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(04/03/17 7:03am)
The Washington Post recently obtained documents showing that the University’s advancement office has helped prospective students related to prominent donors and alumni who apply for admission by flagging their applications for special handling. Although not surprising, the uncovering of this practice serves to show how admissions at the University are not based solely on merit. Instead of providing further advantage to students with privileged backgrounds, the University should be actively leveling the playing field for all prospective students.
(03/30/17 5:36am)
When President Donald Trump signed his first executive order on immigration in January, which was subsequently frozen by a Federal judge in Washington state, university officials around the country became fearful of the policy’s immediate and long-term impact on higher education. The revised order, frozen by another Federal judge in Hawaii, included a 120-day suspension of the refugee program and a temporary ban on the issuance of new visas for people from six countries. Although concerns at this point are mostly anecdotal due to the speed of legal challenges, such a policy could have widespread consequences for higher education in the United States.
(03/28/17 4:35am)
College campuses around the country have witnessed a disturbing rise in anti-Semitic acts. During a worship service on March 18, over 100 leaflets with hand-drawn swastikas were found on the lawn of the Chabad Librescu Jewish Student Center at Virginia Tech. Last October, the GrandMarc apartment complex on 15th Street in Charlottesville was spray-painted with an orange Star of David and the word “Juden,” a clear act of hate meant to intimidate and threaten the University’s Jewish community. We decry all acts of hate, and urge the University community to fight anti-Semitism.
(03/27/17 4:06am)
The University recently celebrated the opening of the Lighthouse, a repurposed storage room in Thornton Hall. The Lighthouse will serve as the new home of Works in Progress, a program backed by the Department of Engineering and Society which aims to bring undergraduate student entrepreneurs together and support their business endeavors. The program, which dedicates the room to “those who are seriously working on their [entrepreneurial] project,” is a demonstration of the University’s commitment to promoting a strong entrepreneurial environment for students regardless of their majors.
(03/23/17 4:00am)
Charlottesville City Council voted on Feb. 6 to remove and subsequently relocate the statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee from Lee Park. Last Monday, two organizations and 11 community members filed a lawsuit against the City of Charlottesville over the decision. While the Council's decision to move the statue is justified, it also sets a dangerous precedent for erasing darker aspects of Charlottesville’s history.
(03/21/17 4:09am)
The University held the first Global Black Girlhood Conference last Friday and Saturday, bringing together students and scholars in a series of panels, lectures and a film screening. This conference was inspired by the History of Black Girlhood Network, a forum for the discussion and promotion of black girl history. One of the panels featured four political organizers, each of whom stressed the importance of permanent, structured movements in political change. In an age of social media and information technology, this type of structuring has become easier than ever.
(03/20/17 4:33am)
The Trump administration recently released its budget for the upcoming fiscal year. The budget outlines $200 million in cuts for educational aid programs which support the progress of low-income, first-generation and disabled students. The implementation of these cuts would adversely affect public school students both locally and across the nation.
(03/16/17 4:06am)
During the last two years, the University has been transforming Lloyd Building, located on the Corner, into a recreational space for students called ‘1515.’ The administration should be commended for its empowerment of students in the project's discussion and planning. The effort signals its commitment to not only student self-governance, but to fostering safe and inclusive student social spaces.
(03/14/17 4:55am)
Rep. Tom Garrett, R-Va., plans to hold a closed town hall meeting in Garrett Hall on March 31. The event’s 135 tickets will be distributed via a lottery system, after an earlier announcement they would be evenly dispersed among Batten School students and the local Democratic and Republican committees. Garrett’s constituents have repeatedly called for an open town hall meeting, a request which the congressman’s current plan disregards. To ensure transparency and accurate representation of voters’ concerns, the town hall must be open to the public in a large venue with no tickets.
(03/13/17 4:09am)
The National Collegiate Athletic Association’s March Madness tournament noticeably dominates the national sports world from the second week of March through the first week of April. With its lucrative commercial ventures, the prominent sporting event is often part of a larger debate regarding whether or not schools should pay salaries to their student athletes. In spite of popular arguments in favor, paying student athletes salaries would detrimentally impact collegiate sports.
(03/02/17 5:01am)
The Trump administration’s ambiguous stance on the federal policy Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, has undocumented students across the country grappling with uncertainty. Many of these undocumented students fear President Donald Trump will end the program. As a result, students have called for the establishment of “sanctuary campuses,” a term which does not translate directly into policy. Although administrations must do everything they can to protect students from federal deportation, adopting the label of “sanctuary campus” could in fact endanger undocumented students.
(02/28/17 6:34am)
Rep. Tom Garrett (R-Va.) recently proposed to rename the Charlottesville Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse in honor of former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. The building is located in the area formerly known as Vinegar Hill, which, prior to redevelopment in the 1960s, had been home to Charlottesville’s black business district. A petition created by Architecture Prof. Frank Dukes is seeking to rename the building in accordance with the history of Vinegar Hill. Former residents of the area and community members should have the opportunity to participate in renaming the building.
(02/27/17 5:34am)
President Trump ordered the Departments of Education and Justice last Wednesday evening to withdraw important protections for transgender students in public schools. Removing these protections, which let transgender students use bathrooms and other facilities corresponding to their gender identity, signals a strong disregard for the civil rights of thousands of students across the country. Given the potentially detrimental effects of this decision, the University needs to take the necessary steps to reassure the transgender community on Grounds of its unconditional support.
(02/23/17 5:05am)
The role of campaign expenditures in student elections has attracted significant attention on Grounds. A recent University Board of Elections interim expenditure report projects student elections to cost up to $6,800 this year, a stark contrast to last year’s total of $2,873. With Kelsey Kilgore’s projected $2,490 campaign expenses, the race for Student Council president makes up a large portion of these costs. As elections come to a close, it is important for the University community to reflect upon the negative impact such excessive campaign expenses might have on the integrity of student self-governance.
(02/21/17 5:20am)
During a week-long conference held at Paramount Theatre, Virginia’s Republican statewide office candidates discussed the opportunity for change provided by the Trump administration and the role they want millennials to play in that change. The candidates addressed topics such as the immigration ban, millennials’ political skepticism and inflating tuition costs, significant concerns for the Republicans’ target audience. As much as these issues frequent the millennial mind, there is one concern which hasn’t been explicitly addressed: student debt. Out of all of these issues, student debt is the most encompassing problem to date. Finding a feasible solution to this problem should become a priority.
(02/20/17 5:15am)
Attending college is one of the best ways for an individual to rise out of poverty. In most cases, however, first-generation and low-income college students confront significant obstacles before even stepping foot on a campus. In spite of the generous financial aid available at schools like U.Va., the request for application-fee waivers alone can prove to be discouraging. Instead of requiring students to request waivers, the University should adopt an automatic application-fee-waiver policy for first-generation and low-income applicants.
(02/16/17 5:55am)
In an uncontested race, the Editorial Board endorses Malcolm Stewart for fourth-year trustee president. Having served as president of both second- and third-year councils, Stewart approaches the position with a wealth of experience.
(02/16/17 5:58am)
University students have two starkly different Student Council presidential candidates to choose from this election year. One displays a vast range of experience, knowledge and passion for StudCo and the other only has a narrow vision for what she would like to achieve during her time as StudCo president. Sarah Kenny, the current Vice President of Administration, is the most qualified candidate running for StudCo president and has the best plan to move StudCo into the direction of equity for all University students. Kenny seeks to move the organization into a direction of equal representation and to make sure representatives are well-equipped to properly address the concerns of their constituencies.
(02/16/17 5:55am)
This year, nine candidates running to be Honor representatives for the University sought endorsements from the Cavalier Daily: five candidates for the College, one for the Curry School, one for Batten School and two candidates for the Engineering School. Of these candidates, the Cavalier Daily has elected to endorse Christopher Benos, Jeffrey Warren, Sarah Killian, Devin Rossin and Amy Dalrymple from the College; Al Ahmed from the Curry School and Lucie Oken from Batten.
(02/14/17 5:15am)
The transition away from non-renewable energy sources has become increasingly urgent in the face of climate change. The Atlantic Coast Pipeline, a collaborative $5 billion investment in natural gas infrastructure proposed by Dominion Energy, is antithetical to this transition. Though often labeled a clean energy source, natural gas releases a significant amount of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, and produces even more methane than coal. While Dominion characterizes the pipeline as allowing “reliable generation of critical back-up sources of electricity when renewable sources cannot meet energy demand,” the company has no comparable investments in renewable energy. Rather than providing a “back-up,” the construction of the pipeline would further entrench Virginia’s dependence on environmentally harmful energy.