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(03/13/19 5:07pm)
Huge developments have occurred over the past few weeks for the University’s Living Wage Campaign. President Jim Ryan’s community working group released a bombshell report on the relationship between the University and Charlottesville residents. Within this report, the community working group cited staggering figures — almost 2,400 University employees report that they have to put at least half of their wages into paying rent alone for a two-bedroom apartment. Following this report, the long-acting Living Wage Campaign showed up at the Rotunda on March 4 to protest these inequities while the Board of Visitors sessions were ongoing. A window on the north side of the Rotunda broke during the demonstrations, but both the Living Wage Campaign and the University contend that their protesting was peaceful.
(03/01/19 3:12am)
The Commonwealth of Virginia recently passed a law mandating that mental health education must be taught in public school. With this move, the Commonwealth has become a leader in the nation for addressing mental health — only New York has a similar law on the books. While public health initiatives often can come across as run-of-the-mill, the Commonwealth’s push for mental health care is historic. Mental health care is rarely placed on par with other health care concerns. Often, the stigma around receiving psychological or psychiatric care remains unchecked, as the lack of information around mental health care causes ignorance on the issues to flourish.
(02/11/19 5:25am)
Ever since the right-wing politics website, Big League Politics, revealed Governor Ralph Northam’s blackface yearbook photos during his time at Eastern Virginia Medical School, Virginia’s politics have been in a complete upheaval. Shortly after Northam’s disgrace, Attorney General Mark Herring revealed that he too dressed in blackface for a college party in order to dress “like rappers we listened to at the time.” During this time, Lieutenant Governor Justin Fairfax seemed primed to replace Northam for the Governorship, only for his own alleged crimes to surface — Dr. Vanessa C. Tyson claims that Fairfax assaulted her during the 2004 Democratic Convention. Meredith Watson, a former Duke colleague of Fairfax, also came forward to recount her experience of Fairfax raping her during college. Fairfax made the initial statement that survivors must be given “the space and support to voice their stories,” only to say “Fuck that bitch” about Dr. Tyson behind closed doors.
(01/31/19 2:12am)
The School of Data Science represents a new chapter both for University and higher education at large. Endowed by the Quantitative Foundation’s $120 million gift, this sum marks the highest private gift ever given in the University’s history. While the announcement generated a considerable amount of buzz about U.Va.’s future educational landscape, the real issue lies in the University’s future with alumni giving.
(01/17/19 12:39am)
As the University enters its bicentennial year, there’s been both a concerted effort to reflect on the past and signal a new era. This University-wide emphasis on fresh beginnings is reflected in new hires alone. President Jim Ryan took the reigns from former President Teresa Sullivan. Carla Williams replaced Craig Littlepage as athletic director — the first African American woman to hold the position to boot. The University’s football team gained a competitive edge with the replacement of Mike London with Bronco Mendenhall. By appearances alone, the University appeared to be turning a new leaf with a shake-up in recent hiring. These new voices came with their new slogans, #OursToShape and #NewStandard, compounding the sense that the University is evolving.
(11/29/18 2:09am)
Losing the Commonwealth Cup for the fifteenth time in a row hit a lot of Cavalier fans hard. The amount of emotion going into the game as well as after the loss is understandable — Virginia Tech has historically been our fiercest rivals. Even sportscasters before the game had Virginia at a toss-up against Virginia Tech, signalling a recent shift under the Mendenhall #NewStandard era which otherwise would have been seen as near impossible just a few years ago.
(11/06/18 1:45am)
As students, we often overlook the extent to which Charlottesville’s landscape impacts our personal experiences at the University. In simple ways, the main attractions of Grounds facilitate how we move through spaces — the Lawn, the Academical Village and the Rotunda all influence our personal mobility. However, these landscapes also indicate how the University commemorates its past and by extension which people and ideals it endorses. Memorials, monuments and building names function to preserve legacies of the past. While memorialization can be a net positive for our community, such as the University’s in-progress Memorial to Enslaved Laborers, other memorials can be damaging.
(10/25/18 4:13am)
President Jim Ryan’s announcement that in-state students from families making less than $80,000 will soon be able to attend the University tuition-free was a watershed moment for education accessibility and affordability. However, while this policy provides a crucial resource for students attending the University, it doesn’t combat other factors that keep middle to lower income students from being admitted, such as the SAT and ACT. Calls for test optionality in a previous editorial for this paper, which addressed how the policy could boost racial and socioeconomic diversity, did not result in any policy changes by the Sullivan administration. With the progressive stances of the new Ryan era, the University should actively consider going test-optional in order to better cater to a variety of students, especially middle- and lower-income students that often are disadvantaged by testing in admissions.
(10/17/18 3:26am)
With the midterms approaching in less than a month, Charlottesvillians have the opportunity to send a powerful message by flipping the Fifth District and electing Leslie Cockburn as their congressional representative. This midterm election not only holds serious repercussions for residents of the Fifth District, but also for the nation at large — this race is one of the critical toss-up districts that could shift the balance of power in the House of Representatives back to the Democrats. With that said, Cockburn’s personal qualifications to serve the Fifth District alone demonstrate that she is the only candidate fit to represent this district.
(10/02/18 3:11am)
As a society, we’re undergoing a massive reckoning with sexual assault. With survivors coming forward after years of silence, conversations about how to address their claims of abuse abound. With the particular cases of Harvey Weinstein, Kevin Spacey, Matt Lauer, Louis C.K., Russell Simmons and others, public discourse about these men’s particular abuses tended to circulate around why their victims chose to speak up years later — intent on finding excuses for the accused to be truly innocent. This urge to protect sexual predators is not a new phenomenon. However, the watchdog and awareness power of the #MeToo movement has flipped the script, with the knee-jerk reaction to disbelieve survivors being searingly scrutinized.
(09/25/18 1:58am)
Over the course of Betsy DeVos’ tenure as the Secretary of Education, the U.S. Department of Education has been thrust into a political firestorm. From the beginning of her confirmation process, DeVos made it clear that her appointment into the position would bring drastic changes to the face of American education policy. For college students particularly, DeVos’ policy changes will directly impact how sexual misconduct is handled on campus. Under her direction, it is very likely that the sexual assault violations will result in less justice for survivors.
(09/12/18 2:02am)
Discussions over affirmative action have been prominent in recent months. Recent lawsuits, such as the one filed against Harvard University, by Asian-Americans plaintiffs, claim discrimination on the basis of race. These cases rightfully point out racist elements of the admission process, such as rating Asian-American applicants lower for personality points. However, affirmative action benefit minorities as a whole and combat policies that favors white students.
(09/05/18 4:41am)
Prior to the anniversary of Aug. 11 and 12, the University and Charlottesville community justifiably had several concerns and questions. Would the neo-Nazis return in force? How would the state, local and University police forces perform after failing to protect the community a year prior? What would the student activist groups, such as U.Va. Student United, organize to combat white supremacy in Charlottesville? All of these inquiries arose in anticipation of Unite the Right’s possible re-emergence.
(07/13/18 2:48pm)
In one way or another, every incoming college student has heard the platitude that “college will be the best four years of your life!” This kind of statement doubles down on the idea that college years hold intense happiness for any undergraduate. While family and friends share these cliches in good spirit, they only serve to mislead first-year students from a more holistic reality of University life. In order to be better supporters of fledgling undergraduates, we need to equip students with a more realistic vision of their college years — years that can possess great challenges in addition to the joy that so often is the focus of conversation.
(06/17/18 8:15pm)
The Alderman Library renovations reveal the rub between long term administrative goals and student wishes. While proponents of the proposed changes laud the opportunity for expanded study space, seminar rooms and a streamlined corridor throughout the whole of stacks, students have expressed worry about the changes affecting the library’s main purpose — housing books. Under the current plan for renovations, more than a million books will leave Alderman’s browsable shelves during renovations to a closed stack facility on Ivy. Upon completion, the total capacity of Alderman Library will be significantly reduced.
(05/04/18 2:38am)
Since summer break is nearly upon us, many students at the University are preparing to embark on internships. What many may not be aware of, however, is the prevalence of unpaid internship is a relatively new phenomenon. From the ‘80s to the mid-aughts, student participation in internships rose from 10 percent to over 80 percent. This large rise signals a shift from pre-1980s internship tradition, in which only pre-professional careers offered internships, which would be better described as apprenticeships.
(04/19/18 4:45am)
The prison industrial complex within the United States thrives because it hides in plain sight. Recent documentaries such as 13th have brought this issue out of the shadows, linking the loophole in the Thirteenth Amendment’s abolition of slavery to institutions within prisons today — “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted.”
(04/04/18 4:53am)
Alcohol undeniably drives the social lives of thousands of University students. Because of this, students flock to fraternity parties, which present an easy way to get alcohol. Fraternities benefit from this exchange — they hold a monopoly on easy-access alcohol, allowing them to accumulate unrivaled social power on Grounds. This forces both Greek women and many University women in general to attend fraternity-initiated parties to drink. Given this reality, the National Panhellenic Conference — the governing umbrella organization for sororities — should reverse its rule banning alcohol within sororities in order to restore power back to women to make their own decisions concerning when and where they can drink.
(02/27/18 5:03am)
Alex Cintron handily cinched the student population’s vote for Student Council President, with over 50 percent of the vote. Throughout his campaign, Cintron repeatedly emphasized, during interviews with The Cavalier Daily and in the presidential candidate forum, his desire for Student Council to provide free feminine hygiene products for students, faculty and staff. This part of Cintron’s platform is essential to transforming the University into an accommodating place for both sexes, given the particular challenges of menstruation for women on Grounds. Considering the University’s commitment to diversity, the administration should assist Cintron’s aims of expanding free feminine hygiene across the University, allowing all students — regardless of sex — the ability to learn with dignity.
(01/25/18 6:56am)
The library system is seen by most as an equal opportunity space on Grounds. It’s a community center for research, study space, access to additional technological resources and collaborative areas. It’s impossible for any student to attend the University and not interact with the library system in some manner. The library system, although deeply ingrained in University life, is still flawed in many ways. Namely, both the “recall system” for checked out materials and the pricing of University printing services continues to frustrate and alienate students. If the library system is designed for students, it’s time the library prioritizes student interests.