Thursday, January 25, 2018

The Cavalier Daily Vol. 128, Issue 17

Thursday, January 25, 2018

Artwork by Misty Mawn Courtesy of whistlewords.org

Patients, pens, poetry.

page 17

THE CAVALIER DAILY

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This week in brief

NEWS

Kate Bellows and Maggie Servais | News Editors

Student Council grants Young Americans for Freedom CIO status Student Council approved Young Americans for Freedom as a contracted independent organization in its first general body meeting of the new semester Tuesday night.

The vote to approve came after several weeks in which the organization’s status was in question due to potential issues over whether YAF’s proposed constitution was in accordance with University policy. The delay led to threats of legal action from the now-approved CIO. According to the CIO bill from the meeting, Young Americans for Freedom was founded in 1960 to “bring together students to advocate for the ideas of limited government, individual freedom, free enterprise, traditional values and a strong national defense.”

Although YAF initially pressed for legal action last semester, Council claimed they did not directly deny YAF’s CIO status, but withheld approval because it asserted the organization did not meet nondiscrimination requirements.

The conservative organization required students to adhere to the values of the Sharon Statement, a requirement which the Council previously considered to be in violation of the terms and conditions for CIOs in University policy.

Ty Zirkle, a third-year College student and Council’s vice president for organizations, commented on the issue in an email to The Cavalier Daily in December.

“The organization’s application has

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remained in the review process until the organization’s constitution was found to comply with the University-mandated nondiscrimination clause provided to the Council by UVA Student Activities,” Zirkle said.

University requirements on the Council website state, “A student organization is ineligible for CIO status when the organization restricts its membership, programs or activities on the basis of age, color, disability, gender identity, marital status, national or ethnic origin, political affiliation, race, religion, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, veteran status and family and genetic information.”

After reviewing the application, Council found that the now-CIO’s constitution was indeed in compliance with CIO standards.

“We reviewed the application and found their constitution to be in compliance with both state law and university policy,” Zirkle said at Tuesday night’s meeting.

According to Council’s website, recognition as a CIO provides certain benefits, such as the ability to reserve meeting space on grounds, the right to advertise during Activity Fairs and the potential eligibility to receive funding.

YAF’s CIO status unanimously passed with three abstentions.

No YAF members spoke at the meeting.

Sororities welcome new members at colorful Bid Day Energy was high as the Inter-Sorority Council swarmed Nameless Field Jan. 21 for its annual Bid Day event.

Fifteen ISC sororities gathered on the field to welcome their new sisters, with many students watching nearby from the surrounding hills and library balconies to cheer and observe. At the sound of an airhorn, new sisters ran from Memorial Gymnasium out to their cheering sororities on the field.

ISC rush season saw an increase in participation numbers this year, with over 1,000 women registering for formal recruitment. The application fee for ISC formal recruitment was lowered this year, and the registration deadline was extended three times past its original

November date.

ISC Bid Day is the culmination of a five-stage recruitment process and almost a year of planning and preparation from the members of the ISC council.

The five stages of the rush season are Round Robins, Philanthropy, House Tours, Preferences and Bid Day itself.

“Many women — myself included — choose to join sororities for the wide network of women mentors, friends and confidants,” said Rory Finnegan, fourthyear College student and ISC president.

“On Bid Day, that network becomes a reality — along with meaningful opportunities in leadership, service and more.”

RICHARD DIZON | THE CAVALIER DAILY

Members of Kappa Delta welcome new members on Inter-Sorority Council Bid Day

Update on Monument Bill Del. David Toscano (D-Charlottesville) has drafted an amended version of House Bill 1225 he introduced to the Virginia General Assembly last week that would give localities the authority to remove war memorials. After awaiting committee referral, the bill was assigned to the House Counties, Cities, and Towns Committee.

Toscano’s bill would not only give local governments jurisdiction over the removal of Confederate statues, but it would also allow them to determine how to contextualize and maintain such monuments if they decide to keep them.

A similar bill proposed by Sen. Jen-

nifer Wexton (D-Loudoun) — which also would empower local governments to remove war memorials — was voted to be sent back to its committee indefinitely

by Senate Republicans in the Local Government Committee Jan. 16.

Senate Republicans rejected Senate Bill 444 by a 7-6 vote, effectively killing it.

The amended version of Toscano’s bill will not be publicly available until it is reviewed by its assigned committee. At press time, the bill had not been put on the Counties, Cities, and Towns Committee’s weekly agenda.

State Council of Higher Education for Virginia releases strategic plan Last week, the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia released its strategic plan on areas the state needs to improve in access to and quality of higher education. Virginia residents currently rank No. 6 in the nation in the percentage of people who pursue higher education.

The Commonwealth established goals in the report to become the most-educated state by 2030. The report identifies possible barriers to accomplishing those goals, such as rising tuition fees which make college less affordable, achievement gaps for student who are low-income, of a minority race or ethnicity or

from rural areas and the relocation of people with college degrees outside the state in recent years.

The report also emphasizes investment in higher education to make tuition more affordable, increase transparency of information to students, maintain close observation of and improvement in the quality of higher education, further regulate private institutions and increase opportunities for internships.

2016 year was SCHEV’s first year measuring degrees conferred. Roughly 119,000 degrees were granted in 2017, the most in Virginia’s history.

THURSDAY, JANUARY 25, 2018

www.cavalierdaily.com • NEWS

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Murphy says sharing story of assault at U.Va. was difficult “Be true to yourself, and feel no shame speaking up because I think that’s what we all need to do.”

Alexis Gravely | Assistant Managing Editor When New Jersey First Lady Tammy Murphy attended the Women’s March in Morristown, N.J. last Saturday, she said she expected a few thousand people to be present. Instead, the crowd was reportedly as large as 15,000 people when the Board of Visitors member shared that she was sexually assaulted during her sophomore year at the University.

Murphy graduated from the University in 1987 with a double-major in English and Communications. She was appointed to the University’s Board of Visitors July 2015 by former Gov. Terry McAuliffe. Most recently, she became the first lady of New Jersey when her husband, Phil Murphy (D), won the gubernatorial election last November.

“The stories of the ‘Me Too’ movement have humbled the powerful and empowered the forgotten,” Murphy said in Saturday’s

speech. “I will add my voice to this growing chorus. Three decades ago, as a college sophomore, I was sexually assaulted.”

Despite her reference to the “Me Too” movement — a popular campaign that encourages survivors of sexual assault to share their stories as a reminder they are not alone — Murphy told The Cavalier Daily she wasn’t sure how big of a role it played in her decision to speak up.

However, Murphy’s story has garnered national attention — having been featured on CNN and CBS News — and she joins a long list of famous names who have shared their experiences with sexual assault and sexual harassment.

“Honestly, I had a friend who knew that story, or knew parts of it, and had said to me some time ago that it would be great if I would consider sharing that because she thought that others might benefit,” Murphy said. “I think it just seemed

like it would be the appropriate time with the Women’s March.”

Murphy said in her speech that the assault occurred when she was walking alone along a shadowed path. A man pulled her into the bushes and attempted to remove her clothes as Murphy screamed for help. She bit her attacker and ran to a fraternity house after he attempted to put a crab apple in her mouth to silence her.

The alleged attacker was not affiliated with the University at the time and the incident was reported to local law enforcement, according to a statement from the University.

Murphy said her attacker did not ultimately face justice for assaulting her, although he later went to jail for a different crime.

Murphy iterated that the University was not at fault for what happened to her. “… I think you should know that I never ever thought that U.Va. had

anything to do with this,” Murphy said. “It’s not a U.Va.-specific thing.

I think it’s literally our entire society, and I think that the support didn’t exist back then.”

When Murphy was assaulted over three decades ago, she said no one was talking about the subject.

Now, people are talking, and Murphy is willing to be a part of that conversation.

“One of my primary reasons for sharing that story is that I want to encourage people to speak up,” Murphy said. “I want to make sure others know that it’s okay to do that. While Saturday was neither easy nor comfortable for me to speak up, I kind of justified it that if one person was helped then it makes the whole thing worthwhile.”

Murphy said in her leadership roles she’s willing to mentor and help others who have experienced sexual assault. She encourages survivors to reach out for support —

whether that’s their friends, family college or university. “… I think that society is far more open-minded and willing to understand and help now than I think, historically, people maybe were comfortable doing,” Murphy said. “So I would say don’t be afraid.”

Since her speech on Saturday, Murphy said she has been approached by a number of people who told her that either themselves, their friends or their family members have been sexually assaulted.

According to Murphy, her story has taken on a life of its own. She said she thinks there’s reason for that.

“You have to be careful,” Murphy said, “but be true to yourself, and feel no shame about speaking up because I think that’s what we all need to do.”

Solidarity Cards Project opens at The Bridge Visitors first to see the hundreds of handwritten cards created by individuals in response to 2016 presidential election Nick Juan | Senior Writer The Solidarity Cards Project exhibition opened last weekend at The Bridge Progressive Arts Initiative in Downtown Charlottesville. At around 5:30 p.m., visitors were first permitted to enter the building displaying the project.

Destinee Wright, a 2017 University alumna with a degree in Women, Gender and Sexuality, created the project in the aftermath of the 2016 presidential election.

After the election of President Donald Trump, Wright went to an event called “Linking Together in Uncertain Times.” The event, hosted by the Office of African-American Affairs at the University brought together a variety of students and faculty to provide a support network of fellow community members. At the event, Wright noted how lots of people of color seemed distressed by the results, and decided to attempt to transfer their emotions onto paper.

“I was like, ‘What a great way to capture these responses and encourage people to write down their thoughts to get it out of [their head] and onto paper and maybe encourage some solidarity in them by having them write it down and other people see their responses,’” Wright said.

Wright was inspired to create the Solidarity Cards Project by a similar art project.

“I took a Latin American wom-

en artist class at U.Va. my fourth-year and we learned about an artist named Mónica Mayer who did a similar clothesline project to address sexual assault anonymously in Mexico City,” she said. Wright also noted that her instructor for the course, Dr. Alberto McKelligan Hernandez, was “super supportive” and “a big part” of her project.

Mayer’s work became nationally relevant this year with accusations of sexual assault and misconduct rocking the art and entertainment industry.

According to The Washington Post, Mayer debuted another version of her cards project at the National Museum of Women in the Arts at Washington that closed Jan. 5.

In this variant, people entered Mayer’s exhibit, and were able to contribute to by answering questions posed by pink slips of paper. These included, “As a woman, have you ever experienced violence or harassment? What happened?”, “How do you recover your joy after going through an experience of violence?” and “What have you done or what could you do to stop violence against women?”

Mayer’s exhibit proved highly successful, with hundreds of responses received after only a few days.

Wright began collecting cards in November of last year, and in April began promoting her work to gather attention for her project.

“I’ve been actively reaching out

starting in like April, which is when I first really started sending out some emails and getting people to see these cards and find a place to display them,” Wright said. “And so it wasn’t until recently when I’ve had like 300 when they’re like, ‘Oh yeah okay.’”

Wright found a gallery in which she could display her work in the Bridge Progressive Arts Initiative. “[Wright] approached The Bridge the way many artists do, as a community member with an idea, and determination to see that idea come alive,” Alan Goffinski, director of BPI, said in an email to The Cavalier Daily. “We don’t like saying ‘no’ to creative ideas, so we really let her run with her vision for the exhibit.”

Upon entering the building, a quick glance around the compact room revealed over 300 cards attached to black strings hanging from the ceiling with clothes pins.

Each card was written by a different person in response to the 2016 election.

Participants anonymously — though some chose to add their names — wrote down their thoughts in regards to the direction of America, the state of politics or anything else on their mind.

Different colored clothespins denoted different groups from which Wright gathered the responses.

“The [2017] Women’s March is in pink . . . those are all the responses I

collected after the March,” Wright said.

“The red ones are [from Aug. 12].”

Wright was referring to the deadly Aug. 12 Unite the Right rally, when white supremacists marched downtown to protest the removal of the Robert E. Lee statue. The event ultimately resulted in numerous injuries and killed 32-year-old Heather Heyer after a car plowed into crowd of counter-protesters.

“I had a lot of reservations about going to [Aug.] 12, but I wanted to go and support my friends, but I was kind of a little nervous to collect responses there,” Wright said. “I didn’t feel like it was the right place to do that, but something told me to see if people were open to doing it.”

Wright has collected responses from people attending several community events as well, such as the Virginia Film Festival, City Council meetings and the Healing through Art community event, but she said she always asks after the events end.

“When I go to events I try to collect responses after the event so people can reflect in a way,” Wright said. “I thought they were good places where people were already kind of thinking about how they were feeling, or were already in a reflective mode, so I thought those would be good places to get responses from because people were already kind of thinking about these issues.”

The attitudes of the note card re-

sponses varied along the emotional spectrum. Some appeared frustrated and angry, saying things such as “I’m fearful for a regression in women’s progress.”

Many others expressed hope and optimism, with thoughts like, “I may be afraid, but not so afraid that you will silence me” and “Trump cannot take away our humanity.” Although many were responses to the election of Trump, several cards addressed other contemporary issues like gun control and sexual harassment.

Exhibit visitors were able to walk freely and interact with the project while enjoying a beverage and snacks, and even contribute with a card of their own.

Wright, who is from Richmond, is also a small business owner, running a home-based hair-styling company.

Wright’s future projects include a workshop on Feb. 24 through the University’s Carter G. Woodson Institute to address erasure and silencing that happens in the black community. This will be open to anyone.

Wright also said she hopes to build on her Solidarity Cards Project by visiting local businesses and asking them to erect mini pop-up installations of her project. These may look like a pile of index cards on which people could respond to a prompt — similar to Mayer’s project — and leave their response hanging on a string by a clothespin.

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THE CAVALIER DAILY

NEWS • www.cavalierdaily.com

Joy Reid delivers speech at MLK Celebration MSNBC correspondent discusses racial inequality in the U.S., strategies for addressing it Geremia Di Maro | Senior Associate Editor Joy Reid, a national correspondent for MSNBC and host of "AM Joy" and "The Reid Report," delivered the keynote address for the Community MLK Celebration at the Paramount Theater Tuesday night. The address — titled “We are the Change We Seek” — focused on race relations in modern America.

In addition to her roles on national television, Reid has written for a variety of publications around the country.

Reid also served as a press aide during former President Barack Obama’s Florida campaign in 2008.

During her remarks, Reid discussed race relations in the U.S., activism to combat racial inequality and contemporary American politics in the context of the Presidency of Donald Trump. Reid also emphasized the continued importance of Martin Luther King Jr.’s leadership during the Civil Rights Movement, and how the events of Aug. 11 and 12 in Charlottesville were emblematic of broader racial division in the U.S. During her discussion of the history of Charlottesville, Reid said the city’s past is inevitably rooted in liberty for some but exclusion for many others.

“This is a city that is full of so much incredible history,” Reid said.

“That history is very complicated, it's full of brilliance and theoretical writ-

ing about freedom and constructing a doctrine of individual liberty, and the reality that that liberty only applied to landed, white men and not to anyone else in society.”

Reid said the death of 32-year-old Heather Heyer — who was killed near the Downtown Mall in Charlottesville Aug. 12 after a car plowed into a crowd protesting “Unite the Right” demonstrators — would be a defining feature of the contemporary state of American race relations and politics in history.

“Heather Heyer’s murder right here in Charlottesville will be one of the flashpoints that defines the current era, it will define the current presidency,” Reid said. “Heather’s mom, Susan Bro, deserves to be named one of the mothers of the movement … as one of those mothers who have so touched the hearts and pricked the conscience of America on the subject of both civilian and police violence.”

Reid said white nationalist demonstrations in recent years, such as the Unite the Right rally, are a response to the rise of anti-racism activist groups, specifically Black Lives Matter.

“The violent present day response to protests is a clear sign that the Black Lives Matter movement that took off during the Obama administration produced a backlash that was every bit as ferocious as the backlash against the

44th President himself,” Reid said.

Reid emphasized that the achievements of the American Civil Rights era are still being defended against opposition in modern times, but progress is dependent upon persistent and patient resistance to racial inequality.

Reid cited Martin Luther King Jr.’s efforts to influence political actors in developing Civil Rights legislation as an example of patient progress.

“Any movement forward has to be a patient movement,” Reid said. “It has to be one that’s willing to move slowly if it has to, as long as the slow walk is forward. It has to be one willing to keep pushing and negotiating with those politicians who are at least open to the influence of a moral movement.”

In relation to combating white supremacy in modern America, Reid said it is essential for white individuals to confront racism in their daily lives by acknowledging and denouncing it when they see it demonstrated by friends or family members.

“A commitment to civic justice, not just for yourself and your own tribe but for your fellow Americans, no matter who they are, is a crucial component of the change we seek,” Reid said. “Our white brothers and sisters have a responsibility to speak back to the racism of white nationalist radicalization.”

Toward the end of her address, Reid stressed the significance of unity and solidarity in making lasting change in American politics and society.

“This is a movement we all have to pursue together,” Reid said. “The change we seek has to be a shared change, an intersectional change, or there will be no change at all.”

Tuesday evening’s event was hosted by the Miller Center in conjunction with the University Office of the Vice President and Chief Officer for

Diversity & Equity, the Batten School and Lifetime Learning in the Office of Engagement.

The Community MLK Celebration is a three-week series of talks, panels and discussions jointly hosted by the University and a variety of Charlottesville organizations. A variety of events meant to honor the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. have taken place throughout the first week with the common theme of “Be the Difference” in relation to King’s fight for racial equality and justice.

GEREMIA DI MARO | THE CAVALIER DAILY

MSNBC’s Joy Reid gives the keynote address for the Community MLK Celebration.

City Council to consider renaming Emancipation Park The decision to consider a new name was prompted by a petition that activist and local resident Mary Carey created this past October Katja Cresanti | Senior Writer The Charlottesville City Council announced during their Jan. 16 meeting that the body would consider renaming Emancipation Park, formerly Lee Park, as the result of a petition submitted to the Council by longtime Charlottesville resident Mary Carey.

The Council initially voted to rename Lee Park in June of last year, and to remove a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee from the park early in 2017. The removal of the Lee statue is currently pending the outcome of a lawsuit — filed by the Monument Fund and the Virginia division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans — against the City Council and the City of Charlottesville to prevent the removal of the Lee statue.

The legality of the Council’s decision to rename Lee Park was initially a part of the lawsuit, until Charlottesville Circuit Court Judge Richard Moore ruled in favor of the

city renaming it Emancipation Park this past September.

The Council’s decision to remove the Lee statue has been the subject of much controversy and was the publicly stated motive for the “Unite the Right” rally in Downtown Charlottesville this past August. The Council’s decision to rename Lee Park has also been the subject of criticism as ‘Emancipation’ was not a name originally recommend to the body for consideration by the Charlottesville Parks and Recreation Department.

Longtime Charlottesville resident Mary Carey created the petition to change the name of Emancipation Park. In a previous interview with the Cavalier Daily, Carey explained why she would like to see the name of Emancipation Park changed.

“I think the name ‘Emancipation Park’ really hurt the African-Americans in this town,” Carey

said. “It’s still kind of hurtful when I walk around town all day and see that name when you walk down Market Street to the park. You don’t see the names of black heroes, parks for black heroes, things you’d like to see.”

GOV360 — a non-profit organization with the goal of supporting civic engagement and constitutional accountability for government — has aided Carey in the petition process after she approached its leadership for assistance.

Lawrence Gaughan, Executive Director of GOV360, formed a program called the Unity Coalition for Cville Dialogue before the events of Aug. 12 in Charlottesville. Carey is an active member of the organization.

“Mary [Carey] came to us as a member of the Unity Coalition and said there was some concern, members of the black community were offended by the name Emancipa-

tion Park and she wanted to immediately change it to something like Central Park or Festival Park,” Gaughan said.

Gaughan described Carey as a prominent member of the local African-American community.

“Mary Carey is a 73-year-old black woman born and raised in Charlottesville and she is a very vocal activist,” Gaughan said. “She goes to city council meetings a lot, she likes to get up and have her voice be heard, and she is a figure that really represents a lot of voices in the black community that are often ignored.”

He added that the petition was not a formal one, and that nearly anybody in the Charlottesville community could add their name, regardless of their residence or voter status.

“It’s an informal petition, meaning that it’s not going before a judge necessarily … meaning you

don’t have to be a city resident to sign it, you don’t have to be a registered voter, you can sign it if you’re just a county resident or any of the 150,000 people who live in the vicinity,” Gaughan said.

Paige Rice, Clerk of the Charlottesville City Council, confirmed that Carey had started the petition to rename Emancipation Park and that the Council has added it to their agenda for the second meeting in February.

“Council is scheduled to discuss the matter at their Feb. 20 Council meeting,” Rice said in an email.

“While a vote may take place, I don’t anticipate that it will.”

No members of City Council responded to requests for comment by the time of publication.

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LIFE On Jan. 12, Gov. Terry McAuliffe signed orders to release Messiah Johnson, a Virginia inmate who was convicted in 1998 and sentenced to 132 years in prison for a robbery he did not commit. His conditional pardon and subsequent release were secured by members of the Innocence Project at the University’s School of Law. Every year, these Law students and faculty work to remove innocent inmates like Johnson from behind bars and restore their freedom.

The Innocence Project at the University investigates and attempts to overturn unjust convictions of inmates in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The project was launched at University’s School of Law in 2008 and reviews cases of innocent inmates who have received final convictions in Virginia courts. It is part of a larger web of organizations that form the Innocence Network — a group of 69 organizations from all over the world that aims to free wrongfully convicted inmates.

“There are, you know, a shameful amount of wrongful convictions in this country,” Legal Director of the Innocence Project Jennifer L. Givens said. “Each Innocence Project is doing what it can … In its particular area and its jurisdiction to try to reverse wrongful convictions.”

THURSDAY, JANUARY 25, 2018

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A second chance for the wrongfully convicted U.Va. law students and faculty of the Innocence Project fight for justice Shivani Lakshman | Feature Writer Notably, an organization in the Innocence Network was featured on the first season of the popular 2014 podcast “Serial,” which investigated the 1999 murder of 18-year-old Baltimore high school student Hae Min Lee. Her ex-boyfriend Adnan Syed was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for her murder but always maintained innocence. Members of the Innocence Project took on the case and searched for new leads and alternate suspects. Syed was ultimately granted a new trial.

The Innocence Project at the University is comprised of two clinics that allow law students to gain real-world experience and valuable skills through case investigation. The first is a volunteer student clinic that any Law student can join and aid investigations.

The second is a for-credit yearlong clinic in which second- and third-year Law students can apply to and receive academic credit. Every year, Givens and Director of Investigation Deirdre M. Enright of the Innocence Project choose 12 Law students to join the for-credit clinic.

Students who are accepted into the for-credit clinic spend some time in the classroom, but most of their time dedicated to case investigation. Each student is assigned to two accepted

cases which they work on in teams of three to four under faculty guidance.

As students acquire more knowledge and confidence, they are usually granted more independence in their investigations.

The students usually spend between 12 and 15 hours a week on their coursework and their cases, but sometimes case demands may require students to put in additional hours. Over the course of the year, the students gain hands-on experience by interviewing clients and witnesses, reviewing case files and court records and formulating litigation strategies. The students often have to travel throughout Virginia to uncover the facts of their cases and speak to clients and witnesses. “[The clinic] provides a really great opportunity for the law students here … To get their hands dirty on real cases with real clients where what they do really matters, and they can see the fruits of their labor when somebody walks out of prison,” Givens said.

Generally, the for-credit clinic and the volunteer clinic each work on six separate cases at one time. All the while, new cases are constantly being screened to assess whether there is enough evidence of innocence to take on the case. Most of the cases reviewed

involve crimes of robbery, rape and murder.

If a current case closes or a team is waiting for a court response, the team will be assigned a new case.

“We generally go chronologically [down the list of accepted cases] but within that chronological range if there’s one that you know looks ... The person really has a good chance of being innocent, then that’s probably the one that we would take,” second-year Law student David Rubin said.

Over the course of a year, the for-credit clinic usually reviews and works on roughly eight to 10 cases, and the volunteer clinic looks at about 12.

However, these numbers vary from year to year.

Reversing a wrongful conviction is also a very slow process. The Innocence Project is generally able to secure freedom for one client a year, even if the client’s conviction has not been overturned yet. Currently, the clinics have legal pleadings or pardon requests pending in eight cases.

“It’s a pretty awesome thing to be able to be a part of,” Givens said. “[The law students] become very invested in the case and in the client and they follow the cases for years long after they’ve left.”

Rubin participated in the volun-

teer clinic during his first year and was accepted into the for-credit clinic last summer. So far, he has worked on three cases in the for-credit clinic. “[Enright and Givens] are like the coolest, smartest lawyers so … Just to hear their stories about the ways they’ve done things — I’ve picked up a lot of pointers,” Rubin said. “It’s always a nice feeling driving back from an investigative trip knowing that we got what we went out there to get.”

Through the clinics and the Innocence Project, Rubin has gained a lot more than just credit for school.

“Personally, it’s just really nice to work on something that unquestionably matters,” Rubin said. “To research all night is inspiring when you know that it could lead to freeing an innocent person.”

HackCville launches electric skateboard ride share service Boost Cville offers a new transportation option Kate Jewusiak | Feature Writer When constructing the ideal schedule, travel time can get a little pressed. As a result, students always find creative new ways to get across Grounds to class. One mode of transportation that has become increasingly more common is the Boosted Board.

Boosted Boards are a specific brand of electric skateboards. At their top speeds, they can reach 12 or 13 miles per hour. The charge lasts about seven to eight miles.

“Realistically, for most people using the mid-speed level, it gets you anywhere from eight or nine miles on a good day,” Yash Tekriwal said, HackCville staff member and fourth-year College and Commerce student.

Borne out of HackCville, Boost Cville creates an easily-accessible electric skateboard ride share program for all students. Boost Cville is located on Elliewood Avenue, which is convenient for students living both on- and off-Grounds.

“It’s essentially our version of bike share in some ways, but in-

stead for Boosted Boards,” Tekriwal said. “For us, Boosted Boards are an easier way to get around Charlottesville specifically as a city. The terrain is really good for a board.”

“It’s a great sustainable form of transportation,” said Allison Garrett, HackCville staff member and fourth-year College student. “But electric skateboards are really unaffordable for the average college student. Boost Cville aims to provide electric skateboards at a cheaper rate for students to rent.”

If you have never skateboarded before, Boosted Boards are easy to learn. In fact, Tekriwal cites the Boosted Board’s ease of use as a leading factor in the creation of Boost Cville. Tekriwal and fellow HackCville member Daniel Wilson got their own personal Boosted Boards, but neither knew how to skate.

“Two of our friends who were longtime skaters showed us how in five or 10 minutes,” Tekriwal said. “We thought about the ease of learning it and also the amount

of fun we had being able to go around the city relatively quickly.

We thought about how we could get more people doing this rather than just getting our friends on it all the time, and we thought we could make a little boosted board share.”

Boost Cville includes a free helmet rental with the board rental.

While the company emphasizes the ease of operating the Boosted Board, they also stress the importance of knowing turn signals, riding in the bike lane and wearing a helmet for safety purposes. Garrett assures new riders will be given resources to feel prepared before their rental.

“We send out an email with all of the information you need for a new rider,” Garrett said. “We do a free 30 minute lesson for each new customer in which we show them how to ride a skateboard and how the remote works.”

“They’re pretty safe, as long as you’re being careful about where you’re going on the road,” Tekriwal said.

Boost Cville provides an alternative form of transportation for students getting across Grounds, the company also makes it easier for students to explore downtown.

“A lot of people talk about how there’s a gap between the University of Virginia and the Charlottesville community,” Garrett said. “I think Boost Cville is really aiming to bridge that gap by providing students with a form of transportation to help them explore Charlottesville.”

Garrett recommends a day pass to explore the Downtown Mall and IX Art Park. Tekriwal said Boost Cville has been most popular for dates or for adventures with friends downtown or to the Belmont area, but he personally benefits most from on-Grounds transportation.

“The biggest advantage to me has actually been that it makes going to and from class a lot faster,” Tekriwal said. “It was fast to go down the road on a board, and I could take that board with me inside the classroom and just pin it

up against the wall, which is pretty convenient.”

Boost Cville runs out of HackCville on Elliewood Avenue. The company rents out Boosted Boards for one hour, two hours, or day passes. The price ranges from $10 for one hour to a $25 day pass. You can buy a pass from their website.

After purchasing a pass, the company sends an email.

“From there, you can make an inquiry for the actual rental and the time you want the rental for,” Tekriwal said. “If anyone wants to inquire for other times, they’re welcome to talk to us because our emails are also on the website.”

For those who are interested in checking out the Boosted Boards, Boost Cville will host demo days in the spring.

“It’s been a fun project for us to work on, and fun to see how people react to it,” Tekriwal said. “We’re excited to see how it works when the weather gets warmer.”

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Top 10 reasons to be excited for spring semester Despite the comforts of home, U.Va. is not without its perks Grace Breiner | Top 10 Writer

1

Finals are over

I for one was hugely excited to go back home for winter break. So much so, that it felt a bit like I was running away, as opposed to leaving. This was in large part due to the strain of finals season.

Now the big, bad monster is gone, and we can safely return to the kingdom.

2

Weekends are a break again Our weekends are relatively free once again, as evidenced by my writing this article on a couch in Richmond with a cookie pizza to my left and “Seinfeld” playing in the background. We’re free to do our assignments whenever we want and spend the rest of our time however we choose.

For example, I spent a good portion of time eating pancakes this past Saturday.

3

Color coding is in full swing

With new syllabi released and the first week of classes behind us, now is the time to get organized. While that doesn’t sound extremely exciting, my planner is about the size of “War and Peace,” which is a pain to carry around but a joy to color code.

4

FaceTime exists

I tend to get very homesick, which makes returning from a long break a bit rough. If you feel a little lost without your family or hometown friends, remember they are only a short phone call away — or a drive, if you’re lucky. You can learn fun, new information, like that your brother got into law school and his cat put on a tremendous amount of weight. Side note — I have too much in common with his cat.

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The Corner

5

New classes This is my favorite part of the new semester.

Whether you’re returning to chemistry with your science crew or starting a whole new class, it’s always exciting to begin learning again.

I don’t know about you, but my brain was beginning to feel a bit like mush over the break.

Unfortunately, this carried into the beginning of classes in which I could only speak in coughs and mumbles. Don’t worry though — I spoke an entire sentence today, and it might have even made sense.

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No amalgamation of vegetables from home can replace a bowl from Roots, nor can any bagel measure up to Bodo’s. If you’re feeling a little bitter that you’re back at school, some of your favorite food from the Corner could be the perfect cure. The Pigeon Hole has an exciting brunch if you are missing the pancakes from home. And Starbucks, of course, will always be a source of comfort, whether it’s beverage-based or not.

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Spring break

Proximity to the libraries I still haven’t checked out a library book but I plan to remedy that soon. The Romantic poets we’ve begun studying in class are so wildly obsessed with Milton that I really want to see what he’s all about. Alderman, Clemons and Clark — the holy trinity — are here to welcome you back to Grounds and reintroduce you to the joys of studying, which means I’m going to have to stop using my free time to watch “Friends.” That’s going to be a real adjustment.

It’s only about a month away. I’m sure we can hunker down for one month with our books and our snacks, learning things and becoming better students, until that magical week in March when things matter just a little bit less.

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You’re back with your University friends

Sure, you could keep in touch with most of your friends from home via texting, but what about that random person in your class who you only talk to about fluffy happy things, like the weather or the newest episode of “Riverdale?” Besides, you wouldn’t be able to hear about second-hand drama if you weren’t back on Grounds.

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Activities

I know lots of people are excited to get back to their activities — now that they’re tried and true members — or join new ones.

Although I found rush to be a debilitating experience, my friend is all set and ready for initiation into a sorority. I’m not exactly sure what initiation entails, but I imagine it to involve a lot of sparkles.

www.cavalierdaily.com • LIFE

THURSDAY, JANUARY 25, 2018

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Feel at home at the Bluegrass Grill and Bakery A unique and folksy restaurant downtown serves a show-stopping breakfast Marlena Becker | Food Columnist One of the most important lessons I earned from the process of sorority rush is about brunch. After making small talk for hours on end, it has become clear to me that every single person loves not only eating brunch, but also talking about brunch, giving brunch recommendations and sharing their sweet or savory preference. It is not only the most important meal of the day, but also the universal equalizer in any conversation.

So, what restaurant in particular should you use to break the ice the next time conversation is moving a little too slowly? My answer is the Bluegrass Grill and Bakery. Located in the Glass Building off of the Downtown Mall, this restaurant is one-of-a-kind.

The building itself is made of almost entirely glass, which allows for both a unique appearance and plenty of natural light inside the restaurant.

The decor is fun and quirky — in many ways it reminds me of an antique store. There is a banjo hanging from the wall and lots of bacon paraphernalia everywhere, including a

flow chart answering the question, “should you eat the bacon?” — spoiler: you should. The servers are not flashy or overly friendly, and all of the drinks come in non-matching mugs that look like they could have been pulled from someone’s personal collection.

All of these small details give the restaurant a very comfortable and homey atmosphere and made sharing a table — which is not uncommon considering how small the dining area is — feel a lot less weird.

Bluegrass Grill is a cult favorite among many Charlottesvillians, so a long wait is common, especially on the weekend. I would definitely recommend treating yourself to a weekday brunch instead of facing the Sunday morning crowds, especially if you’re hungry. I went on a Tuesday morning, and we waited about 10 minutes for a table.

The brunch menu at Bluegrass Grill includes all of the classics, with a slight southern flair. All of the pastries are homemade and the menu is very vegetarian and gluten-free friendly.

The items that stood out to me were their many different potato hashes — which seemed to be everyday hash browns all grown up.

I ended up choosing the P4 hash which consisted of “a bed of home fried potatoes” with spinach, mushrooms, onions, tomatoes, mozzarella and feta. I added an over-easy fried egg and the hash came with my choice of a homemade biscuit or toast. I chose the biscuit and had no regrets. My sister ordered the pancakes with a side of cheesy grits, and we were able to place our order as soon as we wanted — a huge relief considering how hungry we were.

The drinks came out right away.

The Shenandoah Joe coffee was excellent as always, and I was not surprised to find they served a local and organic brand. However, I was shocked by how delicious the hot chocolate was.

Personally, I usually find hot chocolate unmemorable at best and far too similar to lukewarm sugar water at worst, however, I have not been able to stop thinking about this one. Their hot

chocolate — rich and creamy without being too sweet and topped with a thick whipped cream — was a show stopper.

My only complaint about our meal is that it took a pretty long time to get our food. Although the restaurant was full, it didn’t seem to be quite busy enough to justify how long we waited for our food. Although I can’t say for sure, I would have to guess that it took about 35 minutes, a significant amount of time considering it is a relatively casual restaurant.

However, once we got the food, all was forgiven. My potato hash was one of the best brunch dishes I have ever had. The spinach, cheese and tomato worked beautifully together and the ratio of potato to vegetable was perfect. The potatoes themselves were cooked perfectly, crunchy on the outside without being too greasy, as some hash browns tend to be. The egg was the perfect addition, adding some much needed protein and a unique texture from the runny yolk. The biscuit was very crumbly and fresh and

absolutely delicious smothered in butter.

Although I usually stay away from sweet breakfast foods, my poor sister had to fight me for her pancakes. They were delightfully simple, and the chefs at Bluegrass have mastered the perfect consistency for pancakes. They were very fluffy without being too thick and not at all sickly sweet. Although a little bland, the cheesy grits were my ideal texture and amazing with just a little salt. When we were finally stuffed, we were able to pay very quickly, although there was a brief moment of stress because they only take cash.

Overall, brunch was excellent and I would definitely add Bluegrass Grill and Bakery to the “before you graduate” list of restaurants. Just be sure you have enough cash and lots of time.

Pizza is always the move at Brixx The perfect stop to relax and enjoy a delicious pizza and dessert Ally Donberger | Food Columnist Nothing quite hits the spot like a cheesy slice of brick oven pizza, and Brixx Wood Fired Pizza offers an ample selection of delicious pizza to curb any Italian craving.

Located in the Barracks Road Shopping Center, Brixx is convenient for any University student looking for a relatively inexpensive sit-down pizza experience. The menu offers not only pizza, but also pastas, sandwiches and salads. Appealing options were not in short supply, and making a decision was a challenge.

The atmosphere of the restaurant was open and warm, offering a view of the oven where all of the pizzas are cooked. The many windows enhanced the airy feel. There was also outside seating available for when the weather gets warmer.

The wait staff was excellent — they brought everything on time and were always happy to answer any questions regarding items on the menu. I ordered the fresh-squeezed lemonade to pair with my pizza and it was refreshingly sweet with just the right amount of a tart lemon taste.

I decided to try the Americo pizza from Brixx’s wide variety of options. It was topped with red sauce, mozzarella and pepperoni. The pizza was cooked to perfection. There was

just enough melted mozzarella and pepperoni to get a flavorful bite each time. The crust was crispy but not too thick, adding a little crunch, and the brick oven gave it a nice, golden brown color. The sauce was well-seasoned and enhanced the flavors of both the cheese and pepperoni.

Dessert was next. Although I was extremely full from eating almost the entire main course, I could not pass up the opportunity to order the S’mores Pizza. It tasted even more delicious than it sounds. The dessert consisted of a thin layer of dough topped with graham crackers, chocolate and roasted mini marshmallows.

The marshmallows were perfectly toasted and gooey on top, with a generous layer of melted chocolate underneath. The crunchy graham crackers completed the modern twist of this classic dessert, forming a sort of nacho/pizza combination that I could not resist.

Brixx Wood Fired Pizza was a hit. The pizza did not disappoint and the amazing dessert topped off an already delicious meal. Brixx will definitely be at the top of my list of restaurants to visit the next time I am in the mood for pizza.

CHRISTINA ANTON | THE CAVALIER DAILY

Brixx Pizza is located in Barracks Road Shopping Center.

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Revisionist thinking through golf Altering my perspective on my education Madison Stringfellow | Life Columnist If I’ve talked to you recently, you have without a doubt heard my ravings on Malcolm Gladwell’s podcast “Revisionist History” — stories which recount the misconstrued and the overlooked. The series first captivated my interest on a night this winter break when I found myself suffering from a rare case of insomnia. Feeling guilty from the amount of “Seinfeld” episodes I had watched that day, I felt compelled to lull myself to sleep with something more academic and less mainstream. I was trying forcibly for something a little highbrow but caved after five minutes of a densely packed episode of “NPR Politics Podcast.” Thus, I came to stumble upon Gladwell’s series — admittedly, and most ironically, under the “top charts” category.

By the end of the host’s intro-

duction, I was hooked. Most surprising about my level of intrigue was the subject of this particular episode — golf. I’d spent my entire childhood and young adult life having no other affiliation to the sport outside of my younger brother’s persistent request to have putt-putt birthday parties, at which he would put on a manic display of club swinging and short-lived sportsmanship upon realizing he was not in the lead.

I can recount other times when my dad stood for hours in front of the TV watching the Masters Tournament, rocking anxiously from side to side with his arms crossed as he rooted for his favorite. From my experience, golf only inspired rage and impatience — as demonstrated by my younger brother’s premature quitting and throwing of clubs — or seemed dull and unengaging.

Those two extreme qualities, which I had thought to be intrinsic to all of golf, were immediately supplanted by two better ones — corrupt and aristocratic. Gladwell unveils the means by which elite golf courses and country clubs — primarily those in Los Angeles, Calif. — cut financial corners by evading property tax laws. He then delves into a philosophical discussion of identity which likens top-tier golf organizations to aristocratic models of government.

In this episode of “Revisionist History,” Gladwell argues the condition that “rich people really, really like [golf]” as fact, rendering the sport as worthy of a salacious exposé. In short, golf was now more than just agonizingly slow to me — it was debase and a case of the socioeconomic abuse of power.

Granted, I was only fascinated with golf because Gladwell’s aim was indeed to make others, like himself, dislike it by exposing the supercilious nature of LA country clubs. But it had me thinking.

What else had I overlooked on the assumption that it was uninteresting?

Answer — a lot of things.

How many times had I hesitated enrolling in a class because the course description on SIS concerned writings predating the 18th century or how many times had I written off the recommended readings on syllabi as inconsequential? Probably too many times.

A thought — my habit of writing off certain subjects as boring without having actually looked into the specifics of its content is not very smart. This isn’t a revolutionary realization. We can

most likely all recall how people lacked an interest in or held any knowledge of the food production industry before their introduction to the unnerving “Food, Inc.” documentary. Both “Food, Inc.” and “Revisionist History” are examples on how to reinvent the banal and reminders that the seemingly far-removed can come to fascinate us. We just need to give them a chance.

So, in conclusion, a thank-you is owed to Malcolm Gladwell and to golf for reminding me that my assumptions are more often than not a little off-base, and things can be more interesting than they first seem. This is a note I’ll keep in mind as I will undoubtedly find myself inclined to doze off in my comparative politics class this semester.

Replacing yourself is more important than being irreplaceable Teaching the underclassmen at U.Va. to be the future us Sarah Ashman | Life Columnist I’ll never forget sitting at my dinner table, elbows deep in college essays, scribbling down ideas to answer “What’s your favorite word and why?” for my University application and then ferociously crossing them out.

I spent endless hours thinking of how to be unique — musing over one response, completely scratching it, returning to it an hour later and typing an introduction only for it to go absolutely nowhere. Differentiating oneself in a sea of thousands is hard work. I wanted to show the administrative office that I was unlike anyone else and that I could bring something to the University through my perspective and abilities no one else could supply.

Only, differentiating myself didn’t end in January, when I was accepted, or in August, when I went to my first 9 a.m. English class on the third floor of Bryan Hall.

In fact, it had just begun with those late nights at my dining room table. We run the same race with every club, every internship, every job — we memorize the distinguishing elements of our resume and we’re conditioned overtime to think in terms of

what only we can bring to the table. We strive to present ourselves as — and to truly be — irreplaceable.

It feels so good to be an essential part of a team and to able to give something only you can contribute. The world tells us being irreplaceable is the peak of success and the height of security. But what I’m realizing as an upperclassman is that this sense of irreplaceability harms the growth of our community and breeds a damaging sense of pride — in me and in us.

We aren’t irreplaceable, and we don’t want to be. Believing we’re irreplaceable isn’t good for us — at it’s best, our duties become a crushing weight and source of constant worry because we live with the understanding that we are the only one who can do it. Failure becomes unimaginable, and we wouldn’t dare admit we’ve taken on too much after we’ve convinced ourselves and everyone else we’re the best fit. And at it’s worse, it’s a lie that inflates our ego and creates a suffocating, competitive ladder of a community.

More than that, irreplaceability hurts this University. Being irreplaceable doesn’t foster

growth the University because whatever we bring to the table leaves with us when we graduate in four short years — and for some of us, they’re almost over.

Irreplaceability doesn’t contribute to the continuous quality of the things we care most about, on- and off-Grounds because it can’t outlive us.

In fact, if we’re truly passionate about the causes we contribute to in our time on Grounds, we need to consider investing our time to the opposite effect — learning how to replace ourselves and raise up the future generation of Hoos to continue the legacy.

Irreplaceability is about being the right person in a moment — growth is about raising up people to be part of a movement.

For example, in 2015, I was a second semester senior in high school living out a leadership position as a Campaigner in an organization called Young Life.

One day, an older mentor stood with me in a sea of freshman and sophomores and challenged me to replace myself — it was a humbling experience. The older mentor gently explained to me that if I wanted the legacy of what I had worked to create to continue, I

needed to teach someone how to carry it on. And while I wanted to believe that I was the only girl who could do what I had learned to do, I wasn’t, and I’m so thankful that was the truth.

Freeman High School needed someone else to drive freshman girls to school when I was gone, just to show them someone cared despite the intense social ranking high school enacts. It needed someone to wash off the mean comments written about underclassmen in chalk on the sidewalks the first day of school.

Freeman needed someone else who knew how order and pick up three dozen bagels for morning Campaigner meetings. If I’m being honest, Freeman High School didn’t need another me; they needed someone better.

Hoos, I know you’ve worked hard these past few years to create, build and improve what you love in and around this University. Whatever team you’re on, whatever club you lead, whatever alliance you run — you put in the hours because you have a vision for what it could be, and you want to be an integral part of its realization. Now, as many of us are upperclassmen, we can finally see that we were. But why

let that vision — and those skills we’ve learned to achieve it — die in May when we move on to bigger and better things?

You can bury those hours in the ground somewhere under the Rotunda, or you can place them in the hands of someone who reminds you a lot of yourself when you were a first-year — someone who’s quirky, under-qualified and maybe even more passionate than you were. Teach them how to organize the meetings. Teach them how to encourage your members and raise support in the community. Teach them how to persevere through obstacles and how to overcome the ones you’ve already mastered.

If you continue to believe that you’re the only one who can do what you do, you will be. But if you break with the normality of bolstering your own skill set to invest in the future of this University and community, you might just be part of something a lot bigger than your own four years.

What legacy will you leave?

Who will you equip before you walk across the Lawn your final time?

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SPORTS

THURSDAY, JANUARY 25, 2018

Spring Sports — a breakdown Looking ahead to the softball, men’s lacrosse, baseball and men’s tennis seasons CD Sports Staff

DOX AITKEN

ALLISON DAVIS

JAKE MCCARTHY

CONNOR FITZPATRICK| THE CAVALIER DAILY

CARL SÖDERLUND

ALEXA PATEL | THE CAVALIER DAILY

SOFTBALL In Coach Joanna Hardin’s second season with Virginia, she’ll look to guide the team to build on the successes of her debut season. Last year, Hardin led the Cavaliers to the ACC Tournament for the first time in three seasons, and brought in Virginia’s first win against a ranked opponent since 2014. Hardin also coached the team to nine ACC victories, making for the second most conference wins in school history.

Hardin’s team returns plenty of key players that can make for another successful season. Among those players are senior outfielder and pitcher Allison Davis, senior first baseman Danni Ingraham and junior pitcher Erika Osherow.

Davis, a two-time All-ACC Academic team member, had the second best batting average on the team after hitting .328 last season. Davis also had 16 multi-hit games, and her four triples tied for the fifth most in the conference.

On the pitching side, Virginia returns Osherow who is also a two-time All-ACC Academic team member.

Osherow posted a 4.78 ERA and 86 strikeouts last season. As the Cavaliers’ go-to pitcher, she had the fourth most starts in the circle and the fifth most

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appearances as pitcher in the conference.

Virginia starts off its season with a double-header Feb. 8 at McNeese State, where, prior to coaching at Virginia, Hardin served as head coach for two seasons.

After a few tournaments, the Cavaliers will host their first opponent Feb. 28 when they take on Campbell in Charlottesville.

— compiled by Emma D’Arpino MEN’S LACROSSE Virginia begins the 2018 lacrosse season as a team on the rise, looking to improve its defense in the second year of the Tiffany era.

The Cavaliers should enter the 2018 lacrosse season with plenty of hope, as its young talent will look to carry the team to a return to the postseason.

The 2017 Virginia lacrosse team (87, 0-4 ACC) never failed to excite, with the third-best offense in the nation. It was defensive problems, however, that plagued the Cavaliers in ACC play.

This season, the Cavaliers need to look seriously at improving what was last year the No. 65 scoring defense in the nation if they want to contend.

This year marks Coach Lars Tiffany’s second year at the helm of Virginia lacrosse. Tiffany was known at Brown for his team’s offensive prow-

ess, which he has certainly brought to this Cavaliers squad. The team’s clear weakness was defense, which Tiffany has taken steps to improve. The defense performed far better at the end of last season, after the coach made some organizational changes.

Virginia returns its leading scorer, Michael Kraus, as well as two other 40-point scorers, senior attack Mike D’Amario and sophomore midfielder Dox Aitken. The Cavaliers’ already-potent scoring punch will be improved by incoming recruit Matt Moore, an electrifying midfielder.

Virginia’s defense has much more uncertainty. With former USILA Scholar All-American defender Tanner Scales gone, the Cavaliers will rely heavily on senior defender Scott Hooper to ignite the defense’s improvement.

Virginia needs to pick up wins in conference play if it wants to make the leap back to the playoffs, as its non-conference schedule lacking in marquee matchups besides clashes against longtime rival Johns Hopkins and Princeton.

The up-and-coming Cavaliers begin play Feb. 10 at home against Loyola.

— compiled by Zach Zamoff

RICHARD DIZON | THE CAVALIER DAILY

EMMA LEWIS | THE CAVALIER DAILY

BASEBALL The Virginia baseball team has been a model of consistent success for Cavalier athletics since Coach Brian O’Connor’s first season in 2004. Since winning the College World Series in 2015, the Cavaliers have faltered early in the playoffs in consecutive years, so O’Connor will look to push past regular season success in 2018.

The Cavaliers will have to do so without their top offensive weapons from last season — outfielder Adam Haseley and first baseman Pavin Smith, who were both top-10 picks in the MLB draft. Junior outfielders Cameron Simmons and Jake McCarthy will look to elevate their play as the best returning hitters on the team.

Simmons was second among the Cavaliers with 57 RBIs last season, while McCarthy swiped 27 bases in 29 attempts.

A pitching staff that also lost some talent will be led by senior righty Derek Casey, who returned with 14 starts in 2017 after sitting out the 2016 season due to elbow surgery. Virginia ended last season ranked No. 19 in the country, and with four other ACC teams in the Top 25, the Cavaliers will once again have a brutal slate of games ahead of them.O’Connor ability to develop his new upperclassman

into stars will be crucial to the team’s success.

— compiled by Alec Dougherty MEN’S TENNIS The men’s tennis team heads into its first season without Coach Brian Boland, who led the team to national championships in three of the past four years, with significantly lowered expectations. The Cavaliers were ranked outside of the preseason Intercollegiate Tennis Association Top 10 for the first time in a decade. While men’s basketball has proved that preseason rankings can be meaningless, this ranking shows a lack of confidence that new Coach Andres Pedroso can maintain Virginia’s status as a national powerhouse.

Pedroso will lead a relatively inexperienced team, as only sophomore Carl Söderlund and senior Henrik Wiersholm return from last season’s National Championship winning singles ladder. They will be joined in the lineup by junior Aswin Lizen and incoming freshmen Gianni Ross, Matthew Lord and Kyrylo Tsygura, among others.

The men’s team started its season with two 4-3 wins over Temple and Richmond, and continues its play this weekend.

— compiled by Jake Blank

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POWERHOUSE OR HOUSE OF CARDS? Despite an initial lack of recognition, this year’s men’s basketball team the opportunity to earn the program the respect it deserves Despite an initial lack of recognition, this year’s men’s basketball team has the opportunity to earn the program the respect it deserves Virginia men’s basketball started the season unranked, ending a string of 63-consecutive weeks in the AP Top 25. The national narrative was that Virginia had lost too much talent to graduation and transfers, including both of last season’s leading scorers in London Perrantes and Marial Shayok.

Additionally, the last time the Cavaliers played, they put up a 39-point dud against Florida in the NCAA Tournament, casting doubt over whether Coach Tony Bennett’s unique style could succeed in March.

Correspondingly, the media had little faith in the Cavaliers to start the season. CBS Sports didn’t even name them as the best team in the state of Virginia, ranking rival Virginia Tech ahead of them.

The national media weren’t the only ones to insult Virginia either, as recruits seemed unreceptive to Bennett’s program, despite — or perhaps in light of — recent graduate Malcolm Brogdon’s professional success.

Even with five scholarships available, Bennett was only able to get commitments from forward Kody Stattman and guard Kihei Clark, a class that ranks 136th nationally and 13th in the ACC, according to 247sports. The only team below Virginia in the ACC is Louisville, which is mired in a FBI scandal.

However, the results on the court to date couldn’t be more different from this relatively dismal picture.

Regardless of what any individual media member suggests, Virginia is quite good. They’re ranked No. 2 in the AP Poll, and third in KenPom. The Cavaliers’ 81.6 defensive rating is the lowest in KenPom’s history, which dates back to 2002.

And despite poor recruiting this year, this roster is arguably the most talented Bennett has ever coached.

Bennett’s seventh-ranked 2016 class, featuring sophomore guards Kyle Guy and Ty Jerome as well as redshirt freshman guard De’Andre Hunter, was his highest ever, and is coming of age. This young nucleus is complemented by strong and seasoned upperclassmen, led by senior guard Devon Hall and senior for-

ward Isaiah Wilkins.

Thus, there are two pictures being simultaneously painted of Virginia basketball. One is of a team that is outclassed athletically and offensively, fueled by pace-of-play gimmicks in the regular season that can never hold up in March. Another, however, is of a national powerhouse program still on the rise, run the way college basketball purists have always advocated — player development, discipline and defense — and while March success has yet to come, it can’t be far off.

Virginia fans — and anyone who follows the sport — are stuck in a tug of war between these two images. While the recruiting trail and pre-season conversation pointed towards the first description, all the evidence on the court has pointed towards the latter.

This on-court evidence is nothing new, however. It has supported Virginia for a while — over the past five seasons, Kentucky and Arizona are the only Power 5 conference schools with better records — suggesting that this season’s success won’t be enough to change the narrative.

Even after defeating then-No. 12

North Carolina 61-49, the national coverage barely shifted in tone.

While Tar Heel Coach Roy Williams described the game as a “big ole butt kicking.” The USA Today recap of the game led off by saying that “If there was an award for winning with the least amount of talent over the last five seasons, Virginia coach Tony Bennett would take it by a landslide.”

It’s this sentiment that frustrates Virginia faithful — that no matter how many blue bloods Virginia topples, nor how consistently they do so, their wins are discounted as the result of some sort of system. The media rarely allow for the possibility that the Cavaliers simply outplayed their opponents — the baseline assumption for any other team.

If five seasons of on-court success aren’t enough, then how can Bennett buck the perception that his teams don’t belong among the nation’s elite?

Virginia will likely never compete for the five star players that lend teams instant gravitas, since it won’t promise early playing time or a quick route to the NBA. However, this year’s team shows that the ceil-

ing is higher when the talent on the roster is better.

Virginia is not a program devoid of ACC caliber talent, nor is it agnostic to the quality of the players on the roster, even if Bennett often finds diamonds in the rough when it comes to recruiting.

The only other surefire avenue to achieve national respect is to find success in March, something that eluded the Bennett teams of the Brogdon and Justin Anderson era. While every program loses some in March — Duke has fallen in the first round to 14 and 15 seeds in the past five years — overcoming that hurdle may ultimately be the only way to earn national respect.

This year’s team can compete with any team in the country — full stop. Here’s hoping they find a way to help the rest of the country see that.

JAKE BLANK is a Sports Editor and Columnist for The Cavalier Daily.

He can be reached at j.blank@cavalierdaily.com or on Twitter at @Jake_33.

No. 12 men’s tennis prepares for first real regular season test Freshman-heavy Cavalier tennis program prepares to take on No. 25 Texas Tech Luke Beasey | Associate Editor May 23, 2017 was a rainy day in Athens, Ga. The NCAA National Championship match, between the No. 2 Virginia men’s tennis team and No. 9 North Carolina, was pushed back for the second-consecutive day. Relegated inside to the four inside courts of the Dan Magill Tennis Complex, the championship match progressed more slowly than most do, which only amplified the excruciating pressure on the players.

On doubles court 2, then-seniors Thai-Son Kwiatkowski and Alexander Ritschard defeated the opposing Tar Heels in a titanic struggle, winning their match 7-6. This win would prove to be instrumental in the Cavaliers’ national championship victory, capping an era of unprecedented dominance by a Virginia team that only six years ago had yet to win a single title. By that muggy Georgia afternoon, however, they won their fourth.

But the team that is now practicing at Virginia’s Sheridan-Snyder Tennis Center is entirely different from the one that was there just one year ago. Gone is the senior core that ran amok over the traditional tennis powerhouses of the NCAA. Gone as well is Coach Brian Boland, who retired last season after 16 years with the Cavaliers

to become the UTSA Player Development Head of Men’s Tennis.

Only three players have returned from the championship season last year — sophomore Carl Söderlund, junior Aswin Lizen, and senior Henrik Wiersholm. The rest of the team, while incredibly talented, is as of yet untested. But with this inexperience also comes a blank slate. For the first time in years, a Virginia tennis team has its destiny in its own hands.

The first real mark on this slate will come Saturday as the Cavaliers prepare to host the No. 25 Texas Tech Red Raiders (9-1). Texas Tech has had an excellent showing so far this season. The Red Raiders’ only loss of the season, at a neutral site against No. 20 Florida State (8-0), was eight games ago, and they have only had one game since then that was decided by a single match. However, most of these victories have come at home and against non-Power 5 teams.

Texas Tech is led by a group of experienced juniors, including Alex Sendegeya, who was ranked No. 83 nationally by the International Tennis Association in singles play at the beginning of the fall last year. Sendegeya, in addition to an incredible set of doubles teams, could cause major

problems for the Cavaliers on Saturday. Second-year head coach Brett Masi was named Big 12 coach of the year after leading the Red Raiders out of obscurity and winning the Big 12 conference championship in his first year as a head coach.

Virginia’s own head coach, Andres Pedroso, returns to the Cavaliers after a two year hiatus from the program.

From 2010-2014, however, he served as assistant head coach for Virginia with an incredible record of success. In his four year tenure, he did not lose a single conference match and was named the ITA National Assistant Coach of the Year in 2014.

He inherits a team that, although young, has an incredible potential.

Freshman Gianni Ross, from Chicago, Ill., was ranked as the second best recruit in the Class of 2017. Freshman Matthew Lord, from Bloomfield, Conn., was ranked sixth.

Victories over the Richmond (0-1) and Temple (1-1) this weekend have given coach Pedroso a perfect record so far, but both were closer than expected with Virginia only winning 4-3.

This could be an early warning sign for the program, but it could also just be a slow opening weekend for a program laden with players still new to the col-

lege level of play.

There are good signs coming out of the weekend, though, with junior Aswin Lizen and freshman Kyrylo Tsygura distinguishing themselves in both singles and doubles. Lizen and Tsygura both won their individual singles matches as well as combining to win their doubles matches against both Richmond and Temple, providing six of the eight total match victories achieved by the Cavaliers this weekend.

On the No. 5 court, Tsygura’s singles matches twice clinched the game match for the Cavaliers, demonstrating an incredible amount of mental fortitude by the freshman. For Virginia to win next weekend, however, Tsygura and Lizen, as well as the rest of the Cavaliers, will have to play even stronger.

The match will take place at 10 a.m.

Saturday, Jan. 27, at the Boar’s Head Inn in Charlottesville.

CALLIE COLLINS | THE CAVALIER DAILY

A young Virginia Men’s Tennis team will have its first big test of the regular season.

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LEAD EDITORIAL

Supporting #MeToo’s momentum

OPINION

Progress depends on all of us

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ecently, the #MeToo movement has captivated the world, with women from diverse backgrounds and professions coming forward with stories of harassment and assault. This movement has shown the world that far too many women have been forced to endure unwanted sexual advances, not only professionally, but in their everyday lives. This trend is especially true at colleges where 23 percent of women and 11 percent of all students experience rape or sexual assault through physical force. Last week, the First Lady of New Jersey, Tammy Murphy, an alumni of the University and a member of the Board of Visitors, joined the movement when she shared her experience of being sexually assaulted during her time as a student. College women’s increased risk of sexual assault and Murphy’s story confirm what many University students and faculty members already know — that sexual assault is all around us and students

must contribute to the progress that has yet to be made.

Fortunately, the University has recently made a noticeable amount of progress in improving its responses to sexual assault.

According to a 2016-17 climate survey at the University, 11.8 percent of female undergraduate students and 2.3 percent of male undergraduate students reported incidence of sexual assault through force or threat of force. That is down from 2015, where 13.4 percent of females and 3.2 percent of males reported incidents of sexual assault.

The survey also showed that 44.8 percent of students believed officials will take action against the perpetrators of sexual assault, which is a huge increase from the 28.2 percent of students who believed officials would take action in 2015. These trends are promising, but these numbers also serve as evidence of the work that still needs to be done. Though it is up from a startlingly low

percentage, still less than half of students at the University believe officials will take action against sexual assault. That is unacceptable, and it must change if we are to continue moving forward on this issue.

Though there has rightfully been a lot of focus placed on students and the injustices student victims often face, it is also important to note that many females attempting to climb the ranks of academia have faced sexual assault and harassment.

The Wall Street Journal recently reported a story that describes the pervasive nature of sexual assault in academia and how the field is finally having its #MeToo moment.

Women are dramatically underrepresented in the upper echelons of academia, in no small part due to workplace discrimination. Clearly, it is not just students who must overcome sexual misconduct in our community. We all bear the responsibility of changing this toxic culture.

It is important for students and faculty to continue to speak up about sexual assault and harassment in our community.

Progress has been made, but it is not nearly enough — we must keep moving forward.

The #MeToo movement has shown that there is momentum for us to finally address the threats that women face in every segment of their lives. This momentum can only continue if citizens are active in fighting against the injustices that are all around us. Students can become active in this fight by supporting organizations like the Sexual Violence Prevention Coalition, which puts on events like Take Back the Night and serves as an umbrella organization for groups like One in Four and One Less.

There is ample opportunity on Grounds for students to continue the momentum of the #MeToo movement, but progress depends on how we choose to act.

THE CAVALIER DAILY THE CAVALIER DAILY The Cavalier Daily is a financially and editorially independent news organization staffed and managed entirely by students of the University of Virginia.

The opinions expressed in The Cavalier Daily are not necessarily those of the students, faculty, staff or administration of the University of Virginia. Unsigned editorials represent the majority opinion of the editorial board. Cartoons and columns represent the views of the authors. The managing board of The Cavalier Daily has sole authority over and responsibility for all content.

No part of The Cavalier Daily or The Cavalier Daily online edition may be reproduced in any form, in whole or in part, without the written consent of the editor-in-chief.

The Cavalier Daily is published Thursdays in print and daily online at cavalierdaily. com. It is printed on at least 40 percent recycled paper.

HAVE AN OPINION? The Cavalier Daily welcomes letters to the editor and guest columns. Writers must provide full name, telephone number and University affiliation, if appropriate. Letters should not exceed 250 words in length and columns should not exceed 700. The Cavalier Daily does not guarantee publication of submissions and may edit all material for content and grammar. Submit to opinion@cavalierdaily.com or P.O. Box 400703, Charlottesville, VA 22904-4703

QUESTIONS/COMMENTS To better serve readers, The Cavalier Daily has a public editor to respond to questions and concerns regarding its practices. The public editor writes a column published every week on the opinion pages based on reader feedback and his independent observations. He also welcomes queries pertaining to journalism and the newspaper industry in general. The public editor is available at publiceditor@cavalierdaily.com.

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MANAGING BOARD Editor-in-Chief Tim Dodson Managing Editor Ben Tobin Executive Editor Jake Lichtenstein Operations Manager Avishek Pandey Chief Financial Officer Nate Bolon EDITORIAL BOARD Jake Lichtenstein Tim Dodson Jacob Asch Niki Hendi Katherine Smith JUNIOR BOARD Assistant Managing Editors Alexis Gravely Gracie Kreth (SA) Bridget Curley (SA) Alec Husted (SA) Alix Nguyen (SA) Aaron Rose (SA) Anne Whitney

News Editors Kate Bellows Maggie Servais (SA) Geremia Di Maro Sports Editors Jake Blank Alec Dougherty (SA) Emma D’arpino (SA) Zach Zamoff Life Editors Julie Bond Natalie Seo Arts & Entertainment Editors Dan Goff Thomas Roades (SA) Darby Delaney (SA) Ben Hitchcock Health & Science Editors Tina Chai Ruhee Shah Focus Editor Abby Clukey Opinion Editors Jacob Asch Brendan Novak (SA) Katherine Smith Humor Editor Veronica Sirotic Cartoon Editor Mira du Plessis

Production Editors Zach Beim Mark Felice Sonia Gupta (SA) Elizabeth Lee Graphics Editors Matt Gillam Aisha Singh Photography Editors Christina Anton Sarah Lindamood (SA) Nick Zugris Video Editors Aidan McWeeney Engineering Manager Katie Vinson Social Media Managers Ashley Botkin Libby Scully Translation Editors Yuqi Cheng Burgard Lu Advertising Manager Avantika Mehra Business Manager Kelly Mays

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Submit a letter to the editor to opinion@cavalierdaily.com

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OPINION • www.cavalierdaily.com

OPPORTUNITIES TO IMPROVE THE LIBRARY SYSTEM The ‘recall’ system and student printing options should be overhauled to better serve students

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he 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.

First, we must examine the “recall system” sponsored within the University library circuit. Within this system, any individual who has checked out material from the library can receive notice that she must return her material within 10 days or face a penalty. According to the University website on library policies, anyone can place an order for a recall, as long as they meet “a need” for the material.

In essence, the recall system places a preference for library users who fail to acquire library material before it

was checked out by another library user. It additionally allows these same individuals to both strip the original borrower of the material she rightfully checked out first and possibly slap her with a fine of a dollar per day. For one, it penalizes students who take the initiative to check out library material first. With this in place, there’s no motivation to wait for a book to be returned or attempt to reach a book first — the recall system allows students to arbitrarily place a trump card on materials.

In addition, anyone can technically use the library system beyond the University’s faculty, staff and students.

Students and faculty from neighboring public universities and Virginia residents above the age of 16, with photo ID, can use the library system.

This policy opens University students up to the risk of have a non-University affiliated library user recall any checked out library material from their possession, inverting the hierarchy of who should have preference to University materials. The only alternative is to engage in a “recall war” with the other library user, until one of the parties gives up. Frankly, this is a petty solution to the problem, and

regulations should be put in place to make the recall option more exclusive to true library emergencies.

Secondly, the printing system at the University is profiteering off the students it should be serving. At other universities such as University of Delaware and the University of Kansas, the library systems allot monetary

equals 300 sheets of free printing. Delving further into Temple’s printing policy, this student benefit emerges from their “University Services Fee.” Like Temple, the University already has a steep University Activity Fee, which mostly benefits athletics, as seen by the release of the 2015-16 budget documents. There’s absolutely no reason

The library system, although deeply ingrained in University life, is still flawed in many ways.

allowances to undergraduate students.

While these allowances aren’t lavish by any means (Kansas’ program grants $8 of funds per undergraduate), this at least signals an attempt by their library administrations to accommodate student printing needs. At Temple University, students are rewarded with printing privileges based off the number of their enrolled credit hours, with a cap after 9 credit hours – this

why the University cannot grant these privileges to current undergraduates.

Given a quick comparison of endowments between the Universitywthe University and Temple University – the University clocks in at a staggering $8.62 billion dollar endowment, while Temple pales in comparison, with a $513.6 million dollars. The financial capital of the University clearly exists to accommodate student

needs, but isn’t utilized. The lack of movement for the library system to provide student friendly printing signals apathy for change, rather an inability to help. This is only compounded by the University’s printing pricing — double sided pages cost the same as single sided pages. With all the conversation on environmentally friendly University policies, why isn’t printing pricing designed to incentivize less paper consumption?

The library system in its current form impacts all undergraduates, and in many ways they succeed fantastically in their services. That said, the library system should reform to further serve the students it was intended to provide with resources. In its existing system, students are all too easily disadvantaged from retrieving material or printing original works by ineffective policies that should be changed.

There’s no chance that student life will become disentangled from the libraries. However, it’s time the libraries double down on serving students.

KATHERINE SMITH is an Opinion Columnist for The Cavalier Daily. She can be reached at k.smith@cavalierdaily.com

MAKE CHARLOTTESVILLE GREAT AGAIN In order to improve Charlottesville, we must recognize its shortcoming

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hen describing the many attributes of the University that combine to form its identity, Charlottesville is as important as its ties to Thomas Jefferson, its robust Honor System and its renowned architecture. Charlottesville embodies several aspects of the quintessential college town, including diverse cultural and recreational offerings for students and residents alike. The city’s status as a great town to live in has even been recognized by several media outlets. Southern Living magazine ranked Charlottesville among the best college towns in the South, and National Geographic ranked it as the third happiest city in America. While Charlottesville’s many accolades are well deserved, the city must face its most pressing shortcomings if it is to improve further.

Living in Charlottesville for the past year and half has exposed me to some negative aspects of the city not highlighted in Southern Living and National Geographic. Charlottesville — in certain instances — exemplifies the very worst of both the cultural North and South. The city’s elected leaders seem more concerned with pushing progressive agendas over effective governance.

For example, former Mayor Mike Signer sought to make Charlottesville a sanctuary city and “the capi-

tal of the Resistance.” Leadership in other in several Northern cities like Chicago, San Francisco, New York and Washington D.C. has sought to advance similar agendas. Furthermore, the Unite the Right rallies on Aug. 11 and 12 made Charlottesville

and Stonewall Jackson. The contributions of these and other monuments have provided a more honest historical record of Virginia and the rest of the South. The implications of the City Council’s decisions caused extremists from groups like

Charlottesville — in certain instances — exemplifies the very worst of both the cultural North and South.

an epicenter of extremist activity.

The violence was reminiscent of much of the South in the generations after the Civil War and the struggle for civil rights in America — agitators drew heavily from intimidation tactics championed by groups that opposed the expansion of civil rights and integration.

Even though hate-motivated activity is not exclusive to Charlottesville, city policies played an significant role in attracting it to the area. The City Council did not act in the best interest of Charlottesville when it challenged the Commonwealth of Virginia’s authority in passing resolutions to dismantle statues to Generals Robert E. Lee

the Traditionalist Youth Network, the Ku Klux Klan and Antifa to use Charlottesville to further their own extremist agendas. Had City Council decided to address the issue of historical remembrance constructively by adding to Charlottesville’s historical landscape — similar to University efforts to memorialize its enslaved laborers — instead of subtracting from it, the Unite the Right rally would probably have never taken place. For example, the opening of the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum in Jackson directly undermines white supremacist efforts to perpetuate hate by providing a more complete historical record. Perhaps Charlottesville

should consider a similar course of action given its checkered and significant civil rights history.

I do not intend to make broad generalizations about Charlottesville, nor do I intend to speak for every resident of the city. Most likely, other residents of Charlottesville have had experiences that vary from mine — residents who have lived here for much longer than I may have a different view on life in Charlottesville, its culture and its character. Speaking, however, from the perspective of a student who cares about Charlottesville and wants what is best for it, I have developed criticisms while living here. In fact, coming to Charlottesville with an outsider’s perspective allows me to notice some things that a lifelong resident may take for granted.

Charlottesville’s leadership must be more concerned with addressing the local issues they are charged with solving. Among others, these include health issues facing the area — including obesity, substance abuse, other mental health issues and access to health care. In addition, the city’s growing population poses challenges to urban planning policies and infrastructure. Local governments play a vital role in addressing community challenges, and Charlottesville de-

serves leadership focused on tackling local issues instead of implicating itself in national disputes. Not only do such efforts as attempting to declare Charlottesville a sanctuary city subvert the rule of law, they also divert attention from problems local leadership is obliged and equipped to address.

No town is perfect. I am lucky to call Charlottesville my home and appreciate every day of my University experience in large part because of the place I live. I have had positive interactions with residents through volunteering and engaging with the greater community. However, in order to make Charlottesville its best self, residents need to acknowledge the challenges the city faces. If those who live in Charlottesville want to improve the city, they will reflect on past mistakes and decide to take positive action in the future. Residents must also elect leaders who are concerned with good governance and the rule of law while also enhancing what makes Charlottesville great.

TOM FERGUSON is an Opinion columnist at The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at opinion@cavalierdaily.com.

www.cavalierdaily.com • OPINION

THURSDAY, JANUARY 25, 2018

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THE HISTORIC IMPORTANCE OF THE ROYAL ENGAGEMENT Prince Harry’s engagement to Meghan Markle is an encouraging step forward for a historically regressive institution

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gainst the backdrop of the increasing prevalence of xenophobic and racially-charged rhetoric in the political sphere of the United Kingdom, the daily happenings of the royal family appear inconsequential. Since the watershed referendum vote to sever ties between the U.K. and the European Union, hate crimes against religious and ethnic minorities within Britain have reached their modern peak. In the cities of Gwent, Warwickshire, Kent and Nottinghamshire alone, the percentage of racially motivated violence increased by well over 50 percent in 2017. Amidst growing ethnic tensions, however, a glimmer of hope emerged with Prince Harry of Wales and Meghan Markle’s engagement announcement last November.

Well into the 21st century, Prince Harry’s engagement to a half-black, American divorcée should not be a bombshell event.

Nonetheless, Meghan Markle’s accession to the ranks of the royals actually does have far-reaching historical and domestic im-

plications for the U.K. The aging British monarchy has a problematic history of racism, helping to perpetuate the exclusion of people of color with its all-white line. A historical obsession with the purity of the royal line bolstered arguably the most promi-

dia and digital journalism alike exploded. Many of the responses — particularly from Twitter — were overwhelmingly positive and enthusiastically welcomed this new era of royal progressivism. Still, certain media responses capitalized on Markle’s race to

In the face of racist comments aimed at Markle in the past, Prince Harry has risen to the defense of his partner.

nent bastion of white supremacy in Western European political institutions. Markle’s breach of one of Britain’s oldest and most rigid institutions — despite her identity as a woman of color — marks a symbolic turning point in the history of the U.K. Unsurprisingly, when news broke of Prince Harry and Markle’s relationship during their early phases of dating, social me-

paint her and her upbringing in a negative light. Daily Mail infamously described the duchess-tobe as “straight outta Compton,” criticizing her home city for its widespread gang violence while employing language with clear racial undertones. As evidenced by the online community’s obsession with Markle’s ethnic background, the couple’s recent engagement has brought forth

explicit forms of racism in the media and the populace.

In the face of racist comments aimed at Markle in the past, Prince Harry has risen to the defense of his partner. In a statement issued by his communications secretary, the Prince defends Markle from the “wave of abuse and harassment” she has experienced since their relationship became public. Moreover, the statement goes on to condemn “the outright sexism and racism of social media trolls.” Prince Harry’s refusal to succumb to the regular media campaigns of racism and elitism launched at Markle signifies a small but meaningful act of leadership in British politics.

Historically, the U.K. and its monarchy have prevailed as global symbols of imperialism and white supremacy. Their advancement of the slave trade in the 17th and 18th centuries, along with the golden age of British imperialism in the 20th century, left a dark blotch on the history of the U.K. Generations of discrimination propagated by the royal

family has led to the exclusion of racial and religious minorities.

On May 19 of this year, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle will be married in St. George's Chapel at Windsor Castle, finally reflecting more accurately — even to a miniscule degree — the multi-ethnic makeup of the U.K. For centuries, the royal family has deeply entrenched itself into the social fabric of the nation, serving in modern times as a more symbolic entity than a political force. By projecting a positive message of inclusion and acceptance to British citizens, the traditionally rigid institution marks the dawn of a new era.

CHARLOTTE LAWSON is an opinion columnist for The Cavalier Daily. She can be reached at opinion@ cavalierdaily.com.

THE OVERBLOWN EFFECTS OF INTERNET CHALLENGES National coverage of events like the ‘Tide Pod Challenge’ indicates a problem with mainstream media

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n recent weeks, the viral “Tide Pod Challenge”— in which participants ingest single-load detergent packets — has been the subject of national news coverage. While it goes without saying that ingesting Tide Pods is unbelievably dangerous, it is important to note that — despite the global coverage that the “Tide Pod Challenge” has received — 2018 thus far has seen just slightly less than 100 intentional ingestions of Tide Pods in the United States. Rather than focus on the limited impacts the “Tide Pod Challenge” has had on the American populace thus far, mainstream media sources should be focused on covering the actual threats posed by such packets. Namely, their attractiveness to young children and those suffering from dementia. ‘’The origin of the “Tide Pod Challenge” comes (perhaps unsurprisingly) from a 2015 article published by The Onion. The publication of numerous satirical articles and videos concerning the consumption of Tide Pods led to the challenge’s surge in popularity, resulting in the attention of mainstream media outlets and prompting a response from Proctor & Gamble, who stated that “…They should only be used to clean clothes and kept up, closed,

and away from children.”

Despite the disproportionately large coverage that such a challenge has received, the overwhelming majority of American teenagers have abstained from consuming Tide Pods — the most recent report by the American Association of Poison Control Centers found “thirty-nine intentional exposures among thirteen to nineteen year olds. That number has increased to eightysix such intentional cases … during the first three weeks of 2018.”

Although any spike in intentional poisonings as a result of packet ingestion is certainly cause for worry, the overall number of cases in no way comprises a significant percentage of the American teenage population — the 2010 U.S. census alone counted 22,040,343 individuals aged 15-19.

These poisoning cases represent less than 0.00001 percent of the U.S. teenage population — hardly a reason for such widespread news coverage.

Although ingesting detergent pods is not a serious problem for the U.S. teenage population, it does pose a more significant threat towards young children and those suffering from dementia. This particular issue is not a new one — as far back as 2012, U.S. Senator Charles E. Schum-

er noted that, “These pods were supposed to make household chores easier, not tempt our children to swallow harmful chemicals. I saw one on my staffer’s desk and wanted to eat it.” Those with dementia have mistaken

to non-pod laundry detergents.”

Although manufacturer changes in 2015 resulted in a 39 percent decrease in accidental exposures to liquid laundry packets, Consumer Reports noted that “that’s relative to the number sold,

Those with dementia have mistaken such pods to be candy, resulting in the deaths of at least six adults from 2012-17.

such pods to be candy, resulting in the deaths of at least six adults from 2012-17.

Furthermore, from 2013-17, there were over 56,000 (10,000 in 2017 alone) reported cases of human exposure “for kids 5 years old and younger, to single-load laundry packets...” In fact, the Center for Disease Control released a statement in 2012 discussing possible health hazards posed to children by such laundry detergent pods, stating that “Health-care providers should be aware that exposure to laundry detergent from pods might be associated with adverse health effects more often than exposure

which had increased ... Consumer Reports has seen no evidence that the raw number of accidental exposures has decreased.”

The underlying problems posed by detergent pods — namely, their striking similarity to candies towards the young and mentally impaired — have been known for at least half a decade.

Yet, it was the “Tide Pod Challenge” in 2017 which received extensive national and global coverage — while coverage of such products prior to the emergence of this challenge received more muted headlines. Although the outlandish coverage of the “Tide Pod Challenge” is no doubt at-

tributable to its absurd nature (and incredibly deadly consequences compared to more benign Internet challenges), mainstream media outlets can — and should — focus on the long-term impact of introducing such detergent pods to the general populace, and their possible effects on young children and those beset with dementia.

The overall coverage of the “Tide Pod Challenge” serves as an indicator of mainstream media outlets’ tendencies to exaggerate the impact of more outlandish or unique events.

Though useful in obtaining ad revenue, this focus on shocking events means that more common issues facing the American populace — an opioid epidemic that the Trump administration has yet to take any concrete action against, or accelerating temperature increases — fail to receive extensive coverage, despite their national (and global) implications.

WILLIAM WONG is an opinion columnist for The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at opinion@cavalierdaily.com.

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HUMOR RAISINS. The wrinkly old relatives of grapes. Do you like grapes? Plump, juicy, round, delicious grapes? Well then you’d love a dried out, shriveled up version of them! That is what raisins are. (How do you like them grapes? Haha! No? Okay.) You know those commercials about the dangers of smoking, that have the voice over of the guy who’s a smoker, and they show the pictures of what they looked like when they were young, then at the end of

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CHAMPION OF THE RAISIN CAUSE the commercial you see them now and they look just terrible, and their skin is loose and wrinkled but they’re only 45 years old or something? Well raisins are pretty disgusting. I mean, who even thought of raisins? Who thought to take a grape, this round, purple fruit, and then squeezed all the life and goodness out of it and only then ate it? Who thought, “This grape thing is good, but what would really make it great is if it were a lot smaller, and a lot less plump and juicy?” I don’t know.

And why raisins? Who came up with that name? Well apparently, the name dates back to Middle English and was originally borrowed from Old French. But get this, today, the

word “raisin” in French means “grape.”

And the word for raisin is “raisin sec” which literally means “dried grape.”

And honestly that makes more sense than just calling it the word for grape in French. So we have raisins. They’re a thing. And for better or worse, it doesn’t look like they’re going anywhere any time soon.

Now let’s talk trail mix. The only place I can really even tolerate raisins is in trail mix, and even then I’m not happy about it. But I’m not about to pick all the raisins out of my trail mix because what do I do with them after that? Throw them away? Or what, do I give them to someone? “Hey! Could I interest you in a sweaty handful of

dried up grapes?” And while we’re at it, let’s just address how raisins came to be in trail mix to begin with. I guess people were just hiking and thought, “You know what would really hit the spot?

Some nuts.” But of course you can’t just have a handful of nuts without mixing in some M&M’s. And then raisins? I guess? They say the greatest discoveries are made by accident. Well I can’t imagine why anybody would intentionally leave a grape out to dry, and then still want to eat it afterwards — let alone mix it with nuts and M&M’s and take it with them to eat on a hike.

Look, I’m not trying to start a national dialog here about the pros and cons of raisins, but if it happens it

happens. Does that make me a hero?

Probably not. A hero of sorts? Arguably. All I’m saying is that I won’t stop anybody from calling me the “Champion of the Raisin Cause,” or some similar nickname. I’m not trying to take a stance. I’m not trying to change anyone’s minds on raisins. Or even those yogurt-covered raisins. Or even the Sun-Maid monopoly on the raisin market. Raisins are a thing. And they are a thing that exists. Thank you.

JESS MILLER is a Humor columnist. He may be reached at humor@ cavalierdaily.com.

THE MEANING OF LIFE, DISCOVERED AT 7:30 A.M. It was like any other Tuesday morning — my roommate did not exert himself until his first class at noon, leaving me once again to resist the urge to ignore my 8:00 a.m. and drop out of school. My one solace that manages to get my feet moving each morning is that when I reach the bathroom of our hall, the other local species will be stumbling about, well on their way to fulfilling their dreams in their 8:00 a.m. Calculus class.

And yet, this one particular morning was destined to be something different. Upon opening the 500-pound bathroom door, I was greeted by a familiar crowd of drowsy intellectuals, barely opening their eyes enough to know the difference between a sink and a toilet. But upon closer inspection, I realized that this morning, the bathroom was rather alive with activity.

As usual, my neighbors were trodding in and out of the cattle showers, trying to exert their dominance

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CARTOON

over the rest of the herd by playing their music the loudest. This is not uncommon to be happening at halfpast seven, and often everyone is too drowsy to care about the genre being broadcasted. However, on this morning of destiny, two roommates — who routinely bicker in the evening hours when everyone is trying to sleep — were in fact choosing to settle their differences at the crack of dawn.

This triggered a chain reaction throughout the rest of the ecosystem.

Spurred by the grating noise of opposing viewpoints this early in the morning, instead of lingering in the shower like many do when contemplating the consequences of going back to bed, several of my neighbors cut their thinking time to a minimum and retreated to the sinks.

It was here that an unusual gathering occured. On most days, the congregation around the four communal sinks is limited to two at a time, creating a rather satisfying balance of even-

ly-alternating sink use. I’m told this practice is often employed in prisons so as to avoid unwanted exchanges of opinion on early mornings. However, on this day, my retreating comrades found themselves shoulder to shoulder with their fellow inmates. Proving my incarcerated hypothesis, this resulted in some rather intriguing bits of commentary about the manner in which one another chooses to get themselves ready.

One exchange in particular altered the course of my morning and stayed with me for the duration of the semester. As one Jeffersonian was mid-lather on his right cheek, a halfclothed scholar inquired, “Do you have the time?” He was surely inquiring as to how fast he will have to run to make it to the chemistry building without making too much of a ruckus upon arrival. And yet, our half-shaved friend did not hear the entirety of the question, igniting a chain of mental assumptions that are quite unhealthy

for that hour of the day.

“Uh, I’m pretty sure I have enough time to shave...”

As you probably can now infer, Student #1 misheard Student #2’s inquiry, registering it as a condescending commentary on his time management skills — “Do you have time (to be doing that)” — rather than the intended request for a glance at his watch — “Do you have the time”.

This misunderstanding was quickly resolved, and everyone plodded on to fulfill their daily undergraduate duties, but the significance of this exchange was not lost on me. It is incredibly rare, possibly even extinct, for one student to bother themselves to care about the schedule of another, since college students are often wrapped up in keeping up with their own schedules, not to mention those of their fellow classmates. And yet, upon accomplishing my morning routine in the bathroom, I exited into the hall, thoroughly inspired to care more for the

general well-being of my compatriots.

Can you imagine what the world would look like if, when you saw an acquaintance in a harried state begin to shave himself with just a handful of minutes before class, you intervened, asking in a soft tone, “Are you sure that you have the time to do all of that? I’m worried you might not make it to your class on time, and your creepy stubble looks fine anyways. Have a great day!”

Your friend would respond, “In fact, I believe you might be right. Thank goodness someone is looking at the clock. Have a great day as well!”

Undoubtedly, this is inconceivable behavior for 18-year-olds living adjacent to 20 other strangers, but until then, maybe a little bit of looking out for your neighbor can’t hurt.

WALTER SHARON is a Humor columnist. He may be reached at humor@ cavalierdaily.com.

BY MIRA DU PLESSIS

THURSDAY, JANUARY 25, 2018

P

15

WEEKLY CROSSWORD PUZZLE Dan Goff | Arts and Entertainment Editor

PUZZLES

*THE SOLUTION TO THIS PUZZLE CAN BE FOUND IN NEXT WEEK’S ISSUE Across

EVENTS

Thursday 1/25 Women’s Basketball vs. UNC Chapel Hill, 7pm, John Paul Jones Arena Ballroom Dance Club Presents: Free Dance Lessons, 8:459:45pm, SAC Miller Center Presents: President Trump at One Year, 3:305pm, Miller Center for Public Affairs Friday 1/26 Student Council Presents: Winter Activities Fair, 11am-2pm, Newcomb Hall HackCville Presents: Open House, 4-6:30pm, HackCville UPC Presents: It Film Screening, 7-9pm, Newcomb Theater McIntire Department of Music Presents: Impulse Festival Concert, 8-10pm, Old Cabell Hall UPC Presents: Vine Trivia, 9-11pm, OpenGrounds FYP Presents: Anything Goes Auditions, 1-9pm, Newcomb Theater Saturday 1/27 Men’s Tennis vs. Texas Tech, 10am, Snyder Tennis Center Men’s Tennis vs. Columbia & Ole Miss, 2pm Snyder Tennis Center FYP Presents: Anything Goes Auditions, 10am-1pm, Newcomb Theater Saturday Special Tour: From the Grounds Up by Richard Guy Wilson, 2-3pm, The Fralin UPC Presents: It Film Screening, 9-11pm, Newcomb Theater Sunday 1/28 Men’s Tennis Consolation Match, 10am, Snyder Tennis Center Men’s Tennis Championship 1pm, Snyder Tennis Center McIntire Department of Music Presents: Rivanna String Quartet, 3:30-5pm, Old Cabell Monday 1/29 Miller Center Presents: Eyewitness to History with Pete Souza, 1-3pm, Newcomb Hall UVA Career Center Presents: Medical Application Meeting, 5-6pm, Career Center UVA Career Center Presents: UVA Semester Plan, 12-5pm, 1515 University Avenue UVA Career Center Presents: Veterinary Medicine Application Meeting, 6:30-7:30pm, Career Center Tuesday 1/30 UVA Career Center Presents: UVA Semester Plan, 12-5pm, 1515 University Avenue Wednesday 1/31 Men’s Basketball vs. Louisville, 7pm, John Paul Jones Arena UVA Career Center Presents: Spring Job & Internship Fair, 10am-3pm, Newcomb Hall

1

1. Not liquids or solids

10

6. Event that ended with 32down on Saturday

15

2

3

4

5

6 11

23

24 28 31 33

16. "Ethically made" clothing company American ___

40

17. FL. university or brand of hat

48

34

14

22 26

29

30

32 36 41

42

37

49

50

38

39

43

46

44 47

51

52

53

55

54

57

56

19. Latin for "and others"

21

35

45

18. Unpleasantly, repugnantly

13

25

27

15. When a broadcast is transmitted

9

18 20

19

12. Becomes rotten

8

16

17

10. Type of eucalyptus tree two words

7

12

58

59

20. Term for launch of Normandy landings 22. Native American tribe for which a Western state is named 23. Discourage 25. Stiff, hair-like structure 26. Decay of organic matter 27. Tried again 29. Liars 31. Fiasco 33. Cherubic, divine 36. English composer of "Enigma Variations" Edward ___ 40. Popular singing show or club 41. Thought or suggestion 43. Makes crippled 45. More than a little words

two

46. Chemical compound and subject of "Silent Spring" 47. Sit, relax 48. Northernmost African state 51. Canadian province that houses Ottawa

54. Art of formal, public speaking

8. Height, physical or societal

55. Enduring over a long period

9. One who inherits 10. "Simon Birch" is ___ on "A Prayer for Owen Meany"

56. What you might do to score better on a test past tense

C A M U S

G R A M

R E M O D E L

T R A D E R

A D E N O M A

E N D U S E R

R E E L

A B D U O N A R T A E S S H

M A L M Y A R I C D E S A T F A S C H G E I S

37. Ancient region of Asia Minor in modern-day Turkey

11. Fixes, as a garment

38. Person who is in love or writes about love

57. Establishes working relations

12. Excessively zealous person

39. Replaces the backing of something, as a canvas

58. Imperfections on a car, maybe

13. Rents a property for a further period

40. University of Florida mascot

59. Male equivalent of group involved in six-across

14. "Everyday People" group ___ and the Family Stone

Down

21. Spoiled the surface of something, often a book

1. Popular decoration of those involved in 32-down

24. Catchy 2015 Twenty One Pilots track

2. Made of or resembling gold

28. Where to buy cold cuts and cheeses

3. Resolved an argument

30. "For Whom the ___ Tolls" Hemingway novel or Metallica track

4. Emblematic shield associated with Zeus or Athena

6. Able to be given back, in terms of money 7. Agency through which packages are mailed

N O W H E R E

T R E G E S A S T S T P Y E L T R E W S O M A J A N O P I R E G S H

O C T A V E S S A G U A R O

42. Ring-shaped coral reef 44. Works hard over a period of time 49. Black powder from chimneys 50. Annoys 52. Variant spelling of a word meaning inexperienced 53. Emperor of Russia pre-1917

32. One-down-filled event that signifies end of sixacross

5. Type of wrestling with Japanese origins

33. Powerfully attracted 34. Newborn child or mammal

*THIS IS THE SOLUTION TO LAST WEEK’S PUZZLE

J O C O S E

35. Three-word expression for "have sex" also part of a T. Rex track title

T A U T E R

S P R I N G

G R A T E R

R A R E S T

S E C T S

A B Y S S

CORRECTION In the Jan. 17 edition, a Health & Science article entitled, “Science Policy Initiative inspires graduate students,” mistated the name of a January Term course as, “Introduction to Science Policy.” The correct name is, “Science, Technology, Engineering and Public Policy.” Additionally, the article mistated the name of Schmidt Sciences, calling it The Schmidt Family Foundation.

THE CAVALIER DAILY

A& E ARTS &

ENTERTAINMENT

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Impulse Festival to feature Wadada Leo Smith Organizer of the upcoming festival discusses the interdisciplinary arts event Henry Harris | Senior Writer

The McIntire Department of Art and the McIntire Department of Music are coming together to host the Impulse Festival of Improvisation. The festival, which began this week, will feature four concerts, an art opening, a student jam session and more. The headliner of the week is Wadada Leo Smith and the Golden Quintet, a jazz group led by Downbeat Magazine’s 2017 Jazz Artist of the Year.

The festival centers around a four-part concert series, all focused on improvisation as well as varying styles and genres. The first concert will take place Friday night and is titled “Origins,” featuring performances by the University Baroque Orchestra, the University Jazz Small Group and the Swaraprabha Hindustani Classical Indian Vocal Ensemble.

This incredibly diverse lineup, including musical roots coming from all over the world, will provide an excellent introduction to the weekend of music.

The festival continues on Saturday afternoon with “Meditations,” a concert featuring individual performances of violin, guitar and piano. The pianist, Anthony Davis, is a member of Wadada Leo Smith’s band the Golden Quintet. The focus in this concert is solo improvisation –– rather than watching an en-

tire band, the audience will have a chance to intently focus on the nuances of one individual’s performance.

The third concert is called “Conversations,” featuring the improvisational ensembles AZUL, EcoSono Ensemble, and the University New Music Ensemble. Acting as a contrasting response to the individual acts of the second concert, “Conversations” will focus on the interplay of musicians and instruments as if they were “conversing” with one another. AZUL features jazz trumpeter John D’earth, the director of the University’s Jazz Studies program, who has also contributed on several recordings with the Dave Matthews Band.

The finale of the concert series and the climax of the festival itself is a multimedia performance combining the music of Wadada Leo Smith and the Golden Quintet with corresponding imagery of National Parks from around the country. The concert is titled “America’s National Park” and will take place Saturday night in Old Cabell Hall.

Attendees can expect a boldly experimental jazz performance, which Smith himself describes as “Creative Music.”

Asst. Arts Administration Prof. George Sampson helped to combine the residency of Wada-

da Leo Smith with the Impulse Festival and had a few words on what he brings to the festival.

“This residency, in discussion and planning since February, 2017, will bring our students and members of the Charlottesville community a master African American jazz musician at the peak of his powers,” Sampson said.

Sampson also noted the relevancy of Smith’s African-American and Southern background in relation to recent events in Charlottesville.

“His upbringing in segregated Mississippi provided a perspective he has never lost and makes his achievements as a trail-blazing musician and theoretician about art in general all the more

substantial,” Sampson said.

“This residency will give UVA and Charlottesville a special opportunity to appreciate how art can inform and educate on the oblique; rather than hitting one head on, its power to transform sometimes lies in a common space of abstraction and metaphor that is accessible to all.”

COURTESY WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Wadada Leo Smith will headline the Impulse Festival with a Saturday night performance in Old Cabell Hall.

The disconcerting elegance of ‘Phantom Thread’ Paul Thomas Anderson inspires more questions than he answers Robin Schwartzkopf | Senior Writer The tortured genius is a character well-suited for the screen.

Dissecting the life of a social pariah, misunderstood but harboring immense talent, represents a stylistic opportunity as a director and, for the audience, a fascinating window into a complicated psyche. Reynolds Woodcock of “Phantom Thread” — a couture fashion designer in 1950s London — is fictional, but the tension built by director Paul Thomas Anderson feels real. Visually and sonically, “Phantom Thread” is close to perfection. Narratively, the film suffers from the inevitable question of a “tortured genius” story — is extraordinary talent an excuse for indecent behavior?

Reynolds acts childishly — married to routine, afraid of

change, in need of tender care but inattentive to the emotions of others. His exasperating lifestyle, while compelling, inspires little sympathy. His muse, Alma — a waitress he meets at an inn in the country — is his stubborn counterpart, a woman pulled into Reynolds’s finicky world but never fully absorbed.

The tension builds in the film — the audience waits for Reynolds to unravel. There is a layer of payoff at the end of movie, but the story feels far from over.

“Phantom Thread” inspires an uncomfortable kind of mulling — after over two hours of heightened tension, the film leaves an eerie feeling in the pit of the stomach.

“Phantom Thread” is beautiful, and it is a love story, but it is

not a beautiful love story — perhaps it was not meant to be. And while the lead actors in this film — Daniel Day-Lewis as Reynolds and Vicky Krieps as Alma — are singularly brilliant, their chemistry as a couple faltered at times when it could have elevated the film. This could partially be due to the stylistic choice of inserting pregnant pauses mid-conversation, which built dramatic tension but did little to develop any sense of sexual or romantic attraction between the two leads.

However, the slow pace of the film is not wholly detrimental.

It possesses a deliberate style, turning what could be a period-piece snooze into a surprising, white-knuckle drama. While the narrative tends to lag, time does

not feel wasted on lingering shots of gowns, faces and perhaps the most visually appealing omelette ever displayed on the big screen.

It’s also — purely stated — a stunningly crafted film with exquisite costume design and art direction, accompanied by a perfectly timed, subtly disconcerting score and meticulous sound editing.

Paul Thomas Anderson’s direction is purposeful and enchanting, while his shot construction alluring and distant. The rare warmth between Reynolds and Alma, as well as Reynolds’s sister Cyril — the most underrated character in the film by far and played with charming stoicism by Lesley Manville — provide moments of levity amidst the rigid elegance of the storytelling.

So, can Reynolds be forgiven for his outward pretension and disdain bordering on abuse? Does his fictional story carry more or less weight than a biographical film would? Was Paul Thomas Anderson thinking about any of these questions, or did his narrative get lost in the production of a truly stunning film? The individual audience member can decide.

At the beginning of the film, a poised Alma informs Dr. Hardy — and the audience — that she has given Reynolds what he desires most — “Every piece of me.” For two hours and after the credits roll, these words settle with distinct unease — a complicated, problematic twist on a familiar story.

THURSDAY, JANUARY 25, 2018

H&S HEALTH & SCIENCE

For Assoc. English Prof. Charlotte Matthews, writing poetry became a way of reclaiming power after battling against stage three breast cancer. Eager to share her experience with other women affected by cancer, Matthews worked with filmmaker Betsy Cox to launch Whistle Words, a multidimensional project consisting of writing workshops, online anthologies and an upcoming documentary film. “[Writing poetry] felt empowering because so much of cancer diagnosis and treatment is passive,” Matthews said. “To be able to actively do something restored me to a sense of true self.”

Matthews frequently wrote her poetry on a 1949 Corona typewriter, acknowledging that each key’s satisfying “clack” reinforced the release of a burden. She listed specific reasons as to why the typewriter became an important component of her writing process.

“The first reason is that I cannot be tempted when I’m on my typewriter to go into the vortex of Google and start looking stuff up,” Matthews said. “Number two: It slows me down because my fingers are not strong enough [for the typewriter].”

Former instructor in the University’s English Department Kiera Allison explained that the process of revising and rethinking — into which the typewriter forces Matthews — is inherent to gaining control over an experience.

“For my students, it’s in the drafting and revision because once they have the words on the page,” Allison said. “They can look objectively at what they have and revisit it. That’s where the mental processing happens.”

Matthews centered her writing workshops around this idea of empowerment through reflection and re-examination. The workshops were previously held at Olivet Presbyterian Church and the Martha Jefferson Hospital and soon to be held at the Emily Couric Clinical Cancer Center.

A participant in the Olivet workshop, Mitzi Ware, recalled that one of Matthews’s prompts was “I remember,” which had to be answered in two pages. Another prompt asked the participants to write about their mothers.

“The freedom of the prompts helped me come up with different ways to navigate,” Ware said. “I was frozen after my cancer treatment because that was my total focus, and this was a way of bring-

17

From pain to pen: writing and healing U.Va. English Prof. Charlotte Matthews creates writing workshop for cancer patients Mahima Reddy | Staff Writer ing my thoughts back to life — revising them almost.”

Like many participants, Ware didn’t write poetry prior to attending her first workshop. She lauded Matthews for her ability to create a safe and comfortable workshop environment for everyone, regardless of writing experience. Ware said Matthews’s excellent leadership skills enabled the workshop participants to work past their inhibitions to writing.

Ware’s positive workshop experience is supported by research that shows the emotional and physical health benefits of writing with deep feeling. According to a study published in Psychosomatic Medicine, patients with HIV infection who wrote expressively demonstrated improved immune system function when compared to the control group. Another study in Behavioral Sleep Medicine showed that insomniacs who wrote about their problems and worries fell asleep faster than their counterparts who did not write.

The themes of Matthews’s initiative — hope, humanity and healing — complement a well-established tradition maintained by physicians-writers.

According to Daniel Becker,

Director of the Center for Biomedical Ethics and Humanities at the School of Medicine, writing expressively about medicine and the process of healing dates back many centuries — before modern research techniques could attribute the benefits of evocative writing, like poetry, to health.

In what Becker calls “accidents of fate,” physicians — the other side of the healing equation — found it inevitable to write about their medical experiences.

“If you read the ‘Iliad,’ you get the feeling that Homer knew a lot of pathology,” Becker said. “Most great literature has to do with love and death, and to a great extent, that is what clinical medicine is about — keeping people alive and understanding what they’re going through.”

Marcia Childress, director of programs in humanities at the School of Medicine, further explained why physicians turn to writing in addition to practicing medicine.

“Taking care of people with life-threatening illnesses is not easy, regardless of one’s comfort at taking the patient’s circumstances to heart,” Childress said. “Doctors need outlets for reflecting on the nature of the work they do and

the people they come to know in very intimate ways.”

Both Becker and Childress note how writing helps physicians stay open, resilient and less likely to burn out. As a result, the School of Medicine has taken initiatives to integrate the humanities with the traditional study of medicine. For example, fourthyear medical students can opt to take an elective called “Literature and Medicine.”

“We know that the capacity of making moral reasoning, the ability to understand the horrible things people do to each other, is not fully developed until late twenties,” Becker said. “We admit 22-year-olds to medical school, so we encourage people to be reflective in this way.”

However, the tendency to reflect creatively may not always carry over to the examination room in an obvious manner.

How physicians and patients approach the topic of writing when together may vary, according to Childress. Patients and doctors may exchange writings about each other, but often times, the patient may choose to share his or her work only with family members.

Childress specified that pa-

tients may not share their creative work with doctors because doctors may not openly show their receptivity to expressive writing.

However, doctors who are familiar with creative, therapeutic endeavors like Whistle Words may recommend that their patients take up writing in addition to their normal treatment.

Whether a patient or physician, writing expressively provides a path towards emotional and physical healing.

“The act of writing is a reminder of our human significance,” Matthews said. “Even if one is very sick, it helps remind of bigger reasons of why we’re here, so we’re not only the patient but a human being of respect and dignity.”

The website for Hospital Drive, the literary magazine of the School of Medicine, is one way people can learn more about creative writing that focuses on health and illness. In addition, Whistle Words will be offering free online workshops every Sunday evening at 7:00 pm starting Feb. 4. website In addition, Whistle Words will be offering free online workshops every Sunday evening at 7:00 P.M. starting Feb. 4.

COURTESY MISTY MAWN

Artwork pairs with poems written by patients in the Martha Jefferson Hospital workshop (left) and the U.Va. Cancer Center workshop (right).

COURTESY KRISTEN REXTER

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THE CAVALIER DAILY

HEALTH & SCIENCE • www.cavalierdaily.com

Engineering School attempts to overcome ‘memory wall’ School of Engineering and Applied Science awarded $27.5 million to solve computing obstacle Cecily Wolfe | Staff Writer The School of Engineering and Applied Science recently received $27.5 million in funding to help solve a growing problem in technology — segregated memory and processing data centers in computers. The Center for Research in Intelligent Storage and Processing in Memory, the program name for the University’s efforts, aims to create integrated memory and processing systems, redesigning traditional hardware and software.

Since 1945, when renowned computer scientist John von Neumann established the basic framework of computer architecture, data storage and processing mechanisms have remained separate. Now, however, processing advancements progress at a much greater speed than ones for data memory and transfer. This so-called “memory wall” has created a bottleneck, as processors mine data faster than it can be stored and delivered for analysis. In other words, because processors work at a higher speed than memory centers and circuits, they sit idle as they wait

for more data to be retrieved from storage.

“It is increasingly inefficient for processors to actually get to the data that they’re computing on,” said Kevin Skadron, chair of the Department of Computer Science and the head of CRISP. “Our goal is to attack this bottleneck and tightly integrate the processing and the data. That means tightly integrating the memory, the processors [and] the physical storage.”

Skadron also commented on the widespread implications of CRISP, citing real-world applications such as mining genetic data for cancer markers, currently hindered by the inability to quickly transfer large packets of data for processing.

“We’re using several applications, you know really big data, grand-challenge type of applications to help guide our research and make sure that the solutions we come up with are really effective,” Skadron said. “This is going to be relevant for any data-intensive application, where accessing

the data becomes a bottleneck, so really the whole space of what you might consider big data computing — big data in medicine, business analytics [and] national security, etc.”

CRISP is part of a larger initiative spearheaded by the Semiconductor Research Consortium, which brings together universities, technology companies and government agencies to tackle some of the most pressing technological issues of today. The Joint University Microelectronics Program, a program within the SRC, received numerous proposals for virtual centers to examine critical microelectronics challenges in 2017, but selected only the six top universities — including the University — for a portion of the $200 million dollar award.

Over the next five years, the University will look to test various hardware and software strategies in order to eliminate the barriers between memory and processing functions, destroying the memory wall that causes the delay between data storage and

evaluation.

“The center will really be looking to ‘pull the computers back,’ we call it, all of the different layers to make sure that not only do we come up with good hardware solutions, but that we come up with new software support so that it doesn’t get harder for programmers to write their code,” Skadron said. “Identifying the most promising computer architecture is really an essential first step, because so much else depends on which directions that looks likely to go.”

Mircea Stan, a professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering with extensive experience in constructing energy-efficient 3-D chips and circuits, will focus primarily on the physical components of CRISP’s new approach.

“The impact, if we are successful, is that you are going to have computers work faster and more efficiently, while at the same time consuming less energy and generating less heat,” Stan said. “...By raising the memory wall that’s

inherent in the way computers are designed and built now-a-days, the goal is really to bring memory and processing closer together in both a physical sense, but especially in a logical way.

That way, there isn’t such a fixed demarcation.”

In addition, students will have opportunities to participate in CRISP. The grant will fund approximately 12 new doctoral students and provide content for research and classes on both the graduate and undergraduate levels. Craig Benson, dean of the Department of Engineering, emphasized the importance of faculty and students working as a team on the project as well as its scope.

“With our faculty and our students, we are right in the middle of developing this next generation of knowledge and technology for this area, which is in the center of everything we do today,” Benson said. “Our students and our faculty are going to be responsible for developing that science that drives the future of the technology.”

Students learn about disaster preparedness in West Indies January Term public health class offers chance to earn course credit while abroad Navya Annapareddy | Staff Writer

COURTESY UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA

Students taking PHS 2810/5810 had the opportunity to hike mountains in St. Kitts.

While fall and spring semester classes form the core of the academic year at the University, January Term classes allow students to take a wide range of courses for credit during the final two weeks of winter break.

Many of the programs of study are taught abroad. J-Term public health class PHS 2810/5810, “Disaster Preparedness in St. Kitts and Nevis,” was held in a dual-island nation situated between the Atlantic Ocean

and the Caribbean Sea. J-Term classes can be both offGrounds and domestic, such as a New York-based media studies course MDST 4559, “Journalism in NYC.” However, most classes are held on Grounds and paid for by the credit hour.

Assoc. Public Health Sciences Prof. Wendy Cohn served as the program director for PHS 2810/5810.

She believes J-Term classes like the

one she manages are a valuable offering.

“J-Term is a great way to immerse yourself in a course for two weeks and get three credits,” Cohn said, “It’s particularly well suited to travel courses.”

According to Cohn, PHS 2810/5810 is accessible to students regardless of major or school and is advertised in numerous ways, including through the International

Studies Office and the study abroad fair. All students can apply Interested students must complete an online Education Abroad Workshop before initiating the application process. Then, students can search for programs by major, location and language of instruction through the International Studies Office website and ultimately register through SIS once their application is approved.

“Disaster Preparedness in St. Kitts and Nevis” is intended to teach the fundamentals of public health and disaster preparedness. Cancer prevention was one of the unique focuses in the 13-day course this year.

Every day, half of the class is dedicated to lectures covering topics of public health research, health disparities, social justice, emergency care and CPR training and population health improvement.

Second-year College student Sydney Williams took the course this past J-Term session and found it a convenient time to study abroad.

“I wouldn’t be missing out on any classes that I needed to take at U.Va.,” Williams said. “I am interested in going into to medicine and … public health. This was a great way for me to explore those interests.”

As for the proportion of lecture to hands-on experiences, both Cohn

and Williams agree it is a balanced ratio.

Cohn noted that mornings are usually reserved for didactic work and lecture while the rest of the day is designed to give students a degree of cultural exploration.

“We spend a lot of time working with the locals and spend as little time as possible in the hotels,” Cohn said. “This year we went to the Carnival — an annual cultural celebration with food, music and a parade.”

Williams’s most notable experiences of the trip, including visiting an orphanage in St. Kitts and attending a church service in Nevis, were both educational and cultural.

“A lot of us earned CPR certification,” Williams said. “We also got to be a part of a press release to announce the implementation of the HPV vaccine.”

Overall, Williams said that she recommend the class to fellow students.

“I think it was pretty cool that the work we did on the island is actually going to be helpful in the prevention of cervical cancer,” she said.

“It’s great for anyone who is interested in public health and would like to make an impact on the communities in which they study.”

www.cavalierdaily.com • HEALTH & SCIENCE

THURSDAY, JANUARY 25, 2018

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Cervical Health Awareness Month emphasizes prevention HPV vaccinations reduce cervical cancer rates in women, provide benefits to men Nisha Dabhi | Senior Writer Cervical cancer is one of the most common and debilitating cancers that affects women.

According to Dr. Linda Duska, an obstetrician-gynecologist at the University’s Health System, there are about half a million cases globally of cervical cancer in which mortality rates are as high as 50 percent. In the United States alone, there are about 12,000 cases of cervical cancer a year, of which result in the deaths of about 4,000 women.

However, with early vaccination and regular screening, cervical cancer is avoidable. Efforts to increase awareness about its prevention can help bring down the rate of incidence in women and provide other benefits to men. To increase education about cervical cancer as well as its prevention and treatment, Congress designated January as Cervical Health Awareness Month.

According to Mayo Clinic, cervical cancer is a type of cancer occurring in the cervix, the lower part of the uterus that connects to the vagina. When an abnormal group of cells grow in the area, the cells may develop the ability to metastasize, or spread to other parts of the body, causing a malignant form of the cancer. Initially, no symptoms are seen, but as the cancer invades other areas of the body, symptoms can later include vaginal bleeding or pelvic pain.

According to Duska, although different types of cervical cancer can be induced by a number of environmental factors, most types of cervical cancer are caused by a particular virus called the human papillomavirus.

“99.99 percent of cervical cancers we think are caused by HPV,” Duska said. “You don’t get cervical cancer without being exposed to HPV infection.”

HPV is a group of viruses that includes more than 100 different types of strains, of which, at least 13 of these strains — particularly types 16 and 18 — have been found to cause 70 percent of cervical cancers and precancerous cervical lesions. This virus is usually transmitted by means of intimate skinto-skin contact or sexual interaction with someone who has HPV. According to Duska, most people who have been sexually active have been exposed to this virus at some point in their lives. However, a majority of women with HPV do not develop cancer.

“We know that we are getting exposed to the virus and are clearing it but we do not know why some people develop cancer and others do not,” Duska said.

Therefore, since many are exposed to HPV, which has the potential to produce malignant cancer, there have been focused efforts to increase awareness of ways to improve treatment of cervical cancer through early-detection screenings, as well as receiving the HPV vaccination.

According to the World Health Organization, screening

of cases of cervical cancer as well as deaths related to cervical cancer have dropped, as many women are getting these tests.

Getting the HPV vaccine is another measure that helps prevent cervical cancer transmitted through HPV. This vaccine is the first working vaccine that has been successful in preventing a particular type of cancer. The

get it to the younger age group is that we are trying to get folks vaccinated before they reach what we call sexual debut,” said Jessica Malpass, an assistant professor of nursing and pediatrics.

Boys are also encouraged to get the HPV vaccine. One reason for this is because HPV can cause other types of cancers such as anal, oropharyngeal and head

is recommended for all women between the ages of 30 to 49 at least once in their lifetime, but ideally more frequently. A common type of screening test is the Pap smear, in which cells from the cervix are gently scraped to be examined. This procedure is able to find signs of cervical cancer early when it is small and easier to cure. Early detection of cervical cancer improves the five-year survival rate for women with cervical cancer to 91 percent compared to 17 percent if the cancer is found too late. Since the introduction of Pap smear screenings, the number

vaccine comes in two doses and targets HPV types — such as 16 and 18 — that are known to be the most common causes of cervical cancer.

According to Duska, for the last decade, there has been a big push to get younger girls, particularly those between 11 to 12 years old, vaccinated. This encouragement stems from the fact that the vaccine only works on HPV strains that a person has not been exposed to because the vaccine does not treat existing infections or HPV-associated diseases.

“The reason that we try to

and neck cancers, as well as genital warts.

“Not only does the vaccine help prevent men from having other types of cancers — like oropharyngeal cancer — but if more men are vaccinated, fewer women are going to get cervical cancer,” Malpass said.

There are a few side effects of the vaccination as well. For one, the vaccine is intramuscular, so receiving it is uncomfortable and potentially painful. In fact, there are reports of teens fainting upon receiving the vaccination.

“We ask people to sit for a lit-

tle while after they get the vaccine,” Duska said.

According to Duska, media reports that link the vaccine to death and Guillain-Barré syndrome are not supported by the medical literature and the federal government — which investigates every death that may be vaccine-related — has found no deaths associated to the HPV vaccine.

Since the HPV vaccine is a recommended vaccine, it is mostly available even to those with financial difficulties via Medicaid and different state programs.

“There are different state programs called Vaccine for Children and the ACA and other measures helped to strengthen these programs, so the vaccine is free for those who cannot afford it,” Malpass said. “It is covered by insurance, but if you don’t have insurance, you can still get it by different programs if you are within a certain age group.”

Others who pay out of pocket can also come to the University’s hospital and undergo financial screening to see if they are eligible to receive the vaccine at a decreased cost.

In Charlottesville, many efforts are underway to help spread awareness about cervical cancer.

The University’s Cancer Center has helped fund prevention centers, connect people with resources to get vaccinated and raise awareness by sponsoring a viewing of the movie “Someone Like Me,” which follows a woman’s story with cervical cancer.

To increase awareness about cervical cancer this month, Malpass and Duska believe that more primary care physicians, pediatricians, and community members with adolescent and younger children need to be better educated about cervical cancer and the HPV vaccine. Increased understanding about these topics can help to refute misconceptions and fears.

“I think the biggest thing we can do honestly is bringing down the stigma,” Malpass said. “One of the reasons that people find it as a barrier is that people thought that by getting the vaccine, it gives the message … that it’s okay to be promiscuous and have sex. We have studies that say that’s not true.”

Students can get the HPV vaccine through the Elson Student Health Center.

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