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(04/15/24 6:00pm)
In the past few weeks, first-year students may have noticed a unique table set up by Observatory Hill Dining Hall. It wasn’t Chi Alpha or the Hullabahoos but the University Police Department. At this table, UPD was giving a simple notice to students — we are going to start pulling over your electric scooters. These notices are not the first action taken against electric scooters, and they may not be the last. Rather, these notices represent one among many actions taken by Charlottesville and the University to recenter pedestrian safety in their urban planning. Although it is perhaps the bare minimum, it is nonetheless laudable that the University and Charlottesville are beginning to prioritize the safety of pedestrians, especially in an impressively multi-pronged approach.
(04/01/24 4:44am)
Editor's note: This is a humor article published April 1 by The Cavalier Daily's Editorial Board in observance of April Fool's Day.
(03/29/24 4:59am)
In the 1960s and 70s, the women’s rights movement and the gay rights movement began to create safe spaces. These spaces were then incorporated into the daily life of universities as both clearly delineated physical spaces and identity-based student organizations. Over the past few years, however, these spaces have become increasingly politicized as conservatives critique what they incorrectly perceive to be the institutional pampering of Gen-Z snowflakes. It is undeniably clear that conservatives have misunderstood the nature and mission of safe spaces — they are not bubble wrap for “sheltered” students. Rather, they carve out places in which different identity-based groups experience the support which has always been afforded to white heterosexual men in all other spaces.
(03/20/24 6:11pm)
After the murder of Devin Chandler, Lavel Davis Jr. and D’Sean Perry last year, Governor Glenn Youngkin made a visit to Grounds, honoring the lives lost in a powerful demonstration of empathy. As students who lived through this violence, we wondered what would be done to prevent such tragedies in the future. Now, however, Youngkin seems to have forgotten the suffering of this community and the empathy he expressed for it — he recently refused to sign two bills promoting gun safety. And in doing so, he has brutally reminded us that nice words are no substitute for tangible action. This Editorial Board, simply put, is disappointed about Youngkin’s dangerous decision to block critical steps towards ending the epidemic of senseless gun violence in Virginia.
(03/13/24 4:17am)
This year, the Lawn Selection Committee received 177 applications from rising fourth-years hoping to live on the Lawn — granting Lawn rooms to 47 individuals. While 177 applications is an increase from last year, this relatively low number of interested students fits into a larger trend — application numbers have failed to surpass 230 since before the COVID-19 pandemic. In short, there seems to be decreased interest in living in Thomas Jefferson’s Academical Village, the center of our university’s history and community. While the University intends for living on the Lawn to be a sort of reward for excellent service and a privilege obtained by impactful students, the structures surrounding this housing option have increasingly conspired to decrease the privilege of becoming a Lawnie.
(03/15/24 5:30pm)
By April 1, the University will release decisions for the remaining class of 2028 applicants. For Yale, Dartmouth, Brown and a growing number of other universities across the country, this admissions process marks the final cycle before returning to standardized testing requirements. One year ago, the 134th Editorial Board urged the University to maintain their no-testing policy indefinitely — citing both the test’s problematic origins and its ineffectiveness at evaluating prospective students. While we do share the concerns voiced by the previous Editorial Board, our current moment is different. We now believe that standardized testing has a place in the future of college admissions, provided it is considered within the larger context of an applicant’s abilities and circumstances.
(02/26/24 7:37pm)
This year, The Cavalier Daily Editorial Board endorses third-year College student Brookelyn Mitchell for Student Council Vice President of Administration, third-year College and Commerce student Ryan Bowers for Student Council Vice President of Organizations and third-year College student Valentina Mendoza Gonzalez for Student Council President. Running together under The Voice Movement, their ticket is framed around the values of community, transparency and justice. While we have questions about the role Mendoza Gonzalez will play in a potential Voice Movement administration, the Editorial Board was exceptionally impressed by both Mitchell and Bowers and is confident in their ability to actualize tangible initiatives and bargain effectively with University administration to advance student interests. The Editorial Board believes that, collectively, this ticket will be able to uphold the mission of Student Council and appropriately represent the views of the student body.
(02/22/24 8:16am)
For the past few years, the Honor Committee and its candidates have had a snazzy idea around which to center their initiatives and through which to mobilize the University community — multi-sanction. This was emphatically not the case this year. Rather, less than a year after the multi-sanction referendum, most Committee candidates seem to have become complacent, neglecting to adopt the necessary historicized approach to understanding the damage the Committee has perpetrated against our community. In the eyes of the Editorial Board, this complacency is unacceptable and at odds with the mandate the Committee has been given. So today, The Cavalier Daily Editorial Board endorses only one candidate running for College of Arts and Sciences Honor representative — third-year student Laura Howard. We hope that she will continue working to transform the Committee into an institution that is truly humanistic, restorative and intentional in its approach to upholding the community of trust.
(02/22/24 8:09am)
This year, The Cavalier Daily Editorial Board endorses five candidates, each of whom are running for College of Arts and Sciences representative for the University Judiciary Committee — third-year Harper Jones, third-year Lisa Kopelnik, second-year Allison McVey, third-year Campbell Coleman and third-year Anna Prillaman. Each candidate demonstrated a commitment to UJC’s foundational values of respect, safety and freedom. Beyond this, all five emphasized a need to increase organizational transparency and a commitment to an ideal of restorative justice that genuinely engages the student body as a whole. We are confident that these candidates will advance innovative solutions to the problems UJC faces.
(02/22/24 8:06am)
This year, The Cavalier Daily Editorial Board endorses three candidates running for College of Arts and Science Student Council representative — first-year student Jackson Sleadd, first-year student Dalton Haydel and first-year student Brian Ng. In their brief but impactful time at the University, these candidates have demonstrated a fresh, nuanced and informed approach to student self-governance that transcends their tangible experience. These candidates are prepared to take advantage of the unprecedented $5 million Student Council endowment in a practical way that genuinely advances student interests. Additionally, they each articulated a need for concrete initiatives to increase both the accessibility of necessary student services and the transparency of Student Council as a whole. Above all, the Editorial Board was impressed by their compelling visions for how Student Council can realistically bargain with University administration to drive positive change for the student body.
(02/09/24 5:00pm)
Kudos to our Virginia Legislature. They have finally taken an important step to address a persistent inequity in the college admissions processes — the Virginia House of Delegates and the Virginia Senate unanimously voted to end preferential treatment for legacy applicants. In doing so, legislators from both sides of the aisle recognized the intrinsic unfairness of a system in which the often-privileged children of alumni are given preference in the college admissions process simply because of their connections. For Virginia, this bill is a necessary step towards greater accessibility in higher education, one that builds upon precedents set by other states. It is a step which we, as students, and the University, as an institution, should commend for its insistence on more equitable admissions processes.
(02/02/24 5:24pm)
After seven years of hard work by advocates, the path to affordable housing in Charlottesville seemed clearer than ever before. Charlottesville’s new zoning ordinance which promised unprecedented change was set to go into effect this February after getting approved by the Charlottesville City Council last December. In essence, this ordinance proposed more multifamily and higher density housing in hopes that, with an increase in housing units, lower housing prices would follow. Many people were convinced that this was the right course of action. And then, another roadblock was presented — affluent homeowners in Charlottesville filed a lawsuit against the City in an effort to prevent the ordinance from becoming reality. While the foundations of this lawsuit may be legally justifiable, this lawsuit is ultimately riddled with false and silly pretenses, which imply a more sinister motive to undo years of progress towards affordable housing in Charlottesville.
(01/26/24 1:00am)
In case you have not heard it enough from professors and friends — welcome back. Back to school brings more than just snowball fights on the lawn and syllabus week. For many, the return to class coincides with the return to dining halls. Whether you’re an O-Hill fan or a Runk die-hard, the dining halls are an essential part of the University experience. However, outside of the sufficient food selection within the dining halls, the University dining system, which is managed by Aramark, fails to provide students with adequate flexibility. Specifically, the rigidity of meal plans has disempowers students to make choices based on their own circumstances. The meal plan system must be restructured to permit more flexibility for students and to accommodate a diverse student body.
(01/19/24 4:50am)
The latest Israel-Palestine conflict has renewed debates about free speech in our society. One question has become especially prevalent — what, if any, role do university presidents have in responding to international, national and local tragedies? While this question has no easy answers, what has become clear to us — the 134th and 135th Editorial Boards of The Cavalier Daily — is that we cannot and should not expect university presidents, or other institutional representatives, to articulate developed stances on every single political and social issue of the day. To do so would be antithetical to the mission of any university which is to protect academic freedom, debate and dissent. As such, we as students must reframe our expectations for university leaders — instead of demanding explicit statements, we should expect critical neutrality that encourages open discourse and contextualizes debates. This is not silence in the face of injustice. Rather, we call for a neutrality that is characterized by its insistence on facts and deployed in a way that empowers individuals within the institution to engage in discourse.
(12/16/23 1:35am)
For the 134th term of The Cavalier Daily, the Editorial Board wrote 19 lead editorials. We are aware of the platform we have, and the privilege that comes with it — as such, we have attempted to speak for and, more importantly, to students at the University. We have advocated for issues that matter to us, called for change and explored diversity, equity and inclusion and free speech. And, while the Honor Committee might disagree, we attempted to provide a nuanced view of student self-governance at the University. For those who missed it, here’s a recap of what the Editorial Board wrote about during the year.
(11/30/23 4:50am)
The University is anything but an economically diverse institution. According to the New York Times College Access Index, the University ranks 248th for economic diversity out of the 286 most selective colleges in the country, as measured by Pell Grant recipients. Since the last time the New York Times released this index in 2017, the University has fallen even further behind regarding economic diversity — from the 50th percentile to the 25th percentile. Even more appalling, the University is dead last among state flagships, despite having the largest endowment per student. These are statistics with which the University, as an institution, and we, as students, should be very uncomfortable.
(11/13/23 6:07am)
Today marks one year since Nov. 13, 2022. We remember this day.
(11/10/23 4:15am)
Swords into Plowshares, an ongoing project by community leaders to melt down and repurpose the Robert E. Lee statue, has reached a major milestone — two weeks ago, the statue was cleaved and its parts were melted down. The metal will be transformed into a new piece of public art. The Lee statue has had a significant impact on Charlottesville — unveiled to honor the Confederate general in 1924, it served as a symbol for neo-Nazis and white supremacists to gather around in 2017 during the ‘Unite the Right’ rally. In fact, the rally was held to protect the statue, which the Charlottesville City Council had, at the time, considered removing from its place in Market Street Park. The Lee statue was eventually removed in 2021 and, after more than a year of litigation, it finally faced the flames just a couple of weeks ago.
(11/02/23 3:23am)
As the leaves turn shades of red, yellow and orange around Grounds and temperatures begin to cool, it’s evident that autumn is here. And while we are still sorting our candy from Trick or Treating on the Lawn, we are looking forward to returning home in a few weeks to spend time with loved ones and indulge in a home-cooked meal. However exciting this anticipation is, planning for Thanksgiving Break is a strenuous task that the University has only made worse with its lack of flexibility and accommodations for students. The University’s current schedule for the holiday leaves faculty and students at both an economic and academic disadvantage. Leadership must consider changing this schedule in future years to support the geographically diverse student body while continuing to promote academic success.
(10/26/23 5:45pm)
Over 8,000 people have been killed, more than 17,400 people have been wounded and over one million people have been displaced since Hamas — a militant Islamist group that has controlled Gaza since 2006 — attacked Israel Oct. 7. This enormous loss of human life deserves our unequivocal condemnation. The deaths and endangerment of civilians is never permissible or justifiable. The scope of the humanitarian and moral crisis that not just Palestinians and Israelis who are directly impacted are experiencing but also that diasporic communities across the world are reckoning with is unfathomable. How does the world begin to deal with this abominable loss of life and livelihood? How do we, as a diverse and multicultural University community, think, feel and talk about such an emotional yet tangible tragedy?