To our readers,
Today, on Nov. 13, 2025, we mark the third anniversary of the tragic shooting which took the lives of Devin Chandler, Lavel Davis, Jr., and D’Sean Perry, and injured Mike Hollins and Marlee Morgan.
Every year, The Cavalier Daily, much like the rest of the community, grapples with how best to honor the memories of those we lost and those who were injured, advocate for change to prevent such violence in the future and celebrate the University community which was and has remained so resilient. It is easy to report on tangible events but it is much harder — although every bit as necessary — to capture the overlapping feelings of loss and communal solidarity which permeate this anniversary.
Each year, the University community has found new ways to memorialize the day — vigils, a memorial tree, a commemorative football game. These memorials, permanent and fleeting alike, have functioned as important markers of not only the pain this community will always feel but also the solidarity and togetherness which emerged.
This year feels particularly significant because, after today’s fourth years graduate in May, the vast majority of undergraduate students who experienced the shooting will no longer be on Grounds. This will be the last year when the memory of what was lost is not abstract to students, but rather something that they lived.
I hope that for years to come, students and community members who enter the University will participate in remembering the lives that were lost and all the ways big and small that the community came together.
I want them to remember important public events and smaller personal acts, not only the community-wide vigil of Nov. 14, 2022 but also the informal reunions in dining halls after the shelter in place had stretched from five hours to twelve. I want them to remember the way that we all checked in with each other not just on that first terrifying and violent night but on all the nights thereafter. I want them to remember how many of us were reluctant to go back to class, reluctant to re-encounter normalcy in the midst of tragedy. And I want them to continue to find ways both public and private to continue to commemorate that tragic day.
I am not a person who is good at coming face to face with grief and loss. Over the past three years, I have grappled with how to express my very real sorrow and heartbreak for the three young men whose lives were cut short. I did not know the students and professors most directly affected by the shooting, but I live in a community shaped by this grief and the persistent trauma which became etched into the fabric of our community and too many communities like it across the nation.
In grappling with these emotions, I have found comfort in the strength of the University community, the resilience that is embodied by so many of the people I encounter. I have found hope in the willingness of younger students to become a part of telling this story, understanding that while they did not live the event, they are a part of the community impacted.
At The Cavalier Daily, we like to say that we tell the history of now. But what this year requires is reorienting ourselves, as a paper and as a community, to telling the history of the past as well.
Today, we mark the day when violence came to our University and we lost three members of our community. And simultaneously we mark the days that followed when solidarity, mutual support and empathy came in beautiful abundance. We mark the years that followed and the memorials that sprang up. And we mark the future of this day, a future which will be redefined and retold by new people, who — as they enter our community and carry it forward — will become stewards of its history.
Sincerely,
Naima Sawaya
Editor-in-Chief
136th Term
Read More
CARON: U.Va. must provide more structural support for transfers
By Jenna Caron | 21 hours agoWhile transfers to the University will have access to a myriad of transfer-specific programs when they arrive on Grounds, behind the scenes lie structural barriers.
COHEN: Historic preservation should not come before affordable housing
By Ryan Cohen | 3 days agoBy addressing the demand of University students — who often favor location above other factors in their housing search — this project would have also helped ease competition in nearby neighborhoods.
CLIPPINGER: Viewpoint diversity is not about free speech
By Grace Clippinger | 3 days agoWe are witnessing, in real time, how external oversight can shape University governance, and we should pay special attention to the language being employed to this end.
