Attorney Jim Hingeley, a witness told police that Jones shot Chandler while he was sleeping, and aimed at certain people on the bus, reports NBC29. However, the motive for the shooting remains unclear. 

The VSP seized a semiautomatic rifle, pistol, ammunition, and magazines, among other items, from Jones’ dorm room, reports The Daily Progress. UVA bans weapons and ammunition on school property. 

A November 16 press release from Dance’s Sporting Goods in Colonial Heights, Virginia, said that Jones legally purchased a rifle and pistol from the shop this year. Jones had unsuccessfully tried to buy guns there before—he failed a background check in 2018 for being underage, and another one in 2021 due to a pending felony charge. The attempts were reported to the VSP.

During UVA’s investigation into a hazing incident involving Jones in September, a third party said they heard Jones say he had a gun. Officials spoke with the person who reported Jones and Jones’ roommate, who said he never saw him with a weapon, but it remains unclear if they interviewed Jones. The investigation was closed after witnesses would not cooperate. 

However, officials investigating the incident discovered that Jones had been convicted of carrying a concealed weapon without a permit in 2021. Because Jones did not report his crime to the university, violating school policy, the student affairs office warned Jones in October that his case would be submitted to the University Judiciary Committee—but the case was not submitted until after the shooting, according to UVA spokesman Brian Coy. Last year, Jones was also charged with a felony for not remaining at the scene of a car accident, but the charge was later reduced to a misdemeanor.

Attorney General Jason Miyares’ office announced on November 17 that it would appoint a special counsel to independently review UVA’s threat assessment of Jones, and its response to the shooting, which the university requested.

In an interview with The Washington Post, second-year student Ryan Lynch, who attended the field trip, said that Jones was not in the group’s class about African American playwrights, but had been invited by their professor because he was taking another class with her. Jones sat apart from the class during the play, and did not talk much with other students on the bus, claimed Lynch. Other students told Lynch they heard Jones yell, “something to the effect of, ‘You guys are always messing with me,’” before opening fire.

Lynch said she and a friend performed CPR on Davis, who she had grown close to, before fleeing from the bus.

“The one thing that gives me comfort is I know each one of them had somebody in our class trying to help them,” said Lynch. “I want their families to know that. In their last moments, they weren’t alone.”

Jones’ father, Christopher Darnell Jones Sr., said in interviews that his son told him that “some people were picking on him” when they saw each other last month. However, he was completely shocked and pained by the shooting.

“He was really paranoid when I talked to him about something, but he wouldn’t tell me everything,” said Jones Sr. “I don’t know what to say except I’m sorry on his behalf, and I apologize. He’s not a bad kid. … I just don’t know what happened.”

In brief

Another delay

The Virginia Board of Education delayed its review of the state’s new proposed history and social science learning standards again on November 17, following backlash from advocacy groups, politicians, educators, parents, and others. Critics denounced the proposal for omitting Martin Luther King Jr. from elementary standards, and referring to Indigenous people as “immigrants,” among other issues, and accused Governor Glenn Youngkin’s administration of whitewashing history. The board directed Jillian Balow, superintendent of public instruction, to correct the errors and omissions, as well as incorporate public feedback and content from an August draft—which was based on more than two years of input from hundreds of educators, historians, and other experts—into a revised proposal. In-person and virtual input sessions on the standards will be held November 28 through December 16.

Longtime city manager dies

Former Charlottesville city manager Cole Hendrix, who led the city from 1971 to 1997, passed away on November 15, according to a city press release. During his tenure, Hendrix spurred the creation of the Downtown Mall, Omni Charlottesville Hotel, and Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority. He was 88 years old.

New committee

The City of Charlottesville is forming a committee to discuss the challenges and issues facing the Downtown Mall, and propose potential solutions for the next 50 years, as the pedestrian mall nears its 50th birthday. “It is necessary to revisit maintenance, improvements, and enhancements. … We need to ensure everyone is welcome and has a quality experience,” reads a city press release. Committee applications are available on the city website, and must be submitted by December 20.