Forty-two students gathered eagerly in the Game Room of Newcomb Hall Wednesday to watch the season premiere of the hit ABC series “Lost.” The gathering represented the first official meeting of Hoo’s Lost, a club dedicated to watching and discussing the complicated and engrossing TV show for which it is named.

The room was decorated with banners depicting scenes from the series and emblazoned with the club’s name. Members sat in lounge chairs enjoying pizza. “This is our first meeting,” said President Matt Sutton, who was sporting a T-shirt with the Oceanic Airlines logo, the airline featured on the series. “We’re very excited.”

With so many students on Grounds who enjoy watching “Lost,” the Hoo’s Lost club provides a place for people to come together to theorize, analyze and view the show with other dedicated fans. Sutton, a first-year College student, came up with the idea for the club last semester with two friends, first-year Engineering student Matt Jungclaus and first-year College student Travis Dennis. “I’ve found people really enjoy watching the show together,” he explained. Although just watching the show with a small group of friends can be fun, Sutton said that the club makes viewing the episodes more of a “big event,” adding that it is a great way to reach out to the University student body.

Sutton said he, Jungclaus and Dennis decided to make the club an official student organization after they discovered there was a lot of interest in the show from University students on Facebook. “We did a Facebook survey and found that over 500 people in the U.Va. network had [“Lost”] listed as their favorite TV show,” he said.

Although he first thought the club would just be “a little thing with a couple of friends,” Sutton said the response has been very enthusiastic. “Interest [in the club] has been more than I expected,” he said, explaining that the club already had 40 official members before the first meeting Wednesday.

In addition to Facebook, students heard about the club through the signs posted around Grounds and word of mouth. “I live on the same floor as the guys who started the club, so I was bound to hear about it,” first-year College student Rolfe Garcia said.

Many attendees at the premiere came in large part for the group atmosphere, which was one of anticipation and high energy. First-year College student MacGregor Hall-Wurst, who was first introduced to the show by Sutton, explained that the club offered an “exciting environment” in which to watch the episodes. Garcia agreed, adding, “It’s a lot more fun to watch with other people who like ‘Lost.’”
Some of the club’s success may come from the nature of the show, which seems to lend itself to group viewing and discussion. An extremely involved series with continual plot twists, “Lost” provides viewers with a large amount of material to explore. As a recent New York Times article on the show noted, “few if any shows have twists and turns as byzantine as those on ‘Lost.’” The many flashbacks and various plot lines can make watching the series confusing, and Hoo’s Lost gives students a chance to discuss details and voice questions. First-year College student Matt Diton said that the club offers a great forum in which members can “bounce theories off each other because [they] don’t really know what’s going on” in the show.

Regardless of whether they understand all aspects of the series, the members of the Hoo’s Lost are addicted to “Lost” for a variety of reasons. “‘Lost’ is the best show on TV,” Ditton said, adding that he enjoys the mystery: “You don’t know where it’s going next. It’s like a roller coaster in the dark.” The intellectual level of the show also seems to draw in much of its dedicated fan base. “The show is rich with literary allusions,” Sutton said, explaining that he loves all the hidden details and references to pop culture. Hall-Wurst added that he’s intrigued by the “underlying theme of science versus religion.” Garcia voiced a simpler explanation. “It’s just an awesome show,” he said.

For the rest of the semester, the club plans to meet every week to watch the new episodes of “Lost.” Sutton said he’s looking forward to expanding the membership base of the club, as well as ordering T-shirts. Those in the club are all looking forward to the new season, anxiously awaiting revelations that are sure to come. “Some [characters] have gotten off the island,” Hall-Wurst said, but explained that though they have seen flash-forwards, the audience doesn’t know all the details. “I want to see what happens in the intervening years.”

When I think of the Super Bowl, my mind goes to one of the most obvious topics: Why does a big football game spawn tons of food drives? I mean, really, Thanksgiving just happened. Make it last, America. And are corny names like “The Soup-er Bowl” really necessary? The catchy idea is to bring cans of soup and whatever else comes in a can because, hey, look what we did, we discovered that the world’s biggest football game shares part of its name with a popular non-perishable item.

In truth, this sacred day in American pop culture is about much more than merely feeding the poor. It’s about stuffing your own face so full of food that it hurts like it’s been three days, and he hasn’t called you back.

The best way to accomplish this eating goal is to throw your own Super Bowl party. This can be successfully accomplished by killing and cooking every animal, placing those animals in your living room andmaking sure your house does not blow before game time.
Reader eager to participate: What kinds of food should I get?

Austin: You know the aisles at Harris Teeter with things that grow in the ground and on trees and are good for you?

Eager reader: Ooh, yes?

Austin: Yeah. Everything else.

Eager reader: But I’m a vegetarian and only eat nuts, leaves, some berries an—

Austin: That’s not a problem.

Eager reader: It’s not? Great!

Austin: Nope. Just make sure you stay outside with all the other squirrels and that you never throw a Super Bowl party, ever.

The next order of business involves who to invite to your Super Bowl party. Your guests should fall into three distinct categories:

1. Chicks who know nothing about football. These girls primarily will comment about three matters: commercials, players’ asses and O.M.G. the commercials. They are invited because other people find them to be nice company and generally nice-smelling.

2. The one chick who knows everything about football. This girl’s football knowledge and expertise will put those of every man to shame. She is invited primarily so that come water-cooler time Monday, everyone else in attendance at the party will be able to complain about her or comment on how categorically odd her entire “deal” is.

3. Dudes.

A word of note: The pregame-show/analysis/breakdown will begin at 9:30 a.m. You do not need to support or endorse this … Simply be aware of it when requesting things like “attention,” “caring” and “giving a $#!@” from men you may know.

The two teams that played in this year’s game were the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Arizona Cardinals. It sucked to be a Steelers fan because your team is named after the same material used to make the pipes in your house that flush away “ugly storms.” It sucked to be a Cardinals fan because despite your team’s unquestionable prowess on the gridiron leading up to the big game, most of America still thought it was the St. Louis baseball team getting a leg up on spring training. Furthermore, a real-life manifestation of a Steelers-Cardinals matchup would consist of colorful little birds being pelted with anvils, and nobody wins there. This proves that you should have watched HGTV in lieu of the sporting contest.

The game did offer some colorful personalities, however. Cardinals first-team all-Galaxy wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald and vicious Steelers safety Troy “I’ll take the burger with fries, but if you’re out of that, one of your kids will do” Polamalu both sported wild hairstyles consisting of dreadlocks and frizz, or “drizz” as the kids call it. After big plays, both players hollered “You’ve just been drizzled!” at opponents in their vicinity. Note: I’m giving it 3:1 odds that this actually occurred.

Of course there’s always the halftime show to engage both sports fans and the ambivalent. This year’s act featured the legendary Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street Band. Regardless of the game’s outcome, I think the halftime performance unified all of America with one prevailing sentiment:

We’re all pretty miffed we didn’t see Bruce Springsteen’s nipple.

Austin’s column runs biweekly Tuesdays. He can be reached at a.wiles@cavalierdaily.com.

When I was eight years old, I had three loves — my colored markers, my Barbies and my Disney movies. Eventually the markers ran out of ink and the Barbies took a long vacation to an exotic place called storage, but I never really grew out of my love for Disney princesses and their stories. VHS may have gone out of style, but the fairy tale never did.

I’m not the only nostalgic one either. Walk into my friends’ apartment and the most noticeable poster isn’t of a cute actor or a recent blockbuster. It’s the six smiling faces of Snow White, Cinderella, Belle, Ariel, Jasmine and Aurora — otherwise known as Sleeping Beauty.

The fact that you can still buy paraphernalia for “Cinderella,” a movie that came out more than half a century ago, is a testament to its enduring cultural impact. When I first watched her lose that glass slipper, I wasn’t even entirely sure what a ball was. Yet I was entranced all the same.

There are, of course, a lot of things wrong with the old Disney classics, not the least of which is the unrealistic portrayal of hair. I mean, Ariel is underwater half the time and she still looks like she belongs in the second half of a shampoo commercial.  

It’s also true that the Disney canon, before the age of “Mulan” and “Enchanted,” wasn’t exactly full of forward-thinking, feminist texts. But since this isn’t a SWAG class, we’ll set that aside.

The point is that despite the fact that the films don’t paint a recognizable picture of what it means to be a girl, they were still a huge part of my growing up. I shouldn’t have been able to identify with Cinderella — my singing ability was limited, and I had no evil stepsisters or experience scrubbing floors. But somehow I related anyway.

The typical Disney princess, aside from her kindness and beauty, is a weird role model. For one, she’s got no magical powers, unless you count that naturally glossy hair. She does her chores without complaint and her idea of adventure isn’t all that wild — she sticks to dancing, boy-watching or taking long naps.

She’s kind of a loner and tends to only hang out with talking rodents, fowl, fish or crustaceans. These creatures are friendly, dependable and though lacking opposable thumbs, excellent at hair-braiding. But at some point in time those squeaky voices have to get irritating, right? Eventually, a girl needs friends she can take out on the town without people thinking she’s schizophrenic or a spokesperson for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

But the best sidekick to a Disney princess isn’t the strangely chatty mice or a charming prince. It’s the fairy godmother. She’s the truly helpful one, like Santa meets Mary Poppins with a dash of Carrie Bradshaw. She brings presents, sings songs and acts as your personal shopper and life coach. What could be better?

The fairy godmother in “Cinderella,” is a lot like Stacy London and Clinton Kelly on “What Not to Wear.” She shows up unexpectedly in times of crisis to give fashion advice and boost self-esteem. She just has a magic wand instead of a credit card.

The fairy godmother is a fan of elaborate methods of transportation — appearances out of thin air, squash-shaped carriages and the like. But she also can be pretty strict, doling out uncomfortable shoes and midnight curfews. And really, what sort of princess has to be home before last call?

Aurora, however, had it made. Not only did she have three fairy godmothers instead of one, but they baked cakes and were totally hilarious, like her very own Golden Girls.

In spite of all their ridiculousness — fairy godmothers included — these films have endured. No amount of analysis tarnishes them and advances in animation technology cannot completely leave them behind. They can’t be wholeheartedly dismissed as disempowering or outdated. Same goes with Barbie. Maybe that wafer-thin plastic Amazon is the root of all body image issues, but I still like her.

As for Disney, its legacy is that some part of that fairy tale mentality sticks with us, whether it’s when we twirl around in a fancy dress or when we finally get that pet tiger. Somehow, even after all we know about Cinderella’s masochism or Prince Charming’s savior complex, “princess” still sounds like the best — and easiest — job in the world. It is not, however, an appropriate response to the “What do you want to do after you graduate?” question. Trust me.

Rebecca’s column runs biweekly Tuesdays. She can be reached at r.marsh@cavalierdaily.com

As Student Council leaders start planning for an upcoming transition process, Council has suggested strategies to continue recent and important initiatives, such as the University Unity Project.

To ensure that newer initiatives continue successfully under new leadership, Council President Matt Schrimper said Council has developed an “intricate transition process” not previously implemented. This new transition process, Schrimper explained, will include a two- to three-week period, during which outgoing committee chairs will exchange reports with the incoming chairs regarding the budget, projects and initiatives from the past year. Schrimper added, however, that he expects many current committee chairs to remain on Council, which will aid in maintaining the continuity of current initiatives.

To further ensure success of the transition process, current Council members will complete a survey to provide feedback about their experience on Council. Results of these surveys will be evaluated to improve Council operations in the future, Schrimper said.

Schrimper was especially optimistic about the success of the Unity Project through the transition process, noting that Council has been “really fortunate to have a lot of individuals on Council and on all committees who devote an invaluable commitment to the project.”

While Council prepares to make its transition as smooth as possible, University students have varying views on Council’s ability to continue the Unity Project in its current form.

Third-year College student Jenn Sun said she thinks many programs established within the Unity Project are admirable because “they’re trying to do something good for the student body.” Fourth-year College student Vincent Zhu, though, said he believes the continued success of the Project is contingent upon a sufficient amount of publicity for its programs and initiatives.

One possible impediment the Unity Project will have to circumvent if it is to continue and grow is the University of Virginia Bookstore’s financial difficulties, Unity Project Chair Rob Atkinson said, because of the current economic recession. The bookstore annually donates funds to the Council and a portion of these funds are used to finance Unity Project grants of up to $500 that are “available to initiatives to bring together the Charlottesville and University communities,” Atkinson added. Because of the financial difficulties experienced by the bookstore, however, Council must “cut back on the number of grants they’ll be able to fund,” Atkinson said, adding that he envisions a different theme each year for the whole of the Unity project.

To guarantee that the project continues to see a steady stream of new ideas, Schrimper said he hopes Council will remain “connected to the University and in touch with fellow students,” noting that there has been a recent increase in the number of people visiting Council’s Web site and contacting Council about suggestions. Atkinson, meanwhile, said he hopes continued promotion of the project will encourage student organizations and their leaders to take more interest in further developing various projects on or near Grounds.

“There will always be new ideas as long as Council members are engaged with the University,” Schrimper said.

Computer Science Assoc. Prof. David Evans recently received the 2009 Outstanding Faculty Award from the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia. Evans was one of 12 professors throughout the commonwealth to receive the award, which recognizes superior accomplishments in teaching, research and public education.

“The award is the highest statewide honor for faculty from both public and private colleges in Virginia,” SCHEV Assistant Director of Communications Kathleen Kincheloe said, noting that a panel comprised of previous OFA recipients and chief academic officers reviewed nominations before a committee of education and business leaders selected the 12 new award recipients. “The goal is to honor faculty for what is sometimes a thankless job.”

Evans, who has been teaching since 2000, said he has received many awards from the University and within the field of computer science, but the OFA is his first statewide award.

“It’s always nice to win awards,” Evans said. “I was surprised to win it. It’s an award that covers all fields. It’s harder for people outside the field to see what the contributions from computer science are, whereas in a field like medicine, everyone can see what the benefits are.”

Evans is the first professor from the University’s computer science department to receive the annual SCHEV award. He is known for veering off the traditional path of teaching to engage his students, computer science department chair Mary Lou Soffa said.

“I think he was chosen because he exemplifies what a professor should be,” Soffa said. “He is dedicated to students, he loves to teach and he does different things in class to keep students’ attention. In the past he has done things such as puzzles, human demonstrations and mock trials.”

Outside of the classroom, Evans led an effort in 2006 to create a majors program that would allow College students to take courses in computer science. The program aims to give its students, of which there are about 50, the opportunity to combine their interest in computer science with the liberal arts.

“For a long time, there has been a computer science program in the engineering school, but [computer science] really connects with a number of different fields.” Evans said, citing subjects like philosophy and linguistics.

Evans also serves as a research mentor to both graduate and undergraduate students. In past years, many students who have conducted research with his guidance have won state and national awards.

“U.Va. has students that are very capable,” Evans said. “They just need to be challenged with hard-to-solve problems. The hope is that I can find those problems.”

Since the first OFA ceremony in 1987, SCHEV has given out 268 awards to faculty throughout Virginia. The University has been home to 27 of the award recipients, Kincheloe said, and the winners have come from academic areas as diverse as neonatology, politics and electrical engineering.

SCHEV will honor this year’s OFA recipients at a public ceremony Feb. 19th at The Jefferson Hotel in Richmond.

A state-level bill that could lead to additional funding for the University of Virginia Cancer Center is currently being considered by the Virginia Senate’s Committee on Rules.

The bill, Senate joint resolution 292, would establish a joint subcommittee to study the benefits of appropriating additional funds for cancer research at the University Cancer Center and the Massey Cancer Center at Virginia Commonwealth University.

“We hope that after studying it … they realize that cancer and medical research is not supported at a level that makes us competitive with institutions across the country,” University Cancer Center Director Michael Weber said, noting that North Carolina provides $50 million each year to the University of North Carolina Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center. Other states — unlike the commonwealth — fund cancer research by setting aside a portion of their tobacco settlement funds, Weber noted.

The University Cancer Center, in contrast, receives $1 million from the commonwealth annually and $75 million of federal funding.
If passed, the bill would not provide additional funding to the centers immediately, but would instead make appropriations available as the currently shrinking Virginia budget allows, said the bill’s sponsor, Virginia Sen. Stephen Martin, R-Chesterfield. Martin said the Virginia Senate likely will decide on the bill in the next few weeks.

“There [isn’t] money available right now,” Martin said. “I’m not asking for money now. But we should take a look at it.”

Commonwealth funds currently are used to develop infrastructure and to start research initiatives that could attract larger sums of investment in research from the National Institutes of Health and the private sector to Virginia, Weber said.

“In Virginia, we have two great research institutions but we aren’t funding any of the research,” Martin said.

The University Cancer Center would use additional commonwealth funds for developing clinical trials and making treatments available in Virginian communities, Weber said, noting that many patients currently have to travel five to six hours to the Center to pick up medications.

“We need to get the drugs to them,” Weber said, citing the case of former Virginia Sen. Emily Couric (D), who died from pancreatic cancer and had to go to Texas for a clinical trial because it was not available in Virginia. The University’s clinical cancer center, expected to be completed in 2011, will be named after Couric.

The University’s Young Women Leaders Program recently was awarded the Virginia Mentoring Partnership’s 2009 Outstanding Mentoring Program Award. The award, which is given annually, recognizes two mentoring programs, one in the Richmond area and another throughout the rest of Virginia.

Rebekah Holbrook, public relations and project specialist for VMP, said the award was created 10 years ago to “recognize mentoring programs that are doing an outstanding job at working with young people.”

VMP accepts nominations for outstanding mentoring programs in the fall, and a panel later reads the nominations and chooses two mentoring programs to receive the award. The panel looks at many aspects of a program when choosing award winners, Holbrook said, adding that a program’s effectiveness is especially important.

Curry School Prof. Edith “Winx” Lawrence, cofounder and director of the program, said the program began in 1998 “because of the need to address middle school girls with low self-esteem.”

Lawrence noted that she thought the best way to address issues among middle school girls was to pair them with successful college women. For an entire year, the girls would meet with their mentors, who would address issues like relational aggression, body image, health choices, academic challenges, leadership and decision-making through weekly meetings and activities, she said.

Holbrook said the University’s Young Women Leaders Program stood out among other nominations because the program helped young women see the potential benefits of attending college.

She applauded the program for what she called its effective practice and great infrastructure, which includes a three-tier mentoring system. Lawrence said this system — which now pairs undergraduate women with graduate students and faculty members — “offers support all the way up, so everyone is mentored.”

The program is also unique in the way it trains its mentors, who must take a three-credit course focusing on research and theory about adolescent girls.

“It’s not easy to mentor adolescent girls,” Lawrence said.

Since 1998, the University program has trained more than 1,000 mentors, Lawrence said, adding that this year, 115 mentors already have been paired with 7th and 8th grade girls from four middle schools in Albemarle County.

“It was very delightful to receive the award because the graduate students and college women put in a lot of hours and energy,” Lawrence said. “It’s really nice for them to be acknowledged.”

In addition to the 2009 Outstanding Mentoring Program Award, YWLP also has received two grants, both worth about $500,000, from the Department of Education and the W.T. Grant Foundation in the past year.

According to a press release from VMP, the Young Women Leaders Program will be honored at a ceremony Feb. 12 at The Jefferson Hotel in Richmond. The ceremony is meant to fall roughly after the end of National Mentoring Month, which was in January.

The Latino Education and Advancement Program of Richmond will also be honored at the event, along with Mentors of the Year Claudia Biegler, Susan Meyers and Sergeant Darrel E. Nichols.

Yesterday the managing board outlined its goals for the coming term, one of which was connecting with our readers. The Cavalier Daily is committed to achieving this goal and will begin by implementing a new way to connect with readers today on our Web site, something we call ‘feedback for the editor.’ This is a two-week trial run which will allow The Cavalier Daily to feel out new ways for readers to respond to current content and suggest new content.

This year, The Cavalier Daily will conduct a readership survey, a formal survey measuring reader response to content. In addition to the readership survey, it is possible for readers to post public comments on our online articles. These forms of feedback, while informative, are entirely reactionary and as far as new content is concerned, do little to provide direction. We would like to see different kinds of feedback, not only suggestions for improving current features and columns, but also ideas for new types of articles, columns, weekly features or even entirely new sections that readers might be interested in seeing.

This new feature will be for suggestions intended only for the eyes of the editors, unlike the public comments and letters to the editor, which are eligible for publication. A link will be available at the bottom of each article tomorrow and every weekday for the next two weeks for readers to send in feedback. The feedback form will be very similar to the current form for letters to the editor and will require no registration, making it simple for anyone to send in ideas.

This is only the first of The Cavalier Daily’s initiatives for increasing the connection with our readership. After the two-week trial period, The Cavalier Daily will set additional goals and seek to expand our content based on where our readers think we are lacking. We hope that this new venue for feedback will allow readers to play a more active role in The Cavalier Daily. Our most comprehensive form of feedback will be the readership survey which will take place later this spring. As we stated yesterday, The Cavalier Daily serves the University community and can do this best when we know more about what readers want. This first initiative begins a year-long process of increasing our readership connection.

BACK IN THE fall, in the hectic heyday of the presidential campaign, Michelle Obama came to the University to speak outside of Newcomb Hall to a crowd of students and townspeople alike. At nearly six feet tall and clad in the fashionable dresses for which she has been so acclaimed, she certainly cut an imposing figure and spoke with poise and direction. But while Michelle’s speech was moving and powerful, it was her guest, the petite Lilly Ledbetter, who made the greatest impression on me that day. Ledbetter traveled for several weeks with the Obama campaign, discussing her experiences as an employee at the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company, where she worked for twenty years before discovering that she was being receiving significantly smaller raises than her male colleagues.  Ledbetter took her case all the way to the Supreme Court, where, in a 5-4 decision, the justices threw out her trial by ruling that she should have filed a suit within 180 days of the first time Goodyear paid her less than her coworkers.

On January 29th, President Obama signed the “Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act” into U.S. law, rendering the Supreme Court’s argument invalid by stating that the 180-day statute of limitations for filing pay discrimination lawsuits begins anew with each new discriminatory paycheck.  

Watching Lilly Ledbetter speak outside of Newcomb — a thin, soft-spoken woman in her seventies whose passion for the issue imbued her voice with a resounding power — I was deeply moved by the struggles and victories of my gender.

I was lucky enough to be raised by two highly educated parents with very successful careers, who told me from the youngest age that I was capable of achieving anything that I wished to achieve.  By age 5, I wanted to be a novelist; by age 7, I dreamed of being the world’s first novelist-veterinarian-astronaut-President.  Even as a college kid, as my friends will tell you with a snort and an eye-roll, I’ve harbored dreams of law school, medical school, and a Rhodes Scholarship while changing my major from English to Chemistry to Psychology to English again.  In fact, until I saw Lilly Ledbetter speak, it had never occurred to me how not-very-far removed I am from the generations that couldn’t have been novelist-veterinarian-astronaut-Presidents, who made great strides for womankind just by showing up to work every day, and who fought ceaselessly against the male-dominated work world to demand fairness, justice, and equality.

Especially in today’s economy, as President Obama himself said, “equal pay is by no means just a women’s issue — it’s a family issue.” This bill isn’t just about Lilly Ledbetter herself.  It’s about the thousands of women across this country who, according to Obama’s speech, still make only 78 cents for each dollar that a man earns for the same work, many of whom are supporting not only themselves, but children, parents, and siblings as well. It also protects the rights of the many minority groups—African-Americans, Mexican-Americans, the elderly—who encounter discrimination in the workplace with dismaying frequency.  

I have written on feminism before, and on the assumption that I and many of my peers often erroneously make that we are living in a post-feminist, or even post-racist, world where equality has been achieved and any further struggle is just whining.  Yes, the world of today is, mostly, a good place for a young girl to grow up, watching women like Hillary Clinton and Condoleeza Rice making real, powerful impacts on global affairs.  But let’s not forget that a mere forty years ago, a man would have been writing the column you’re reading right now.  Back then, the University only allowed women into two of its five schools: Education and Nursing.  

As we celebrate this victory for equal rights in the workplace, let’s not forget to give thanks to all the men and women who worked so hard to achieve professional equality.  Let’s not forget what a great step forward this law is for the thousands of people who face sexism, racism, and age discrimination in the workplace every day.  Let’s not forget to thank Lilly Ledbetter and the hundreds of others like her who have stood up for their rights in the face of enormous opposition.

Despite the passage of the law, Ledbetter’s case cannot be retried, and she will receive no compensation for the hundreds of thousands of dollars she was cheated out of during her time at Goodyear.  Nevertheless, she retains a positive attitude.  As she said on the campaign trail: “I never won so much having lost so much.”

Michelle Lamont is a Cavalier Daily  associate editor. She can be reached at m.lamont@cavalierdaily.com

WE WALK past them every day on the way to class. They loom over us like giant white gods, their shadows encompassing our small figures as we enter a building or walk down the Lawn. Their stark white paint glows in the sun, nearly blinding our eyes as we peer reverently up at them.

Okay, so the columns aren’t that startling. Yet their presence is ubiquitous on Grounds and  commands a sort of silent respect from students and faculty members alike. They are so ubiquitous, in fact, that we barely notice them as we go about our daily lives. We are so used to seeing these columns and to accepting them as reminders of Thomas Jefferson’s obsession with classical architecture that we rarely — if ever — stop to think about exactly what ideas they convey.

Thanks to artist Mel Ziegler, this year’s participant in a University-sponsored residency program, we finally have a chance to stop and think — to think about their purpose, their color (or lack thereof), and about what they imply.

For one thing, the numerous buildings on Grounds that feature these columns imply the belief in the academy as a solemn and grand environment. They bring to mind words like respect, perfection, and sophistication. Furthermore, since the columns were originally sandstone, the choice to paint them white implies an unspoken meaning in the color choice itself.

All of this led Ziegler to the conclusion that the columns need a serious makeover, at least temporarily. Ziegler, a nationally acclaimed artist focused on creating community art projects, is working with the University’s student-led Arts Board to get approval from the Board of Visitors to transform a number of columns on different buildings from everyday white edifices to eye-catching multi-colored structures. If the proposal is approved, the colors selected for each column will be chosen by those who use the buildings that the columns adorn.

Ashley Lefew, co-Chair of the Arts Board, said of Ziegler, “His work is often about engaging communities and questioning their history: two things that we are eager to have happen at UVA.” She added, “I think the fact that he is planning on working outside of a gallery setting is particularly interesting and will make this work more accessible to students and the wider Charlottesville community.”

If the response to the proposal so far is any indication, Ziegler’s artistic vision may have already begun to take shape in an interesting way. The idea of painting the columns of Minor Hall or Clark Hall or — gasp! — the Academical Village — has been received by many as an effort to deface and debase some of the most prized possessions of the University. Faculty members and administrators appear hesitant, at best, to let the artist proceed with his plans, even though Ziegler has set aside funds to repaint the columns back to their ‘original’ white four weeks after his project and has even contacted Facilities Management to ensure their maintenance.

What if the repainted column chips and bright blue shows through? What if a visitor to Grounds complains that they came to the University expecting to see neo-classical buildings, only to see a red-and-yellow striped column adorning Garrett Hall? What if people just don’t get it?

The last question, at least, is not an issue. The uproar Ziegler’s project has already caused among those who have heard his proposal is evidence that his plan is working perfectly. Painting the columns is an artistic feat intended to foreground the issues and debates that are so often implicitly hidden beneath the tailored lawns and the solemn structures on Grounds. A painted column jars the senses; it upsets the balance so carefully established by the architecture here.

Moreover, the issue created by Ziegler’s proposal reveals the debate over who really gets to decide what the columns look like. Who do these columns belong to? As students at the University, we are force-fed line after line about student self-governance, about working hard to make this University our own. We are encouraged to make our mark here and to take ownership of the institution that will inevitably have a major impact on our lives beyond our four years here. Yet when it comes to challenging the neo-classical tradition, when it comes to the idea of painting a column green—even if only for four weeks, we are told it is impossible.

So what if orange paint shows through three years from now when a little chip of white paint falls off one of Cocke Hall’s columns? First of all, to calm your fears that the University’s architecture will be forever marred, there’s the simple fact that a little chip can be mended by a few brush strokes of that same old white paint. But won’t the color beneath make a great story to tell a visiting prospective or an interested tourist? Won’t it mean something that the University rose to the occasion when challenged to reconsider some of its most cherished traditions?

The questions that will arise will not deface Thomas Jefferson’s vision or the University’s respect for its history. Instead, they will serve to remind us all that a little questioning—and perhaps a little color—never hurts.

Amelia Meyer’s column usually appears Wednesdays in The Cavalier Daily. She can be reached at a.meyer@cavalierdaily.com.