The Cavalier Daily
Vol. 131, Issue 14
Thursday, March 18, 2021
MARTHA WILDING | THE CAVALIER DAILY
2019
CHAMPS
Virginia returns to March Madness almost two years after NCAA title Pages 9-13
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The Cavalier Daily
NEWS
This week in-brief CD News Staff
Jewish students denounce Student Council candidate comments
The Inter-Sorority Council announced in a statement Friday that they will resume in-person activities in strict compliance with University and state health guidelines. The statement was circulated internally by Clare Scully, ISC president and third-year Commerce student, and comes after both the Inter-Fraternity Council and ISC banned in-person gatherings Feb. 26 after both organizations faced criticism on social media for permitting in-person recruitment events. “Your due diligence over the past two weeks played an important role in overcoming the previous surge and seeing numbers subside,” the statement read. “Taking such measures are difficult, but the numerous downward trends are optimistic indications that we are on the right track.” The IFC continues to maintain a ban on all in-person gatherings through the end of March. In the statement, the ISC told members not to “support or attend” these events as any in-person fraternity events are in violation of IFC policy.
Jewish student leaders denounced recently-surfaced antisemitic comments made by Gavin Oxley, Student Council presidential candidate and third-year College student, in a letter Wednesday. In the comments, which were made in response to a pro-life Instagram post, Oxley compared abortion to the Holocaust, calling abortion “the greatest genocide of all time.” The letter was written by Jewish student leaders and has garnered 50 signatures from individuals representing organizations including the Jewish Leadership Council, the Jewish Law Students Association, J Street U, CavPAC, Challah for Hunger and Hoos for Israel. “Antisemitism is on a stark and terrifying rise throughout the United States,” the letter said. “In the face of such hate, it is our shared responsibility — both Jewish and non-Jewish — to call out antisemitism wherever it exists. Speech such as Mr. Oxley’s is dangerous and serves to perpetuate antisemitism in our community. Antisemitism, in all of its forms, has no place at the University of Virginia.” In a statement to The Cavalier Daily, Oxley said that he stands by his comments. “When read in full context, it is clear that the comparison used was not to diminish the tragedy that was the Holocaust, taking the lives of 6 million innocent children of God,” Oxley said. “This comment was instead clearly meant to promote the seriousness of abortion, which claims 125,000 innocent lives of the children of God every day. A life is a life. Simply put, there have been more deaths counted from abortion than the Holocaust.”
U.Va. increases outdoor gathering limit to 10, indoor gathering limit will remain at six
U.Va. reports 1,680 total spring cases, of which 1,447 are students
The University increased its outdoor gathering limit to 10 individuals following declining case counts and positivity rates in the last several weeks, according to a Spring 2021 Update email sent March 11. The gathering limit for indoor events will remain at six and beginning Friday, U.Va. Dining facilities will also begin to operate at 30 percent capacity and students may sit together in groups of four, an increase from the previous limit of two. Provided that organizations have a COVID-19 mitigation plan in place, students, faculty and staff are also permitted to volunteer with groups operating within the Blue Ridge Health District. Previously, the University limited volunteer activity to vaccinated individuals volunteering as emergency medical technicians or firefighters. Despite the relaxed restrictions, University leadership warned that it is still just as important for University community members to continue following masking requirements, social distancing guidelines, gathering limitations and travel restrictions — even if one has been vaccinated for the virus. “These changes are good news and a direct response to the much-improved conditions at U.Va.,” the email said. “They are not a sign, however, that we are completely out of the woods. The threat of another spike in cases remains real, and if trends worsen, we will have to impose more strict public health measures again.”
Since Jan. 1, the University’s COVID-19 tracker has reported 1,680 positive cases of coronavirus in the University community, which includes faculty, staff, students and contracted employees. University students make up 1,447 of these positive cases. Feb. 16 marked the highest number of daily reported cases since Jan. 1, recording 230 positive cases in the University community. Since the spike in cases the week of Feb. 15 — when the University reached a record-high percent positivity rate of 4.12 percent and a seven-day average of 112.3 cases per day — cases have steadily declined. As of Wednesday, 40 cases are active. There is currently a 0.18 percent seven-day average positivity rate, which refers to the percentage of people who obtained positive test results out of all people tested, and a seven-day average of 3.7 new cases per day. These numbers are only reflective of students who have tested positive through the Student Health & Wellness or the U.Va. Health Clinic. The dashboard also reports that 2 percent of the student quarantine rooms are currently occupied while 1 percent of the student isolation rooms are occupied.
Inter-Sorority Council announces plans to resume in-person activities
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Liu, Oxley discuss campaign visions at Student Council presidential candidate forum Third-year College students Abel Liu and Gavin Oxley fielded questions from The Cavalier Daily and community members at the fifth annual Student Council presidential candidate forum Monday night, which was co-hosted by The Cavalier Daily, University Board of Elections and the U.Va. Democracy Initiative’s Student Advisory Council. Throughout the forum, Liu and Oxley addressed their leadership priorities, dynamics within Student Council and the role of student self-governance in promoting diversity and inclusion and supporting students during the pandemic. The two agreed that mental health is one of the top three issues facing students today. Liu stated that mental health is his top priority followed by college affordability and the inability of students to influence policy decisions. Oxley, on the other hand, believes that disjunction of the social environment and a lack of qualified leadership are two other important issues, with the lack of qualified
leadership being the most pressing issue at the University. When asked about freedom of speech on Grounds and in Student Council, Liu brought up the new Lawn room policies that were implemented after some alumni and community members last fall called for the removal of Lawn room signs that contained profanity and criticized the University’s history of enslavement. Liu expressed his desire to meet with the Vice President and Chief Student Affairs Officer and Dean of Students to reevaluate the new policies and placed particular emphasis on freedom of political speech, referencing his goal of creating a new Arts and Political Education Fund. Oxley stressed his desire for Student Council to be a “center for free speech,” which he claimed it hasn’t been for the past year because “people who are involved in [Student Council] place themselves on a higher standard and are trying to tell people what is protected speech and what isn’t protected speech.”
The final question of the debate asked the candidates to differentiate themselves from their opponent. Liu pointed to his knowledge about the tactics and mechanics behind making policies, having served as Student Council representative prior to running for president and successfully lobbied and passed legislation in the past. Liu also emphasized his platform that aims to involve marginalized student groups in Student Council and claimed he is “the only candidate in recent student council history” well trusted by these groups. Oxley pushed back against Liu’s point by defending his own qualifications. He claimed that he had never interacted with Liu before this debate and that Liu was in no position to speak on his qualifications. He urged voters to message him if they had concerns about his qualifications and ended by stating that he was “coming in to fix our school without tearing it apart.”
NEWS
Thursday, March 18, 2021 | 3
The following candidates did not respond to their respective surveys: STUDENT COUNCIL — Tristan Williams, Gabriela Hernandez, Bela Bhatnagar, Nina Santana, Jakob Martinez, Tyler Busch, Booker Johnson, Christian Ephriam, Akshitha Kalavakonda, Robert Brown, Jay Moody, Cooper Scher | UJC — Ania Szantruczek, Nabeel Raza, Noa Kipnis, Allegra Stewart, Samy Dahman, Nijat Khanbabayev, Donna Reynolds, Austin Amacher, Adam Younger, Max Nardi | HONOR — Savannah Holmes, Lucian Mirra, Kunal Chauhan, Joshua Fogel, Caitlin Kreinheder, Meghan Wingert, Christopher Benos, Deepa Patel, Robert Brown, Christina Rodriguez
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NEWS
Student Council presidential candidates share platforms The voting period began Wednesday at 10 a.m. and will close Friday at 4 p.m. Jee-Ho Kim | Staff Writer Two Student Council presidential candidates — third-year College students Abel Liu Gavin Oxley — began campaigning Friday. Oxley is campaigning as a solo candidate while Liu is on the same ticket as uncontested candidates third-year College Cecilia Cain, who is running for vice president for administrations and second-year College student Ryan Cieslukowski, who is running for vice president for organizations. A presidential debate hosted by The Cavalier Daily, the University Election’s Board and the University’s Democracy Initiative took place Monday. Voting for all student elections — which includes candidates for Student Council, Honor Council, University Judiciary Committee and Class Council — opened Wednesday at 10 a.m. and will close Friday at 4 p.m.
“The People’s Needs” — Gavin Oxley Oxley has leadership experience as the current president of the Association Council for Bond House, a self-governing body that consists of representatives from each residence hall tasked with building community among residents. He also serves as a board member of the Society of Culturally Competent Pre-Health Students, a contracted independent organization that discusses healthcare issues and volunteers locally at the Charlottesville Free Clinic. As ASCO president for Bond, Oxley has dedicated himself to creating dorm-wide social events that are accessible to everyone, such as a Braille-friendly scavenger hunt to support Bond’s population of students with disabilities, according to Oxley. Oxley said that he is running for president because he has been disappointed with Student Council this year, specifically in how it did not do enough to support tuition cost, mental health issues and academic resources like tutoring. “They have done very little for the student body as a whole, and what has been done were band-aid solutions to much more serious problems,” Oxley said. Although Oxley has not held a position in Student Council, he said he finds that to be a benefit because if elected, he would hold office without feeling “bogged down” by past legacies and biases about the organization. “I can come in and really focus on the priorities of people who aren’t a part of Student Council while people who are a part of it and are seeking to stay a part of it want to further their own agenda,” Oxley said. When asked about what he thought the biggest issue at the Uni-
versity was, Oxley focused on lack of mental health resources and in-fighting within Student Council. At a meeting March 2, Nickolaus Cabrera, first-year College student and Student Council representative, abstained from a vote on a resolution that denounced violence against the Asian Pacific Islander Desi American community and announced his intention to propose legislation protecting University monuments, resolving to end “cancel culture” and beginning Student Council meetings with the Pledge of Allegiance. These actions prompted a Twitter dispute between Cabrera and Ellen Yates — current Student Council president and fourthyear College student — as well as other executive members. Oxley said moments like these have hindered Student Council’s ability to serve effectively. In regards to recent Zoom bombings of Student Council meetings and the organization’s newly enforced security measures, Oxley said that the enforced Netbadge login is a great idea and noted he would want to expand on the implementation by working with IT services to ensure a balance is found between keeping meetings transparent and private to harassers. Oxley said that he aims to be a leader who handles issues according to the wishes of the student body and wants to steer Student Council away from administering through its own political lens. This is another concern Oxley has with the current administration generally.
COURTESY GAVIN OXLEY
Oxley is the current president of Association Council for Bond House.
profit,” he said. “Imagine what could be accomplished if some of that profit was put towards expanding CAPS for us.” In response to calls from students to improve CAPS, Oxley said he would implement a feedback form to
Post-pandemic life University President Jim Ryan has said that he expects more, if not all, classes to be in person this fall, and Oxley wants to ensure students have a smooth transition back to in-person learning in a post-pandemic world.
They have done very little for the student body as a whole, and what has been done were band-aid solutions to much more serious problems. “Being a Student Council president would be putting the people’s needs before the political ideologies of the members of Student Council,” Oxley said. Mental health As president, Oxley said he would look to support mental health resources — which he characterized as a “time-sensitive” issue due to a general increase in mental health problems during the pandemic — primarily through expanding Counseling and Psychological Services by increasing the number of CAPS counselors and lowering the cost for CAPS services. CAPS currently employs less than 30 mental health professionals, and its service charges are covered together with all Student Health service costs by an $842 comprehensive tuition fee. If elected, Oxley said he anticipates payments for his proposed changes to come from the University and donors. “The school, currently, is run for
incorporate student suggestions on how services are run. Tuition Oxley also said he would pursue reimbursements for students this academic year. Last March, Student Financial Services refunded students living on Grounds for dining and housing costs when instruction moved online and students were asked not to return to Charlottesville. “The school has taken away so many amenities, but is still charging the tuition costs of a pre-pandemic experience, which is not fair to the student body,” Oxley said. Oxley said he would also push for a tuition freeze for the upcoming 202122 and 2022-23 academic years. The Board of Visitors will meet to discuss a proposed tuition increase April 13. At a public comment meeting Feb. 17, students spoke out against a tuition hike, which would be anywhere from 0 to 3.1 percent.
Currently, only 27 percent of classes offer an in-person component. In particular, Oxley plans to focus on alleviating social anxieties that would accompany a return to a fully in-person semester in addition to the stress that would arise with moving away from open-note tests, which some professors have chosen to implement this year. Oxley singled out firstand second-year students in particular as those who may face these issues in upcoming semesters, as they have had the least amount of experience with a non-pandemic University life. “Speaking from personal experience, school online is a totally different challenge than being in person,” Oxley said. If elected, Oxley said he would incentivize students to take part in group social meetings during the fall through programs similar to HOOS Connected — a University program that connects first year and transfer students each week to socialize and
help them adapt to life at the University. He would also implement a student search system for study buddies, allowing students to connect with classmates in the same courses. This search system would be privy to University students only with Duo authentication, such as the University’s Internal People Search service, which serves as a directory for University students, faculty and staff. Oxley also hopes to implement a program in the fall that gradually works students towards getting back into the rhythm of closed book exams and normal exam conditions. He hopes to work with professors on being more “intentional” and “compassionate” in planning tests. Oxley resolves to support CIOs in becoming more active, a component of student life that he feels Student Council has failed to fully fund. “[CIOs] have certainly suffered from the pandemic and not being able to serve their members,” he said. Despite the restrictions on gatherings, many CIOs have adapted to public health guidelines by continuing activities virtually and in socially-distanced settings. Oxley welcomes student feedback and questions on his social media campaign profiles.
Thursday, March 17, 2021 | 5
NEWS “A New Era of Student Governance” — Abel Liu Liu, together with Cain and Cieslukowski, runs his platform on three pillars — equity, empowerment and renewal. Liu began his career in student governance as a first-year representative and has since held positions in various Student Council and University Board committees, including the Financial Accessibility Committee and the Ad-Hoc Committee to Support Student Workers. Liu is currently serving his second term as chair of the Student Council representative body, meaning that he oversees representatives from all undergraduate and graduate schools. “In that role, I try to teach my representatives how to negotiate and bargain with the legislation that we’re able to pass,” Liu said. Liu cited three recent achievements he spearheaded as most significant to the student body. Last spring, Liu co-founded the U.Va. Mutual Aid network, which has since distributed nearly $60,000 to support students during the COVID-19 pandemic. He also successfully lobbied for the credit/general credit/ no credit option for this academic year — the University announced the grading change for last fall semester Oct. 9 and the continuation of the grading system for January term and the spring semester Nov. 9. Lastly, Liu said his work as creator of an equity-oriented COVID-19 reopening working group helped secure pay for student workers at the beginning of the pandemic and ensure wellness days this semester. In place of spring break — which was canceled to limit student travel to and from Charlottesville this semester — the University implemented four break days, during which all classes are canceled. Liu emphasized his belief that Student Council is a “collective bargaining agency,” not an entity with “direct jurisdiction” over University policy. “We’re not governing, we’re bargaining,” he said. Although Liu said he is passionate about his work as chair of the representative body, he believes that holding office as president would allow him to expand his vision of a “reformed institution” to help students. From his experience in student self-governance, Liu said he has built relationships with CIOs and administrative officials that would help in implementing policies. “I’m proud that I’ve cracked the code on how to use Student Council effectively to actually get things done for people that make a difference in their lives,” Liu said. Liu said that the biggest issue at the University is the lack of student voices in the University’s decision making progress, citing poor support for resident advisors this year as one example. Student self-governance, Liu said, should ensure that administration listens to students — especially marginalized students. “I will not back down from taking on issues that are also part of our
national conversation because they might be divisive,” Liu said. “I think that it’s necessary for us to talk about reparations for the descendants of enslaved laborers at U.Va., and it’s necessary for us to talk about discrimination against LGBTQ students.” Regarding polarizing Student Council meetings this year, Liu noted his duty to remain impartial in his role as chair during meetings — which is not the same obligation for Student Council president — but added that division within Student Council is not just an issue of differences in opinion. “First and foremost, there’s a difference between diversity in opinion and protecting free speech and racial dog whistling, gaslighting or doxxing Black and brown students online,” Liu said. One recent topic of debate was over Cabrera’s failed legislative proposal addressing harassment of Young America’s Foundation members. Following YAF’s release of selectively-edited videos of a November Student Council meeting that criticized legislation recommending a strike system for professors accused of acts of bias and discrimination, threats of physical violence were made against Student Council members. Liu hopes to introduce standards of conduct for representatives during meetings to ensure they act respectfully. “I don’t think very many students would have an issue with the idea that
COURTESY ABEL LIU
Liu is currently serving in his second term as chair of the Student Council representative body.
off-Grounds housing. Liu looks to create a grant program incentivizing professors to reduce course material costs by employing free textbook alternatives in class, for example. He has worked with an on-Grounds nonprof-
its ties to Aramark and investments in fossil fuel industries. Aramark manages the University’s dining services and employee contracts and has been criticized for its poor employee treatment. During the shift to online learning last
I’m proud that I’ve cracked the code on how to use Student Council effectively to actually get things done for people that make a difference in their lives. if your actions are leading to death threats for your colleagues, you should not be allowed to represent the student body,” he said. Equity Liu plans on launching a Crisis Assistance: Helping Out on the Streets program this fall in partnership with the Equity Center, Housing and Residence Life and fellow students. The CAHOOTS program would divert funds from the University Police Department to CAPS, with the goal of moving towards employing crisis workers and emergency medical technicians in non-violent situations, rather than police officers. During crisis situations in dorms, RAs often are required to call the University Police Department. “The purpose of the CAHOOTS program is to actually keep students more safe by making sure that students who need immediate help don’t have to worry about being taken into police custody or put in handcuffs, which might be a deterrent from them receiving the help they need in a mental health crisis,” Liu said. Liu also wants to ensure that mental health care is affordable for all by increasing funding for CAPS through endowments and donations with no additional cost to students. To increase affordability, Liu has proposed plans to lower prices for course materials, health insurance and
it called The College Scoop to secure a $10,000 grant to set up a textbook loan system. “My motivation is to make attending U.Va. more affordable,” he said. “I focused on textbooks because the problem is indicative of the steep inflation [costs] associated with attending college in the U.S.” Another goal of Liu’s is to make the Aetna Student Health Plan more affordable with a grant program and an extension of the payment from three to six months. All students attending the University are required to have health insurance, and the University-offered Aetna insurance is one way to meet this requirement. Additionally, Liu plans to advocate for affordable off-Grounds housing with his proposal to create a fair rent pledge with Charlottesville and Albemarle County landlords, which would express support for price ceilings and reduced rent increases. Over half of all undergraduates live off Grounds. Other initiatives include incorporating a prayer space in Observatory Hill, pushing for state legislative action against queer discrimination in religious organizations and financially supporting transgender health care at the University. Empowerment Liu said he envisions a more ethical future in University management. He calls for pushing the University to end
year, some University dining workers were laid off without severance. The University of Virginia Investment Management Company — which manages the University’s endowment — invests University funds with the goal of generating long-term financial benefits. UVIMCO has faced student scrutiny for its divestments in fossil fuel and Liu also expressed concern over the company’s lack of transparency. “The fact that we have no idea what’s in our nearly $10 billion endowment is a problem,” he said. In regards to student life, Liu wants to create an Arts and Political Education Fund for students empowered to create politically expressive art. His platform notes that the Student Council’s Arts Fund is often not enough to support every student who requests funding for art projects. Liu hopes to start with distributing a total of $5,000 per semester. He also plans to lobby for the translation of University financial and legal documents into Mandarin and Spanish and expand access to menstrual products in bathrooms. Renewal If elected, Liu would move existing Student Council services — such as the Community Food Pantry and Student Legal Services — to a new Support and Access Services Branch, allowing for greater support and effectiveness.
Liu plans on creating or reintroducing other initiatives in the branch as well, including financial support for students applying for Student Disability Access Center accomodations and a textbook loan system for first-generation and low-income students. The Next Steps Fund — which was created with the goal of paying for two sessions with a therapist outside of CAPS — would be revived with $50,000 used to cover up to three outpatient counseling sessions for students under the Aetna Student Health Plan. Liu has been working on Next Steps since he became a representative in fall 2019. “I’m confident that I’ll be able to reinvigorate the portfolio and reinstitutionalize it in Student Council because, frankly, I’m three quarters of the way there thanks to the work I’ve done over the last two years,” he said. More information on Liu, Cain and Cielukowski’s platform can be found on their website.
UBE investigating Oxley for potential campaign violations UBE is currently investigating Oxley’s campaign for potential violations, including spreading misinformation about Liu’s campaign and beginning campaigning before the period began. The alleged campaign efforts in question were largely catered to Inter-Fraternity Council and Inter-Sorority Council chapters and made false claims that Liu’s platform favored punishing or disbanding Greek life on Grounds. Liu has since clarified that he does not support abolishing Greek life. If evidence is brought forward that reaches “the threshold of significance and specificity” found in UBE’s investigation procedure and rules, then the organization will begin its disciplinary process. .
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The Cavalier Daily
LIFE
Pico Wrap is a student-athlete favorite for burritos This hidden gem on Ivy Road is one of the Bennetts’ favorite spots — enough said Maddie McNamee | Food Columnist Most weekend mornings I wake up with Bodo’s Bagels on my mind. There is just nothing like bacon, egg and cheese on an everything bagel when the stress of class and excitement of the weekend has caught up to you — or at least, that’s what I used to think. Now there is a new front-runner for my heart and stomach, and it’s Pico Wrap. Even though it opened in December 2018, I had never heard of this burrito spot until I read an article in which Tony Bennett’s wife cited it as one of her top dining spots in Charlottesville. Then, after we won the National Championship for men’s basketball, I read another story saying it is the exact spot where Tony Bennett met up with Ty Jerome after the 2018 firstround loss in the NCAA Tournament. I now firmly believe it is the power of Pico Wrap that gave the men’s basketball team the encouragement and fuel they needed to win it all the next year. Accessibility I trust any food review from the Bennetts, especially since Tony Bennett is actually from my mom’s hometown in Wisconsin, and we all happen to share the same favorite local soft serve spot — according to the people who serve the ice cream there, at least. I knew I just had to try Pico Wrap, but still, two years later, I had been unable to make the time, and this goal of mine was pushed to the back burner. That is, until last weekend. Part of the reason I had never been is because its location is not exactly near Central Grounds — it’s a 22-minute walk, tucked farther down Ivy Road past the Alderman Road intersection. From the intersection, it is easy to spot after you reach the Townside Shopping Center on your left, and the restaurant is wheelchair accessible since there are no steps to the store front. The only other people I had heard rave about Pico Wrap were my student-athlete friends. It clicked that their frequent visits were likely due to its convenient vicinity to JPJ. Pico Wrap is hard to miss if you are visiting JPJ on the regular, but for any other student it’s more of a hike. Weekday hours are 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m., but on Saturdays it is only open from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., so make sure you get your brunch in while you can.
MADDIE MCNAMEE | THE CAVALIER DAILY
Pico Wrap burritos capture the stomachs of athletes and coaches alike.
While I was there, the setup felt COVID-19-safe, as the line was spaced out appropriately for distance, and everyone inside was wearing masks. There was indoor seating available, as well as a table outside too, but I chose to take my meal home. In my opinion, eating a burrito can be a messy experience best saved for the privacy of your own home, but I also still try to avoid eating inside when possible because of COVID-19. Pico Wrap made me feel safe with their guidelines and accessibility in ordering to-go. They offer delivery on GrubHub, so if you still do not feel like driving in the Ivy direction, then this would be a suitable solution. Appeal One of my student-athlete friends would not stop boasting about Pico Wrap, so I finally decided to tag along with him this past weekend. I now must admit this might have to be a weekly tra-
dition for myself now. They serve a variety of build-your-own wraps, bowls and salads — but you really have to go there for their breakfast burritos. They are served until 1 p.m., so even if it has been an extra rough morning, you can probably make it down Ivy Road for this cure to your ailment. After 1 p.m., they solely offer wraps with ingredients that would more commonly be in sandwiches, like cold cuts, cheese varieties and chicken salad, in addition to other salads, bowls and soups. I ordered the simple egg and cheese, while my friend ordered the chorizo option, which comes with scrambled eggs, potato and cheese. I was also tempted by the “Eli’s special,” which comes with scrambled eggs, spicy chicken, tortilla chips, cheese and sour cream. I decided to go simple with my base since it was my first time there, and I chose to load up on toppings instead.
Atmosphere The setup is similar to Chipotle, where you choose your base, then choose toppings down the line. The interior and overall vibe is fast-casual, so no worries if you want to show up in your pajamas or finest sweatpants — no one is judging here. I ended up adding potatoes, fajita veggies, pico de gallo, a tiny bit of sour cream, guacamole — for an additional cost of $1.25 that was ever so worth it — and a final flourish of Texas Pete hot sauce. Affordability Most of the toppings — save for a select few, such as guacamole — are at no extra charge, so it is feasible to craft a loaded, filling burrito at a relatively slim price. The burritos are only around $4 anyway, so splurging on guacamole is no big fright to your wallet here. The total for two burritos, both with guacamole, and two
drinks was only about $15, which is a steal to me. Not only are the burritos cheap, but they are also huge and beyond tasty. I was absolutely stuffed as I finished mine, but every bite was worth it. I don’t think I can go back to a bagel or toast ever again when there are breakfast burritos as flavorful as Pico Wraps available. Instead of whining for the Bodo’s on Preston every weekend, my roommates may now be forced to hear cries for Pico Wrap each morning. There’s no need to feel guilty about the amount of calories and grease in one of their breakfast burritos because it’s what the athletes eat. If they’re eating it, then it must be healthy, right? If you want to eat like a student-athlete, your first stop is Pico Wrap. If Tony Bennett loves it, then I guarantee you’ll love it too.
Thursday, March 18, 2021 | 7
LIFE
Top 10 excuses for not having U.Va. win your bracket I mean, there’s money on the line here Ben Rosenthal | Top 10 Writer
have you watched 7. “Dude, going deep undercover as 1. “I don’t like to mix business with 4. “I’m game this semester?” a Duke fan.” pleasure.”
This is just about the cleanest excuse you can put on the table. Say you will root for U.Va., but that you want to hedge your bets a bit in the event of an early knockout. Clarify that if U.Va. and your money team go head-tohead, you will pull for U.Va. with utter devotion. Pleasure comes first, and business comes second. Most people will accept this justification, and while they may make fun of you behind your back for lacking a spine, you deserve to live with the fact that they’re right.
“In order to beat the enemy, you must become the enemy.” Winston Churchill said that — as far as anyone would know. Nobody would call you out on it if you attributed that quote to him. And he might have said it. But I digress. In order to understand rival teams such as Duke, Virginia Tech and the other miscreants of the earth, we must send a few agents undercover — such as I did in 2019 — to document and process their evil ways. Fun fact — I put Duke as the winning team back in 2019 — the year we actually won. I lost my bracket and got deservingly bullied.
5. “One of the team managers cut me in line at the Arby’s drive-thru.”
Maybe it is a personal vendetta. Perhaps one player or affiliate of the U.Va men’s basketball program is your sworn enemy. Because I do not want to get accused of stirring the pot, I have never actually been cut by a team manager while in the Arby’s line. But if I had been, it would be a valid excuse not to root for the entire team, right? You just can’t get between a man and his Arby’s. We all know that.
a
The cold, hard reality is that the Cavaliers have seen better days. And don’t get me wrong — we have certainly seen worse. 18-6, first in the ACC and Jay Huff’s amazing, jealousy-inducing facial hair all point to a successful season. But March Madness is tough, and we have had a few games where, quite frankly, we haven’t looked quite up to snuff. So, if you’re brave enough to possibly get slapped, just go with some honesty.
8. “Look, I’m broke and want $5.”
If the above line wasn’t quite low enough for you, add in the fact that you’re motivated by capitalist greed. Admit that you are a dirty, disloyal coward who — when push comes to shove — will sell their soul to chase the money, regardless of the source. Even if it means looking the Cavalier in their big, beady, beautiful eyes and telling them you just don’t believe.
ANISHA HOSSAIN | THE CAVALIER DAILY
financial advisor told me to 2. “My back Illinois.”
If sarcasm is your love language and realism isn’t an issue, toss out this little quip. If you feel obligated to follow the honor code, you can take the extra step of actually hiring a financial advisor and getting their advice on the college basketball landscape. The caveat to that is, unless you’re gambling in some high-stakes league, however much you’d be paying said advisor is probably more than the $50 pot you’ve set up with your high school friends.
ANISHA HOSSAIN | THE CAVALIER DAILY
9. Throw out any sort of basketball statistic
ANISHA HOSSAIN | THE CAVALIER DAILY
3. “Oops, must’ve clicked the wrong 6. “I don’t want to put that kind button. Can’t change it, darn!” Another safe option is blaming a combination of technology and chunky fingers. When somebody points out to you that you have U.Va. losing in the third round, pretend that this is the first you’ve heard of that. Pull up your bracket and — brace yourself — put on the best acting performance of your lifetime. “What? I did? But how! Did I misclick? I must have. Because there’s no way — I’m the biggest fan. Oh, it’s locked? I can’t edit it? No! Noooooooooooo!”
of pressure on the boys.”
A wholesome excuse. “I just don’t want Sam out there on the free-throw line, worrying about my little old bank account. I don’t want to put that evil on him.” There’s already so much pressure on student athletes, after all. Why add more? In fact, maybe it would be selfish to place a bet on U.Va. I know that if somebody put a bet on me, I would almost certainly let them down.
If you’ve made it this far through the article without realizing that I don’t know anything about U.Va. basketball, here’s me letting you down easy. I’m the epitome of a casual fan — I know the names of seven or eight of the players, I know my dad thinks we suck this year, and that’s about it. But if you have any sort of concrete, statistical evidence, be my guest. Nerd. While you will never impress me personally with your knowledge of Kody Stattmann’s free-throw percentage, you are welcome to try.
is illegal. You’ve got 10. “Gambling the wrong guy.” If all else fails, just feign ignorance. “Sports? Betting? Nope, can’t do that. Not trying to get behind bars. No, I’m not @BenRosenthal44.” If you commit hard enough to this obvious lie, your friends will probably stop talking to you about March Madness, and you can put your money on Kansas in peace. The only downside? I’ll be right here to call Honor on you.
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ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT Different March Madness, different hype playlist There aren’t going to be watch parties this year, but that doesn’t mean the feeling of excitement has to disappear Kyndal Harrison | Magazine Editor
The beginning of March Madness is just around the corner. Usually, there would be a sense of growing excitement around Grounds. Students would host or attend viewing parties and foster intense conversations about the likelihood of the basketball team winning the National Championship again. A lot has changed, and Virginia’s chances of even being in the tournament were recently in jeopardy. With clearance to play, here are some songs to listen to as Virginia prepares to enter the NCAA Tournament. “Ready Set” by Kash Doll featuring Big Sean Whether you are watching the tournament alone or with your roommates — a mood setter is absolutely necessary. Listen to “Ready Set” as you prepare your favorite
game-day meal and snacks. This song celebrates the big payoffs that come with patience. After being deprived of the basketball season last year, students and athletes finally have the opportunity to enjoy the collegiate season’s grand end. “DICTATOR” by REI AMI Hitting harder than the previous tune, “DICTATOR” is a confidence booster for everyone. Yes, REI AMI raps that she’s better than a queen because she is a dictator — but political power-correctness aside — this song is for those who need a little self-inspiration. It definitely won’t be the theme of the NCAA Tournament, but it oozes a certain kind of confidence other songs don’t quite exude.
“Invitation” by Ashnikko featuring Kodie Shane Have you ever had that annoying person that just won’t leave you alone? They just ruin the vibes you are trying to put out. Well, Ashnikko has created the perfect anthem for you. When people try to come into your court and tell you how things are going to be played out, this song will remind you they aren’t supposed to be in your space in the first place! “Zoom” by Leikeli47 The big beats in this song can get even the meekest fan hype for the tournament. “Zoom” exudes quieter boss energy, but that is okay because people flex power in different ways. The lyrics of Virginia native Leikeli47 add punch to what would otherwise be just a popular TikTok song
.“Money” by Leikeli47
“Big Fish” by Vince Staples
To keep the boss vibes around — enter “Money” next. This song, also from the wildly underrated Leikeli47, is about working hard to earn and keep prizes you deserve. A particularly good line is “I had to work like Kobe just to shine like Russell.” Sometimes, the rewards come a while after the work is done.
The penultimate song on the playlist is about getting what you want. The 2017 hit by Vince Staples is an unfazed ode to being the biggest fish in the pond. If you want a song to tap your foot to, “Big Fish” might have you moving more than you expected.
“BOZOS” by Tobe Nwigwe featuring Big K.R.I.T. This tune is a slower entry for the playlist, but it’s about embracing the weirdness within. Typically, people discourage being a clown, but Tobe Nwigwe and Big K.R.I.T. encourage you to truly be yourself. Their message is that life is too short to try to assimilate. The greatest people don’t blend in with the crowd.
“Sway With Me” by Saweetie featuring GALXARA Now, this last entry is pure party material. The electronic bass and the amazing vocals by GALXARA make you wanna get loose. “Sway With Me” is from what should be a cult classic film, “Birds of Prey,” but that discussion is for another article. It is the perfect song to end with as the tournament begins!
‘We can stop there’ — Jos Charles’ poetics of vulnerability The award-winning poet virtually visited with the Creative Writing program Joanna Clark | Senior Writer The University’s creative writing department hosted Pulitzer-nominated poet Jos Charles for a reading and panel discussion. During Charles’ week-long virtual residence — made possible by Elizabeth Rea and The Dungannon Foundation — she conducted individual manuscript consultations with students in the Master of Fine Arts program in poetry and spoke via Zoom with creative writing faculty, Brian Teare and Kiki Petrosino. Charles is the author of the collections “Safe Space” and Pulitzer-nominated “feeld,” which was selected by Fady Joudah as a winner in the 2017 National Poetry Series. The celebrated transgender poet and editor has a wealth of accolades tagged to her name — including, but not limited to, the 2016 Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Fellowship through the Poetry Foundation and the 2015 Monique Wittig Writer’s Scholarship. She is currently a doctoral candidate at the University of California, Irvine and is working on yet another manuscript. Throughout the reading Charles was open about her writing process, highlighting the experience of fatigue and the beauty of a work in progress.
Kyle Marbut, an MFA candidate at the University, introduced Charles, lauding her ability to create “a space for queerness and transness and possibility,” and the unique qualities of her writing that allow for “humor and devastation, irony and sincerity and vulnerability and distance.” Following Marbut’s introduction — which ended with an amusing misquote of Oprah, stating, “She is the friend that everybody deserves. I do not know a better poet” — Charles began her reading. In the spirit of “givingness,” as Charles called it, after working with the University’s MFA students and workshopping new pieces Charles offered the audience readings from an unpublished cycle of sonnets titled “A Night Cycle” and a piece she is currently working on. Charles also offered up several of her hailed poems from “feeld” — a revolutionary book of poetry that uses Chaucerian style Middle English to examine gender, society, the self and the pastoral. Charles read quite a few of her serial poems in “feeld,” beginning with the first in the book, which ends with the powerful lines, “alarum is my nayme / unkempt & handeld i am hors / i am sadeld / i am a brokn hors.”
She spoke on gender and societal expectations for women in the 47th poem from “feeld,” “this is wut makes us grls / thining bye the houre.” It is a magical thing to hear Charles read while holding her book in your hands — to see the old made new again. Perhaps one of the most haunting lines from the reading — and from “feeld” as a whole — comes from the 57th poem, where Charles says, “did u kno not a monthe goes bye / a tran i kno doesnt dye / just shye off 27 / its such a plesure to be alive.” As with every Zoom experience, the webinar came with the vulnerability and sincerity of seeing someone speak from their home, with all of the background noise that comes with it. For Charles, this meant the sound of a piano playing somewhere in the distance and the constant murmur of neighbors through the walls. However, the background noise did not take away from the reading. If anything, it added a bit of comfort to the incredible intimacy of Charles’ poetry — to hear reminders of the rest of the world as she recited an echo of a world of loss, sadness and the haunting nature of isolation. Charles’ first reading came from
a currently unpublished sonnet cycle, which is an addendum to another sonnet cycle of hers, as well as “a kind of echo, meridian version” of a poem she wrote in 2016 called “A Year.” Charles drew similarities between 2016 and 2020 — both alienating years with loss, death and isolation. Throughout the question and answer and panel discussion, Charles had a tendency to speak around questions — starting with what she could say, without actually saying it, and then going in another direction. The redirections in conversation brought references to trips to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art as a 12-yearold and childhood Sunday school memories — somehow avoiding the direct vulnerability of an answered question with the equally vulnerable recollection of a childhood memory. Charles’ insights certainly spoke to Marbut’s point from earlier in the night, as she has mastered the ability to be both vulnerable and distant at once. Charles has a unique ability to speak and to read in an incredibly arresting way — her voice is soft, and she takes her time with her words, ensuring that each and every word is held, while still maintaining a bound-
ary between herself, the work and the audience. Her last reading of the night was of an in-progress poem that has not quite reached its final form. She finished with a deeply powerful repetition of the line, “I love you, I love you, I love you,” and then said, “We can stop there.” Although Charles ended her poetry reading with the simple statement of “We can stop there,” the power of her poetry does not. It dives into the past and muses on the future, ensuring it will always hold its space. Her poems in “feeld” and “A Night Cycle” rework and reclaim the language and expectations of the past, but they also nestle inside of the reader, providing those echoes of our personal and societal histories. Professor and fellow poet Teare said it perfectly when opening up the question and answer section of the webinar, “I am always very aware of my physical self when I’m with your work.” To listen to Charles read, or to read her work yourself, is not just to experience poetry, but to let it hold you and slip inside of you. When you are with Charles’ poetry, you are existing in a continuum of history and possibility — of form, of originality and the self.
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LOTHROP: What makes Virginia basketball so successful An examination of the Pack Line defense and the Blocker-Mover offense Connor Lothrop | Sports Columnist Virginia’s men’s basketball team has had an unprecedented decade of success. In the last 10 years, the Cavaliers have appeared in all but one possible NCAA Tournament, won five ACC regular-season championships, a pair of ACC Tournaments and a National Championship. Those 10 years were more successful than the rest of the program’s history combined. This elite span has coincided with the arrival of Coach Tony Bennett. Under Bennett, the Cavaliers have adopted deliberate and efficient approaches on both ends of the floor — the Pack Line defense and the Blocker-Mover offense. The basics of these systems are well known to those who watch Virginia basketball. However, it’s worth diving into the nitty gritty of these systems to understand how the Cavaliers play and how they will look when their tournament starts Saturday. The Pack Line Defense Long before data science invaded NBA front offices and locker rooms, Tony’s father, Dick Bennett, realized the value of choking off the easiest and most efficient shot in basketball — shots close to the basket. At its core, the Pack Line’s job is to make sure those shots never occur. The elder Bennett’s solution to this problem was to use one defender to hound the ball handler while the other four defenders hover in a tight arc on an imaginary line about six feet from the three-point line. This creates a wall which prevents offensive players from driving or cutting into the paint while still allowing the defenders to quickly transition to guarding a man or contesting a jumper. If an opponent gets the ball in the middle, then the four off-ball players all have license to crash the paint and wreak havoc. The Pack Line has two main types of defenders — on-ball and off-ball. The on-ball defenders are often smaller, quicker players like junior guard Kihei Clark. The on-ball defender’s job is to funnel the ball into the teeth of the four defenders in the wall. When done well, this forces the attacker to either pass, throw up a bad shot or commit a turnover. The off-ball defender’s job is a little more complex, but takes a lot less energy than hounding enemy guards. Their job is to wall off any attempt by the offense to move a person or the ball into the lane. They are also, however, secondarily responsible for helping one pass ahead — that means that the off-ball defenders are never really guarding a man, but the gaps between
two men. This puts them in position to help instantly if another defender loses his assignment. When one of those men gets the ball, the on-ball defender applies pressure, and an off-ball defender pulls a move called a stunt — a maneuver that allows the defender to appear as if they’re in two places at once. When the offensive player receives the ball, the help defender takes a jab step towards him to give the player the illusion that he is about to be double-teamed. This forces the offensive man to make a quick decision about how to get rid of the ball. The defender, though, drops back into a passing lane instead of fully committing to the double team. The Pack Line is very strong against almost every type of offense. Its dependency on team cohesion means the whole team needs to have a bad night for the system to break down — someone is always in a position to help. It doesn’t require players to have elite physical gifts either, just a high basketball IQ. Most importantly, though, the Pack Line gets its strength from forcing teams to work especially hard to get efficient shots like three-pointers and layups. The Pack Line has weaknesses, though. It is vulnerable to players who can get hot shooting from deep — think Syracuse junior guard Buddy Boeheim, who went 5-8 from three and nearly burned the Cavaliers in their last matchup, or Purdue junior guard Carsen Edwards’ 10-19 night that nearly bounced Virginia from the 2019 Elite Eight. Skilled playmakers like those two can also pass and dribble out of help and find open shooters with good skip passes that bypass off-ball defenders. Overall, though, the Pack Line is a very strong college defense that Virginia runs at an elite level. The Blocker-Mover Offense Like the Pack Line, the Blocker-Mover offense was developed by Dick Bennett in Wisconsin. Also like its defensive brother, it is very rarely used in the NBA — with only teams based around heavy ball movement daring to emulate it. The basis of the Blocker-Mover is motion. Almost every single player is in constant motion, cutting, screening and passing in a circular motion in an attempt to create an open layup of three. There are two types of players in the Blocker-Mover — blockers and movers. Movers are usually guards who are more focused on scoring and playmaking. They move around
HANNAH KETT | THE CAVALIER DAILY
the court constantly, taking screens from blockers and attempting to create open looks for themselves and for teammates. For a good example of a mover, think Ty Jerome and Kyle Guy in 2019, flying around screens whipping the ball around the horn. Blockers are generally bigger players who are more defensive-minded — the Jay Huffs and Jack Salts of the world. On offense, blockers are responsible for setting picks to open space for movers. If blockers are left open or someone shoots, the big boys have full license to crash the boards and grab easy points. If a smaller defender switches onto a bigger blocker, then the ballhandler can pinpoint that mismatch and find the big man down low for a post-up. At the Blocker-Mover’s peak, the blockers and movers work in harmony on the Wheel play, a staple of the scheme. As a guard brings the ball up, the two blockers set their first picks — one flare screen at the top of the key and one pindown screen on the block. One mover cuts across the flare screen and moves from the wing to the corner vacated by the other mover, who motions across the baseline to the opposite corner. If either of those motions frees a player, the ball moves to them. If not, the blockers recycle their screens and the movers continue in a circle until someone finds an open shot. The Cavalier offense doesn’t seem elite — they frequently grind out wins with fewer than 70 points scored. This is because the deliberate nature of
Pack Line and Blocker-Mover slow down games to a glacial pace where possessions frequently use almost the whole shot clock. Despite its low-scoring games, Virginia consistently rates as a top-50 in efficiency via KenPom, clocking in at 11th this year. This is because the ball movement of the Blocker-Mover opens up late-clock layups and three-pointers like, well, clockwork. The time-stretching nature of the Blocker-Mover is great for protecting leads, but it makes comebacks hard, especially if the other team is switching screens and playing cohesive team defense. That can lead to an endless series of screens and rescreens for 25 seconds, followed by a forced shot. How Virginia will play in March Virginia has only played one postseason game, winning a 72-69 thriller over Syracuse in the quarterfinals of the ACC Tournament. Unfortunately, that game seems to be a poor predictor of how Virginia will play other teams in the postseason. Syracuse employed a 2-3 zone defense which also attempts to limit shots in the paint through team defense. The 2-3 zone is a great tactic to defend the Blocker-Mover offense because of the way it congests the areas where Virginia defenders like to cut and drive. To counter this, Virginia used its base offense very little, opting instead to attempt to let a guard drive into the lane and then pass out to open shoot-
ers. This change in strategy may have been why the Cavaliers found themselves down as many as 11 points early, but it also worked perfectly to set up freshman guard Reece Beekman for his buzzer-beating three-pointer. Virginia will face the 13th-seeded Ohio Bobcats (16-7, 9-5 MAC) in the tournament’s first round Saturday in Indiana. Ohio entered the MAC tournament as a fifth-seed, but easily upset Kent State, Toledo and Buffalo to win the MAC’s automatic bid. Ohio is no pushover. The Bobcats are led by junior guard Jason Preston, a top-scorer and legit NBA prospect who dropped 31 points the night that Ohio took No. 2 Illinois to the brink. Preston and co. play a solidly efficient offensive game, and their heliocentric style is exactly the type of system that can push the Pack Line to its limit. Ohio is a tough first-round matchup for the Cavaliers. After the first round, Virginia faces a potential gauntlet — a tough Creighton team may await in the Second Round, and a Sweet 16 rematch seems imminent with the Gonzaga team that embarrassed the Cavaliers in December. This bracket is a tough draw for Tony Bennett and his men. The team being quarantined until almost the night of their first game won’t make things easier. But we at least know how Virginia will attack its opponents when the time comes — with patience and ball movement on offense and a brick wall on defense.
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March Madness, explained If you’re not sure what all the commotion is about, read this Sarah Pettycord | Sports Editor Every time March rolls around, there’s always going to be talk — especially around college campuses — about this elusive thing called March Madness. If you’re not a big hoops fan, you might not be too familiar with the tournament, so we’re here to help you out. Here’s everything you need to know about March Madness just in time for the 2021 tournament. What even is March Madness? March Madness is the branded name for the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament. This is a single-elimination tournament in which 68 teams compete to win the National Championship in the sport over a period of just a few weeks. All 68 teams are situated within four regions for the tournament — the North, South, East and West — and this year, each team will play their respective games in Indianapolis, Ind.
How do they pick who plays? Every Division I team plays in one of 32 different conferences, and Virginia plays in the ACC. Right before March Madness begins, every conference plays its own tournament to determine a winner. The ACC Tournament was last weekend and Georgia Tech was crowned the winner after defeating Florida State. The Cavaliers’ opportunity to win the tournament was squashed when an unnamed player on the team tested positive for COVID-19 right after the first round, forcing Virginia to bow out early. Although the Cavaliers were unable to participate in further rounds of the conference tournament, they still received a spot — or “bid” — in the NCAA Tournament. Teams can receive bids in one of two ways. In a normal year, 32 bids are automatically awarded to the winner of each
Division I conference tournament, and the remaining bids are given at the selection committee’s discretion. This year, however, only 31 bids were automatically awarded because teams in the Ivy League conference did not have a season. What is a seed? When teams are given bids to the NCAA Tournament, they are all given a numerical ranking, called a seed, which determines which teams will play each other. So when somebody says that the Cavaliers are the No. 4 seed, it just means that they are ranked No. 4 in their region — which, this season, is the West. When will Virginia play this year? As the No. 4 seed in the West, the Cavaliers will play the No. 10 seeded Ohio in the first round of the
tournament at 7:15 p.m. on Saturday, March 20. The exact dates and times of the remaining games beyond that are still to be determined, but each game after the first will be played between March 21, the start of the second round, and April 5, the date of the NCAA Championship game.
Are we good enough to win the Championship again?
Are we good?
How do I watch the games?
We are good, but we are also playing in a very competitive region. Our first game against Ohio will be a tough test, but one we can overcome with the right combination of offensive and defensive magic. If we win that, we’ll play either Creighton or UC Santa Barbara, and beyond that — barring a big upset — we’ll likely face No. 1 Gonzaga. We played Gonzaga earlier this year and were practically buried by them, so it’s hard to see us advancing beyond that competition.
If you have cable TV, you’ll be able to watch all of the games on CBS, TBS, TNT or truTV. Virginia’s first game against Ohio will be broadcasted on truTV. All of the games can also be streamed on NCAA March Madness Live if you log in using your cable provider — so be sure to text your parents ahead of time to ask for the email and password.
If we can manage to beat Gonzaga, the sky’s the limit. As Cavalier fans, we can only hope that the Bulldogs get eliminated before we would face each other.
CD Sports Staff’s March Madness Predictions Sports writers Ben Anderson, Will Smythe and Jacob Tisdale answer key questions before the NCAA competition
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Thursday, March 18, 2021 | 11
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Ranking the top five Virginia tournament teams The Cavaliers have had a plethora of successful tournament teams, but only one can take the cake Akhil Rekulapelli | Sports Editor From the glory days highlighted by former center Ralph Sampson, a three-time College Player of the Year, to the recent successes under Coach Tony Bennett, Virginia men’s basketball has had its fair share of impressive tournament teams. Here’s a look at the five best teams to don the orange and blue in the Big Dance. 5. 1994-95 (Elite Eight)
Grounds. Close wins against No. 8 Washington State and No. 4 Boston College led the Cavaliers to the Elite Eight, where they faced No. 6 NC State for the fourth time in just over three months. In what became one of the most notable feel-good stories in college basketball history, Coach Jim Valvano and the Wolfpack defeated the Cavaliers and eventually won the National Championship.
The 1994-95 Virginia men’s basketball team — coached by former Cavalier Jeff Jones — came into the season with high hopes, having reached the 1994 ACC Tournament finals, upsetting No. 5 Duke in the semifinals. The team, highlighted by the likes of senior forward Junior Burrough, breakout junior guard Cory Alexander and steady senior forward Jason Williford — who now serves as the Cavaliers’ associate head coach — returned over 77 percent of the minutes played from the year before. This maturity carried the Cavaliers to an ACC-best 12-4 record and No. 13 ranking in the season’s final AP Poll. While the 2015-16 Virginia team challenges the 1994-95 squad with a similarly strong regular season, the 1994-95 team arguably had a more impressive tournament run. After dispatching minnows No. 13 seed Nicholls State in the first round and No. 12 seed Miami University in the second round, the Cavaliers downed No. 1 seed Kansas in a wire-to-wire 67-58 victory to reach the Elite Eight. Although the Cavaliers would lose to the defending champion and eventual runner-up No. 2 Arkansas 68-61, they will forever be solidified in Virginia lore as the only non-Terry Holland or Tony Bennett coached team to reach the Elite Eight.
3. 1983-84 (Final Four)
4. 1982-83 (Elite Eight)
The 1980-81 Cavalier team was one of the greatest ACC teams of the early 1980s, featuring a dynamic duo of senior guard Jeff Lamp and Sampson. The Cavaliers went 13-1 in the ACC and spent four weeks atop the AP Top 25, notably sweeping North Carolina in the regular season. Despite falling to Maryland in an 85-62 drubbing in the ACC semifinals, Virginia went into the tournament looking for its first Final Four appearance. The Cavaliers did just that, defeating No. 9 Villanova, No. 4 Tennessee and No. 6 Brigham Young en route to the Final Four and riding the strong play of Lamp, who was named to the All-Tournament Team at the tournament’s conclusion. In the Final Four, Virginia would face the Tar Heels for the third time, but couldn’t replicate its past successes, losing 78-65. However, in what would be the last thirdplace game in NCAA history, the Cavaliers downed LSU 78-74 to leave
The 1982-83 Cavalier squad, led by the legendary Coach Terry Holland on the bench and college basketball legend Ralph Sampson at the five-spot, had one of the most polarizing seasons in Virginia history. The Cavaliers kicked-off their 1982-83 campaign with back-to-back wins over a Patrick Ewing-anchored Georgetown squad and a “Phi Slama Jama”-led Houston team, but lost to NAIA school Chaminade in what remains one of the largest upsets of all time. Nonetheless, Virginia entered the tournament as a No. 1 seed as it looked to secure a National Championship for the departing Sampson. The Cavaliers were especially energized following a loss to NC State in the ACC Tournament finals, looking to send Sampson off with an NCAA title after he had been shut out of an ACC title for all four of his years on
Following the departure of Sampson to the NBA, Virginia leaned on a mature core of senior guards Othell Wilson and Rick Carlisle and junior forward Jim Miller to continue its ACC dominance. Nonetheless, the trio couldn’t fill the large shoes left by Sampson and sputtered to a 6-8 ACC record and a first-round exit in the ACC Tournament, as North Carolina ran away with both the regular season and tournament titles. However, in the NCAA Tournament, the Cavaliers would outdo the Tar Heels and their performance from the past year, going on a Cinderella run for the ages as a No. 7 seed. Virginia defeated No. 10 Iona and No. 2 Arkansas in two nail-biters that were decided by a combined three points to reach the Sweet 16. The Cavaliers then downed No. 3 Syracuse and No. 4 Indiana — led by Hall of Fame Coaches Jim Boeheim and Bob Knight, respectively — to reach the Final Four for the second time in school history. While Virginia eventually fell to No. 2 Houston in a 49-47 heartbreaker, the 198384 squad will forever be remembered for a run no one could have imagined in their wildest dreams.
Philadelphia with the bronze. 1. 2018-19 (National Champions) Rounding out the top five is the squad that will forever be etched in history as the team that brought Virginia its first-ever National Championship and, in doing so, rebounded from the first-ever 16-over-1 upset the year prior. The Cavaliers were headed by an electric trio consisting of junior guards Ty Jerome and Kyle Guy and sophomore forward De’Andre Hunter en route to an ACC-leading 16-2 record. In the tournament, the Cavaliers faced a scare against No. 16 seed Gardner-Webb, going into halftime down six, but exorcised their demons in the second half to run away with a 15-point victory. From there, Virginia downed No. 9 Oklahoma and No. 12 Oregon to reach the Elite Eight, where it faced No. 3 Purdue and needed a prayer from junior forward Mamadi Diakite to send the game into overtime. In the Final Four and National Championship games, the “Cardiac Cavs” continued to spike the blood
RICHARD DIZON | THE CAVALIER DAILY
After multiple missed opportunities during the Sampson years, Coach Tony Bennett led the Cavaliers to the promised land in 2019.
pressure of Virginia fans, needing three free throws by Guy with 0.6 seconds left to dispatch No. 5 Au-
burn and mustering clutch overtime play against No. 3 Texas Tech to bring home the championship.
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2. 1980-81 (Final Four)
A thoughtful provocative penetrating analysis of the medical profession and its role today. Pick up at the U.Va. Bookstore for $18 https://bit.ly/2GCopLi
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Meet Sam Hauser: The Wisconsinite leading Virginia After three years at Marquette, Hauser leads Virginia in scoring and minutes in his first season playing in Charlottesville Vignesh Mulay | Sports Writer
COURTESY VIRGINIA ATHLETICS
Senior forward Sam Hauser will look to improve off of his last appearance in the Big Dance, where his No. 5 seeded Marquette squad was upset by No. 12 seed Murray State, led by eventual NBA Draft second-overall pick guard Ja Morant.
Since the start of this unique season, Virginia men’s basketball has had to rely on several new faces to play major roles. In fact, three of the Cavaliers’ top five players in total minutes played are newcomers to the team. One of these newcomers is senior forward Sam Hauser, who has quickly become the team’s go-to scoring option and leader on offense. As Virginia prepares to play in its seventh-straight NCAA Tournament, despite a surprise positive coronavirus test among one of the players, Hauser’s performance will be key to a deep run. Looking back, Hauser’s journey to Virginia was not straightforward. Hauser was born in Green Bay, Wis., but grew up about 100 miles away in Stevens Point, Wis. — a city that coincidentally Coach Tony Bennett also called home from first to ninth grade. After a prolific high school career at Stevens Point Area Senior High that included a state title, Hauser — a highly touted four-star prospect at the time — had a number of college suitors. Notably, one of those suitors was Bennett, who “recruited [Hauser] hard out of high school.” Bennett hoped to add Hauser to a recruiting class that would ultimately consist of four national champions — Kyle Guy, Ty Jerome, De’Andre Hunter and Jay Huff. Despite Virginia’s interest, Hauser chose to stay closer to home and attend Marquette in Milwaukee, Wis. “A big thing for me coming out of high school [was that] I wanted to play
closer to home, just so my family could watch me,” Hauser said on the Wahoo Central Podcast in early March. “That was a big factor ... [Marquette] had been recruiting me since my sophomore or junior year of high school, so I just felt that might have been the right place for me at the time.” In three seasons at Marquette, Hauser started 97 times, helping the Golden Eagles win 63 percent of their games and secure an NCAA Tournament bid twice. Hauser truly came alive in the 2018-19 season when he averaged 14.9 points and earned a spot on the All-Big East second team. Despite Hauser’s excellent play, that season was a roller coaster for Marquette. The team won 23 of its first 27 games before dropping six of its last seven — including a blowout loss to Murray State in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. Less than a month after Marquette’s season came to a disappointing end, Hauser — along with his younger brother Joey, who was also on the Golden Eagles’ roster — announced that they would be transferring. “I want to thank Marquette University for the countless opportunities it has granted me with over the past 3 years,” Hauser said via social media. “I’d like to thank everyone involved with the Marquette basketball program … Marquette will always have a special place in my heart. But moving forward with my basketball career, I have made the decision to transfer.” Ultimately, the two brothers part-
ed ways, with Joey preferring Michigan State and Sam deciding to play at Virginia. While it may have happened later than he wanted, Bennett finally landed Hauser’s commitment. “I am really excited to join the Virginia basketball program,” Hauser said in Virginia’s press release. “I have great respect for Coach Bennett since he recruited me out of high school. I feel that U.Va. provides the best fit for me on-and-off the court to finish my collegiate career.” Although Hauser officially joined the Virginia men’s basketball program in the fall of 2019, he had to wait a year to actually step on the court due to NCAA transfer eligibility rules. That being said, Hauser did not waste his year on the sidelines. In addition to supporting his teammates, Hauser used his redshirt season as an opportunity to grow as a player. Hauser was primarily known as a catch-and-shoot and spot-up shooter at Marquette. Last year, however, Hauser worked on his ability to score off screens, developed his playmaking skills and, most importantly, learned how to play in Virginia’s infamous Pack Line defense. “Having a whole redshirt year to really work on your game benefits you,” Hauser said on the Wahoo Central Podcast. “Redshirting is not bad in any way if you end up doing that route. I was able to really focus on my game and work hard. I think I’ve changed, I think I’m just doing different things.”
All of that work seems to have paid off, as Hauser has been a force to be reckoned with this season. Hauser is leading the team in minutes and scoring, averaging 34.1 minutes and 16 points per game. The former Marquette player is not only scoring a lot, but he is doing so at an extremely efficient rate. At the moment, Hauser is making 51.8 percent of his field goals, 43.4 percent of his three-point shots — the highest mark in the ACC and ninth-best in the entire country — and 88.1 percent of his free throws. If Hauser is able to maintain these marks, he could become the first Virginia player ever to finish a season in the exclusive “50/40/80” club. In just his first year in Charlottesville, Hauser may accomplish something none of Virginia’s other iconic Bennett-era shooters — including current NBA players Kyle Guy, Malcolm Brogdon and Joe Harris — ever could in college. Hauser made an immediate impact, dropping 19 points and eight rebounds in his first game in the orange and blue — and he has not slowed down since then. So far this year, Hauser has recorded double-digit scoring figures in all but two games and has crossed the 20-point mark six times in the last 13 games. In Virginia’s pre-ACC Tournament press conference, junior guard Kihei Clark mentioned that he knew Hauser was a talented shooter from day one. Hauser has certainly lived up to those expectations.
Admittedly, the 2020-21 season has had its fair share of ups and downs for Hauser and Virginia. The worst stretch was the Cavaliers’ three-game losing streak in mid to late February — the only time the team has lost more than one game in a row this year. Fortunately for Virginia, when the team needed him the most, Hauser stepped up and took charge. In Virginia’s last five games, Hauser has scored 20.6 points per game — including a season-high 24 points in the regular season finale. Hauser’s recent string of strong performances helped Virginia secure its 10th ACC regular season title and advance to the semifinals of the ACC Tournament before COVID-19 issues disqualified the team. Hauser is playing the best basketball of his season right now, just in time for the NCAA Tournament. “[The losing streak] taught us a lot about our team and ourself and where we need to get better,” Hauser said in a press conference March 8. “We locked in [during] practice more. We came with a better mindset and really focused on attention to details ... We’ve tightened up on defense, we’ve sharpened up on offense. We know how good we can be.” Armed with a 6-foot-8 frame and an effective field goal percentage of 63 percent, Hauser’s unique combination of size and shooting has earned him a lot of attention. For instance, Hauser joined elite company when he became only the sixth Virginia player under Bennett to be named to the AllACC first team. This exclusive group includes Virginia icons like Mike Scott, Joe Harris, Malcolm Brogdon, Kyle Guy, De’Andre Hunter and now Hauser. Despite all of the individual and team success Hauser and Virginia have had so far this season, the Cavaliers now turn their attention to just one thing — the 2021 NCAA Tournament. This March Madness will likely be Hauser’s last shot at a national title, and the Wisconsin native is excited about the opportunity. “You got to play like you either win or you’re done, and that’s the mentality for a lot of teams coming into this tournament,” Hauser said in the press conference. “Every possession matters even more this time of the year ... If the chips fall where they fall, you live with it, but obviously you want to win.” Looking towards the future, Hauser has expressed interest in coaching after his playing career is over and hopes to lean on the Youth and Social Innovation degree he is currently pursuing within the Curry School of Education and Human Development. However, coaching will have to wait for now — Hauser has a game to play.
Thursday, March 18, 2021 | 13
SPORTS
Men’s basketball preview: The NCAA Tournament Despite facing uncertainty surrounding the team’s availability, the Cavaliers plan to begin their title defense Saturday against Ohio Jude Nanaw & Joe von Storch | Senior Associates After nearly two full calendar years, No. 15 Virginia men’s basketball will finally have a chance to defend the program’s first NCAA Championship. The Cavaliers (18-6, 13-4 ACC) likely face one of the tournament’s most challenging roads to a Final Four with a quietly strong first-round opponent and the top overall seed looming large in a possible Sweet 16 matchup. It is no guarantee that Virginia is available to play Saturday, as numerous COVID-19 protocols must be passed, but all signs point to the Cavaliers making it through the week without any setbacks. If Virginia makes it to Bloomington, Ind., there are a number of keys that will determine the team’s success in embarking on a tournament run. Virginia’s keys to success Pass COVID-19 protocols The Cavaliers’ early exit from the ACC Tournament due to a positive coronavirus test within the program brought about concern regarding the team’s eligibility for the NCAA tournament. However, after being slotted into the No. 4 seed in the West Region, it appears that Virginia will have the opportunity to participate in March Madness. With the NCAA requiring seven straight negative tests from every member of a team’s travel party in order to play in the tournament, the Cavaliers have been forced to run an incredibly tight ship. Since the positive test that resulted in Virginia’s semifinal match-up against Georgia Tech being called off, there have not been any other positive COVID-19 tests. If this continues to be the case as every member of the travel party will be tested everyday, the team’s quarantine will reportedly end Thursday. That is also when the Cavaliers will be able to practice again before they travel to Indiana on Friday for the tournament. Additionally, if Virginia does not experience any new positive tests, it is expected that all players will be available to play. However, this comes with the exception of the player who tested positive during the ACC Tournament. That individual will not be allowed to play in either of the Cavaliers’ round of 64 match-up against Ohio or the round of 32 game against the winner of Creighton versus UC Santa Barbara — should Virginia advance. Contain junior guard Jason Preston Heading into their face-off against No. 13 seeded Ohio on Saturday, the Cavaliers will have to keep a close eye on the Bobcats’ junior guard Jason Preston. This season, Preston has
dominated for Ohio, averaging 17.1 points per game on an impressive 53.6 percent shooting from the floor. In the Bobcats’ most recent game against Buffalo on March 13, Preston led the way with 22 points, seven assists and six rebounds. In addition, Preston has displayed to be a threat from beyond the arc in the game, connecting on three three-pointers. With such a dynamic player to defend, Virginia big men, including senior forwards Jay Huff and Sam Hauser as well as junior guard Trey Murphy, will have to work to prevent dribble-drive penetration. Also, the packline defense will have to protect the three-point line and close out on shot attempts. When playing Syracuse in the ACC Tournament, the Cavaliers gave up eight three-pointers with five makes coming from junior guard Buddy Boeheim. Virginia must protect the perimeter better in order to have a successful tournament. Continuous ball movement on offense The Cavaliers have had the ability to catch fire shooting the basketball this season. The key to reaching this level of momentum has been smart passes and working the ball to open shooters. This was perhaps best exemplified against Syracuse when junior guard Kihei Clark found freshman guard Reece Beekman on the three-point line with the game clock winding down. After a series of passes, Beekman eventually found himself wide open with the ball in his hands before delivering the game-winning shot. In a number of games in which Virginia has fallen short this season such as against Florida State, Duke and NC State, the team has fallen victim to poor shot selection. Rather, when the Cavaliers work to create a high-percentage look at the basket and do not rush to take a shot early in a possession, the team is virtually unbeatable. Providing sharpshooters such as Hauser, Huff, Murphy and senior guard Tomas Woldetensae with solid opportunities to take shots through continuous ball movement will certainly boost Virginia going into the round of 64. Virginia’s path to the Final Four if favorites win out First round - Ohio Virginia is set to face 13th-seeded Ohio in the tournament’s opening round of action. Despite playing only seven games since the beginning of February, the Bobcats (16-7, 9-5 MAC) have been on a tear, winning nine of
their last 10 games. As the fifth seed in its conference tournament, Ohio dismantled its opponents, winning three games by a combined 44 points en route to the MAC Championship. Notably, the Bobcats scored at least 84 points in all three games and are averaging 80.6 points per game on the season — presenting a stark contrast to the 60.5 points per game that the Cavaliers allow. Ohio has shown that they can compete with elite teams, taking top-seeded Illinois down to the wire back in November, losing 77-75. Considering Virginia’s propensity to go on cold spells offensively — leading to devastating tournament exits — a short week of practice due to COVID-19 protocols and a potentially key player missing this game, the Bobcats will likely be a popular upset pick on the brackets of many. Ohio has four players averaging double-figure scoring, led by Preston’s 17.1 points per game. Outside of controlling the tempo and containing Preston, the Cavaliers have an opportunity to put together a strong offensive game against a weak Bobcat defense. In conference play, Ohio allowed 76.7 points per game and a porous 37.7 opponent three-point percentage, playing right into one of Virginia’s strengths of knocking down outside shots. Second round - Creighton If No. 19 Creighton can avoid the infamous 12 over 5 seed upset against UC Santa Barbara, the Bluejays (208, 14-6 Big East) will set up a ranked matchup against the Cavaliers in the round of 32. Creighton was just blown out by Georgetown in the Big East Tournament finals, but the Bluejays have put together a solid resume with wins over three ranked teams and 14 wins in the always-competitive Big East. Led by junior guard Marcus Zegarowski’s 15.5 points per game, Creighton also has five players averaging at least 10 points per game. Both senior guard Mitch Ballock and Zegarowski have hit at least 70 three-pointers this season — good for first and second in the Big East, respectively — and as a team, the Bluejays have drilled an impressive 272 three-pointers at a 36.7 percent clip. Creighton’s ability to hit deep shots would present a difficult challenge for Virginia, as Coach Tony Bennett’s teams have always been susceptible to teams who get hot from the outside. It’s likely that Clark would be tasked with handling Zegarowski — a tough assignment for the second straight game — both in defending the three-pointer and limiting Zega-
COURTESY GREGG ELLMAN
Junior guard Kihei Clark will need to have quick feet when he faces off against star Ohio guard Jason Person Saturday.
rowski’s playmaking ability. Sweet 16 - Gonzaga The top overall seed and undefeated No. 1 Gonzaga has rolled through much of their season, winning all but one of its games by double digits. Notably, the Bulldogs (26-0, 15-0 WCC) clobbered the Cavaliers in late December, picking apart Virginia’s normally stout defense to the tune of a 98-75 victory. Gonzaga is the odds-on favorite to win the tournament and looks to become the first team since Indiana’s 1976 squad to finish a season undefeated. Should these two teams meet in the Sweet Sixteen, Gonzaga will be a heavy favorite. The Bulldogs are scoring a spectacular 92.1 points per game and are led by senior forward Corey Kispert’s 19.2 points per game and sophomore forward Drew Timme’s 18.7 points and 7.1 rebounds per game. Timme is shooting a remarkable 65.6 percent from the floor — third-best in the NCAA. During their game against the Cavaliers, Kispert tore apart Virginia, knocking down nine three-pointers on his way to a 32-point outburst. Kispert’s primary defender was Hauser, who struggled early in the season on that end of the floor, but has made major strides during conference play
as a defender. While Virginia likely has a better performance in store than the one they put on in late December, overcoming this stacked Gonzaga team will be a significant challenge. Elite Eight - Iowa Even if the Cavaliers are able to pull off perhaps the upset of the tournament in the Sweet 16, the road gets no easier as they could potentially face No. 8 Iowa in the next round. Headlined by Luka Garza — senior center and National Player of the Year candidate — the Hawkeyes (21-8, 15-7 Big 10) battled through a stacked conference to finish third behind one-seeds Michigan and Illinois. Garza leads the NCAA with 687 total points and has posted seven 30-point games. He would undoubtedly be Huff’s toughest test of the year, and Bennett’s famed low-post double-team would be put to the ultimate test. While Iowa has other capable scorers such as junior guard Joe Wieskamp, containing Garza would be the key to Virginia punching its ticket to a second consecutive Final Four. The Cavaliers will embark on their tournament run Saturday against Ohio. Tip-off is slated for 7:15 p.m. and the game will be televised on truTV.
14 | www.cavalierdaily.com
OPINION
The Cavalier Daily
LEAD EDITORIAL
Respect the safety of athletes and local communities The NCAA must value the health and wellbeing of athletes and local communities over the economic exploitation of college athletes Last week, Virginia men’s basketball’s semifinal game against Georgia Tech in the ACC Championship was canceled after someone within the program tested positive for COVID-19. With the beginning of the NCAA Tournament this Thursday, March 18, the team’s ability to participate was a huge topic of discussion. Virginia basketball is expected to participate in the tournament beginning with their first game against Ohio University this Saturday. However, this story only serves as a reminder that the pandemic is not over — multiple teams are seeing positive tests that are disrupting their seasons. This only further highlights the need for stringent measures from the NCAA to be sure that they are protecting both the athletes and the local communities. First and foremost, we must remember that student-athletes are still college students. Their lives do not exist within a bubble like that of the National Basketball Association last fall — as such, we should remember not to vilify players who test positive, thereby putting our favorite teams out
of the tournament. Rather, we should be working to make sure that all those who test positive are provided the support and resources they need to remain safe and well during their quarantine. Student-athletes are not paid, but they often spend dozens of hours every week dedicated to their sports and driving up revenue for their respective universities. Athletes deserve to be protected, especially in the midst of a global pandemic. As such, the NCAA must do all that it can to be sure it is protecting students — and many of the current restrictions and protocols are doing this. For example, each player is fitted with a tracking device to monitor who they are in close contact with, players are largely isolated throughout the tournament — eating in their rooms or in socially distanced areas — and players are tested daily. In addition, after their positive test, Virginia will not be practicing together or arriving in Indianapolis until the day before their first game, as they continue to quarantine. These are all necessary precautions that need to be taken so that these tournaments are
not directly putting students at risk of contracting the virus. However, while these represent some thorough COVID-19 protocols, the NCAA cannot ease up. Six referee officials are already out after a positive COVID test — if measures are not followed, instances like this will only become more common. Recently, the NCAA shifted their quarantine policy, allowing teams arriving late at night to begin practicing after two negative tests only 12 hours apart — previously, teams needed two negative tests on separate days before they could leave quarantine to begin practicing. While this represents a small shift, it is still indicative of the NCAA easing restrictions to allow for greater practice time — this should not be happening. Both the men’s and women’s tournaments are going to be bringing large numbers of teams throughout the country to the respective host cities. The NCAA needs to do all it can to make sure these tournaments do not increase COVID-19 cases in these cities. As such, the current plan to allow for 25% capacity of fans is not restric-
tive enough. For example, Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis — which will host the men’s Final Four games and the Championship Game — has a normal capacity of around 70,000 people. A 25% limit still amounts to over 17,000 fans in one stadium. While case numbers have been decreasing throughout the country, now is not the time to start getting reckless. Even with the vast amount of space in the stadium and the numerous restrictions in place for fans attending the game, it’s ridiculous to allow a gathering of thousands of people under one roof, putting local communities at risk. Regardless of Virginia’s performance in the tournament, students need to remember to remain responsible. Basketball victories are often known for causing large gatherings amongst students — both at the University and at other schools. Students need to remember that a victory does not mean we can blatantly disregard COVID-19 policies. We can — and must — celebrate our school’s wins in a safe manner if we do not want to see another spike in COVID-19 cases.
March Madness is clearly an important tournament for both players and fans alike. However, as much as we want to believe decreasing case numbers and increased vaccinations indicate otherwise, we are still in the midst of a pandemic. If the NCAA values our players, they must do everything in their power to ensure the safety of players through increased quarantine restrictions and the removal of fans from games. In addition, the NCAA has a responsibility to keep the local communities safe, and allowing 17,000 people under one roof does not fulfill this responsibility. If fans want college basketball to continue, we must call on the NCAA to make these necessary changes to combat COVID-19 with its planned tournaments.
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Thursday, March 18, 2021 | 15
OPINION
Student-athletes deserve labor rights On the eve of March Madness, let’s keep in mind how college athletes are exploited, and what can be done about it
M
arch Madness is a lucrative period for schools, bettors, the National Collegiate Athletic Association and just about everybody involved — except the players themselves. As long as the NCAA continues to exploit college athletes under the pretense of amateurism, betting pools and brackets are actually, as sports columnist Dave Zirin notes, “the most economically above-board part of this entire operation.” We need to start recognizing that student-athletes are exploited workers who are currently compensated far below their market value, if at all. Now is an appropriate time for us to reevaluate our use of the term student-athlete, which was crafted by the NCAA as a way to avoid paying workers’ compensation. It saw its first use after Ray Dennison — who played football on a scholarship for Fort Lewis A&M — suffered a fatal injury during a kick return. In 1957, his widow sought death benefits in court, but the NCAA pushed back against the claim and — successfully painting Dennison as a student-athlete rather than a college employee — they won. Surely to the delight of the NCAA, the term student-athlete has since become deep-seated in our vocabulary, reinforcing the purported amateurism of college sports. The NCAA would like you to
believe that their players are incomparable to employees. However, the working conditions of college athletes closely resemble those of their professional counterparts. They often work full-time hours, are constantly travelling across the country and regularly put their bodies at risk of injury to support a $14 billion industry. As Zirin points out, while college athletes’ social lives, social media activity and academics are usually closely moni-
$265,027. Yet, while the NCAA makes hundreds of millions of dollars per year on broadcasting rights, 86 percent of college athletes with scholarships live below the poverty line and, despite their scholarships, still have to pay thousands in “out-of-pocket educational expenses” not covered by their scholarships. Meanwhile, as reported by USA Today, the players’ coaches “dominate the list of highest-paid public employees with seven-digit
ing players to keep money they earn from sponsorship agreements, and due process when dealing with NCAA infractions.” Initially, the regional National Labor Relations Board decided that Northwestern scholarship athletes were employees of Northwestern and therefore were entitled to unionize. Peter Ohr, the NLRB regional director, poked holes in the NCAA’s amateurism argument in his ruling,
“We need to start recognizing that student-athletes are exploited workers who are currently compensated far below their market value, if at all.” tored, those competing in the tournament this year will be subjected to an even stricter surveillance culture. Players will be quarantined in hotels and have to wear contact-tracing tracking devices in a “controlled environment” modeled after the 2020 National Basketball Association’s bubble. Yet, unlike their counterparts in the NBA, college athletes have no say in their working conditions. According to a 2011 Drexel University study, the fair market value of a college basketball player — the amount each would be earning in a completely free market, based on the revenue they bring in — would be
salaries.” To challenge the feudalistic NCAA and have a say in decisions directly impacting their wellbeing, many college athletes have taken to collective organizing — within the past year, Pac-12 players organized against exploitation, the UCLA football team demanded proper COVID-19 protections and college athletes across the country protested against police brutality and racial inequality. In 2014, Northwestern University quarterback Kain Colter spearheaded an unprecedented union effort with his teammates. According to Vox, the team sought “more coverage for sports-related injuries, allow-
in which he acknowledged that, “[n] ot only” do players spend more hours on athletics “than many undisputed full-time employees work at their jobs,” but they also spend “many more hours” on sports than they “spend on their studies.” However, in 2015, Ohr’s ruling was overturned, but the Board did not rule on whether college athletes are employees. It simply decided that granting a singular private university the ability to unionize while it lacks jurisdiction over public schools, which make up a majority of NCAA Division I teams, would not promote “stability in labor relations.” So, while a more widespread union effort would
require a broader coalition, and the process of unionization differs among public schools versus private schools, the door has not closed on collective bargaining for college athletes. An unjust power imbalance will remain until this is realized, but, promisingly, more are becoming aware of the exploitation endemic in intercollegiate athletics. Even former head of the NCAA Walter Byers, who coined the term student-athlete, is now fiercely critical of his former organization. Byers says that, currently, “[t]he coaches own the athletes’ feet, the colleges own the athletes’ bodies, and the supervisors retain the large rewards. That reflects a neo-plantation mentality on the campuses that is not appropriate at this time of high dollars.” But the oppressive status quo Byers institutionalized and now fights against has been jolted before by collective action. This gives hope for a future in which college athletes demand and receive the compensation that their profitable, laborious work entitles them to. Until they do, we must recognize that the athletes we watch during March Madness are exploited workers at the mercy of their schools and the NCAA. ROBERT McCOY is a Viewpoint Writer for The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at opinion@cavalierdaily.com.
Let the ACC semifinal cancellation be a lesson Ahead of the NCAA tournament, the study body must heed COVID-19 guidance from administration to initiate the return to normal college life
J
ust when we thought that the COVID-19 pandemic had finished stripping our lives of any remaining normalcy, it proved us wrong. The Atlantic Coast Conference announced March 12 that the Georgia Tech vs. Virginia ACC Tournament semifinal game had been canceled. This devastating decision was prompted by a single positive coronavirus test found within the Virginia men’s basketball program. This cancellation should only serve as a reminder to the student body that the COVID-19 pandemic is not over — we must remember to act responsibly. In a press conference March 14, coach Tony Bennett assured fans that the program would continue testing daily and complying with the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s protocols. Bennett revealed that contact tracing has left most of the team in quarantine, where they will stay until Thursday. Until then, no team practices can be held. Virginia will compete in the NCAA men’s basketball tournament —the team is scheduled to travel to Indianapolis for on Friday prior to their first game on Saturday. Dan Gavitt, NCAA Senior Vice President of Men’s Basketball, notes that
only five healthy players are needed to participate in an NCAA tournament game. Two negative tests must be presented 12 hours apart before a game can commence. However, this does not diminish the fact that the anticipated ACC championship title was ripped from their grasp. Not only this but the entire meaning of the 2021 ACC men’s basketball championship title changed. No longer would the win-
being able to see their team succeed — though no blame should be placed on any individual — and it is a reminder that coronavirus precautions must be taken seriously. Athletic excellence has always been a substantial part of the culture at the University. Men’s basketball has connected students at the University in a way in which academics simply don’t. This program is a symbol of the University’s undeniable success in the col-
the University. This crippling realization should not be taken lightly. We are not in this position by chance. We cannot be surprised that over 2,000 students at the University have already contracted the virus. The combined ignorance and passive action of large masses of the student body are what got us here. The blatant disregard for the safety and wellbeing of our fellow classmates and of the greater Charlottesville commu-
“The blatant disregard for the safety and wellbeing of our fellow classmates and of the greater Charlottesville community is what got us here.” ner be a product of pure athleticism but of who could outlast the coronavirus spread — as both Georgia Tech and Florida State advanced to the finals due to semi final cancellations. Granted any team that can make it to the ACC semifinal game showcases extreme dedication. Still, ACC protocol gives some teams an unfair advantage — despite however necessary these measures are to ensure the safety of our community. Students and fans alike are rightfully frustrated with not
legiate realm. Whether it be winning the legendary NCAA championship game in 2019 or the banter of being defending NCAA champions a year later, the men’s basketball program has proven to be irreplaceable. In 2021, a full year into the coronavirus pandemic, we still find ourselves unable to obtain the fruits which men’s basketball bears. Despite countless protocols, tedious testing schedules and thorough contact tracing, COVID-19 has poisoned the fruits of men’s basketball at
nity is what got us here. What started with reckless Midsummer parties in the summer turned into bar hopping weekends in the fall, leading to coronavirus-ridden IFC events in the spring. We must learn from our mistakes and not use March Madness as an excuse to celebrate irresponsibly. Battling the coronavirus pandemic is a constant, conscious effort that must improve if we are to regain any sense of normalcy in the future. It is the responsibility of each student to continue getting test-
ed, taking necessary precautions and following the guidelines laid out by our administration. I have heard so many students yearn for a regular college experience. I understand and share your sadness, frustration or anger — especially after the news of our men’s basketball team. However, nothing will change unless we collectively face this issue and work proactively to leave COVID-19 in the past. No blame can be put on one individual — rather as adults we must collectively take responsibility for what has happened. Complaining about a lost ACC Championship is only valid when you start to take the coronavirus pandemic seriously. Men’s basketball took a hit this year. In order to ensure a path towards normalcy, it is imperative that the student body heeds all coronavirus guidelines as implemented by our administration. Only then can we fully regain the fruits of men’s basketball and fully celebrate their future hopeful NCAA championship win. GRACE DUREGGER is a Viewpoint Writer for The Cavalier Daily. She can be reached at opinion@cavalierdaily.com.
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HUMOR
The Cavalier Daily
Something we can all agree on Stability and consistency are something that many people — especially during these unprecedented times — are practically desperate for. I know I am. And as a result, I have searched through the limited depths of my mind for things that have been constant over the past several years of my existence. And, unfortunately, I have found that growth from kindergarten to college has resulted in instability of what one knows and agrees on. For example, in elementary school I was terrified of the Bermuda triangle. Yet years later, the only thing that reminded me of it was a tweet asking if everyone had the collective experience of thinking the region would have more of an impact on their life than it has — that got me thinking. As of right now, a great majority of us are having a collective
experience of suffering through school or work in the virtual and physical world. In some odd way, like biting into something soft and not feeling a crunch, it is a bit comforting to know that you are not alone. The majority of us can agree that, on very simplified terms, life is very unstable right now. So, for the sake of escapism from my upcoming math exam and the collective good, I have decided that what we all need is something else to agree on as a group. We need a completely undeniable fact that no amount of evidence can refute. Now, I could declare that to be ‘mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell’ or ‘the Earth is round,’ but those are old news. Boring. The public needs something that is both collectively recognized but so low level that the only time it would float to the top of your
consciousness is if you spotted someone mentioning it on social media at two in the morning. With that criteria in mind, I came to my answer. Science is green. Now, before you scoff and stop reading, hear me out. From remembering a conversation I had during class two years ago, I came to a very interesting conclusion. When associating certain academic subjects to colors, a grand majority of people differ between their core classes — English, math, history and whatever foreign language they are taking. English is blue or red but math is red or blue. History is brown or purple but your language class is purple or brown. Except science. People do not argue about science. Well, apart from that one kid in my class who wanted to be different and
said it was yellow. The silence was deafening. It is weird, that while people go wild over arguing what notebook color they want to write quadratic equations or vocab practice in, when it comes to science, no matter the subtopic, it is always green. Now, I’m not expecting the entirety of the human race to agree with me, but I do not think it would be wrong of me to expect a pretty large portion to shrug and say, “Yeah, I guess.” I do not believe this will solve any issues going on in the world right now. That would just be ridiculous. But, a massive and credible statement such as this one should not be ignored. It is a bigger door that you can float on with a buddy as this ship called Earth sinks behind you. It is a stable statement. It is consistent no matter what you are studying,
CARTOON Love in the Time of Corona Ruma Jadhav | Cartoonist
from life science to physics. It is small so you can keep it in the back of your mind when things don’t seem consistent or are stressful. And, most importantly, it is enough. Because science is green. And math is blue. Don’t be mad, it’s a verifiable fact.
CAMILA COHEN SUAREZ is a Humor columnist for The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at humor@ cavalierdaily.com.
The Cavalier Daily
Thursday, March 18, 2021 | 17
PUZZLES WEEKLY CROSSWORD PUZZLE Abby Sacks | Puzzle Master
* THE SOLUTION TO THIS PUZZLE CAN BE FOUND IN THE NEXT ISSUE
Across
1. Freshman guard who secured the Cavaliers’ win over Syracuse. 5. Number that senior forward Jay Huff wears. 9. State where all March Madness games will be played. 10. A type of game using strategy that simulates combat. 12. To let someone down. 13. School Virginia will meet in its first NCAA game of the season. 14. Black center of an eye. 15. A type of Irish and British dance; also, a type of woodwind instrument. 17. An old-fashioned idiom used when you believe something might be true. (Three words) 19. A salty, pickled berry similar to an olive. 21. Descriptor for someone without hair. 22. Someone who is philanthropic. (adjective) 24. Tree diagram for a series of games played in a knockout tournament. 25. Restaurant where food is served by vending machines. 26. Spiritual leader of Islam. 27. In journalism, the staffer who prepares copy. (Two words)
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2. Feeling of disinterest with life. 3. A type of colorful Japanese fish. (Two words) 4. City that houses the United States Naval Academy. 6. The shape of many gifts and cards on Valentine’s Day. 7. To reassemble, usually after being attacked. 8. Holiest day in Judaism. 11. Last name of the main character opposite Woody in “Toy Story.” 14. Of or relating to children, usually in a medical sense. 16. Goodness or righteousness. 18. Extreme, especially politically. 20. The name for male in this bird species that has especially bright feathers. 22. Inexpensive. 23. Herd animal usually found in Peru.
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CORRECTION Vol. 131, Issue 13, pg. 18: The writer’s name was misspelled as Brigette Meyer. The correct spelling of the author’s first name is Brigitte.
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* SOLUTION FROM MARCH 11 ISSUE
E S T E E M N R E F A I R P L A F O A Q U A R A N T G R E P R I E V N E A G A V E S R O A M A S K M U V A O N I M B U S N L A E G R E S S E
S C R E E C H Y K E M A Y L A B O R S L I E M I N E Z O O M N V Z N E E C L A I R E C W I T H D R A W I E T U A L F U N D H C A I E V A C U A T E R K C E S E M I G R E
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HEALTH & SCIENCE
The Cavalier Daily
Pandemic generates hurdles to equitable internet access Barriers to reliable internet access have detrimental effects on education, public health and access to information Erica Szymanski | Staff Writer In a time when learning in makeshift classrooms at kitchen tables has become the new norm, reliable internet access is more of a necessity than a luxury. According to data from Pew Research, over half of Americans consider internet access “essential” during the pandemic, yet a report from the Federal Communications Commission estimates that 19 million Americans are without access to broadband — a form of high-speed internet. This disparity is heightened in rural and tribal areas, with one-fourth and one-third of those populations lacking broadband access, respectively. Exacerbated by the pandemic, these barriers to internet access have yielded adverse effects in education, public health and news access. Well before the current health crisis transferred life to a digital environment, ongoing barriers to education were prevalent. The School of Education and Human Development recently hosted an online discussion that addressed these inequities in depth. The virtual panel touched on the disadvantages in internet access that many low-income, rural communities face, and also encouraged viewers to take action. “If we consider education a human right — and I think many of us would — then the internet, which is a pathway to education ... has to be considered part of that human right,” said Bob Pianta, dean of the School of Education and Human Development. While fluctuating internet accessibility has many implications for students, the rift most notably has produced a ‘“homework gap” — meaning some students have lacked adequate internet access outside of the classroom to complete their homework assignments. As a result, these students have been at an academic disadvantage compared to classmates with reliable access. Pianta noted that the split has been acknowledged for several years and that even before the prevalence of online classes and the internet boom of the past decade, the homework gap posed a threat to academic success. With most learning moving online during the pandemic, these issues are compounded. “We are really now seeing more broadly an ‘education gap’ because the pandemic has forced us to do all of our teaching and learning online,” Pianta said. “I think if you did the surveys, now you would see that it was at least 16 million, if not many million more, students that have been negatively affected by the lack of service.”
Furthermore, a pre-pandemic survey, conducted between March and April of 2018, also demonstrated that among teenage students in the United States, internet access isn’t equal across racial groups. When asked how frequently computer or internet access issues prevent the student from completing their homework, 25 percent of Black teenagers replied “sometimes or often” in comparison to only 13 percent of white teenagers. Beyond education, internet access has become critical to health management in the ongoing pandemic. Everything from telemedicine appointments to registering online to receive the coronavirus vaccine can be accomplished with the click of a button. John Stankovic is both a BP America professor and director of Link Lab, a multidisciplinary cyber-physical systems research group at the University. He noted that unfortunately those lacking reliable internet access or the skills to use such technology are lacking these critical health resources. Stankovic works on systems that improve the patient experience, and are heavily dependent upon technology. “I do work with the telemedicine center here at U.Va., and we were having projects for stroke victims where, if a stroke victim is in the hospital and they’re going home. Then we have built a smartwatch that helps talk to them. It’s kind of a cognitive assistant that tries to inform them about different problems that they might be having or reminders for taking medication or reminders for their exercise,” Stankovic said. To combat inaccessibility and allow a greater number of patients to receive this form of at-home care, Stankovic mentioned that for certain health conditions the U.Va. Health system sends patients home with an iPad to input data and track their health. Now, Stankovic is part of a team building health management tools that can be utilized to combat the coronavirus — applying a variation of their watch technology to determine if patients may be developing COVID-19 symptoms. In addition to a lack of internet access, some populations are also less adept to using technology, which generates additional disparities during the pandemic. “It’s likely that the people that they’re targeting [for coronavirus vaccines] as the class 1a and class 1b are elderly, and they have less facility typically with the internet then the younger crowd … it’s very problemat-
CYRENA MATINGOU | THE CAVALIER DAILY
19 million Americans are without access to high-speed internet, exacerbating health and education disparities.
ic,” Stankovic said. While public health occupies the forefront of the news, these last 12 months have also been characterized by social justice movements, such as the Black Lives Matters protests that followed the death of Geroge Floyd. University computer science professor Derrick Stone noted that these movements are a critical component of the shared human experience, and those without WiFi access may be missing out on these pivotal moments in history. “This was a moment of consciousness that was not necessarily around because someone had access to Wikipedia — [it was because] that many people saw some truth and finally — it was inescapable,” Stone said. “In [a coastal] town where you can’t get free Wi Fi with your latte, you could exist without this consciousness.” In many ways, Stone stated that the current format of online classes is a microcosm that demonstrates the power of internet access. Although University students this semester are physically distant — only 27 percent of classes with an in-person component — there is a commonality in simultaneously experiencing this digital space. “You’re in your room, but you’re having this consciousness, this experience, with all your classmates and
your friends,” Stone said. “That is sort of an expanded view of what happens to a community that has the internet and social media — there is an opportunity there for transformation that is beyond just access to facts.” To ensure broader access to reliable internet, there are a variety of potential routes to further investigate. In order to ensure equitable access, the first step is creating the infrastructure for high-speed internet. “I think public broadband infrastructure is something a lot of communities are already working on,” Stone said. “If you live in an affluent community, you’re going to have broadband like Charlottesville, you can get one gigabit and that’s super fast ... but if you’re in southwest Virginia or someplace that doesn’t have a lot of economic development and reason for there to be high speed internet, then the internet becomes less usable.” Furthermore, Pianta suggested policy reforms to consider internet access a public utility, akin to government regulation of roads, water, sewage treatment or electricity. In this manner, the government could ensure that the utility is available to all, while providing subsidies similar to current government assistance for energy expenses. “We’ve solved this problem for
electricity, to some degree, and so we have a mode in our country to be able to do this,” Pianta said. “We just need to apply that model to internet service.” Following The Cavalier Daily’s interview with Pianta, the Federal Communications Commission authorized subsidies of up to $50 to cover internet bills for low income households. Long-term solutions may be on the horizon, as the Virginia General Assembly recently allocated millions of dollars to improving broadband access. In the short-term, the University has organized several resources to combat lack of internet access during the pandemic, including a Ting hotspot at IX Park and student aid. To view the locations of public wifi provided through Jefferson-Madison Regional Library and Albemarle County Public Schools, visit the Albemarle County Public WiFi Hotspots.
Thursday, March 18, 2021 | 19
HEALTH & SCIENCE
Three COVID-19 variants identified globally, two in Virginia Mutations in SARS-CoV-2 spike proteins have created more transmissible variants which may increase COVID-19 case numbers Abigail Challas | Staff Writer SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, has evolved to form new variants of itself. As of now, three variants of the virus have been identified around the world — variant B.1.1.7, variant B.1.351 and variant P.1. Two of these variants were identified in Virginia last month. On Feb. 18, the Virginia Department of Health reported the first case of SARS-Cov-2 variant B.1.351 in the Northwest region of Virginia. Nine days later, the first case of SARS-Cov-2 variant B.1.1.7 was reported in the Southwest region of Virginia. These variants, caused by mutations in the genetic code of SARS-CoV-2, could potentially prolong the COVID-19 pandemic. The variants are believed to be more transmissible and recent data shows that current vaccines may be less effective against certain variants, contributing to calls for enhanced prevention measures. The first case of the B.1.1.7 variant was confirmed in the University community Feb. 12, but the University is not sharing the exact number of confirmed variant cases due to individual privacy concerns. Dr. Eric Houpt, the Jack M. Gwaltney Jr. professor of infectious diseases, explained how these mutations in the virus’s genetic code are created. “A virus, like a human, is not perfect,” Houpt said. “When it replicates, it can introduce errors in the genetic code which then lead to mutations in specific proteins. When you have a lot of COVID-19 cases out in a community, there’s a lot of virus replication. That provides a perfect incubator for variants to arise.” Houpt explained that mutations within a genome are a natural occurrence and not unique to COVID-19. “Any virus, bacteria or organism may introduce errors during replication,” Houpt said. “This is nothing new to biology or to viruses … this is nothing surprising.” Assoc. Prof. of Biology Robert Cox emphasized this as well in an email to The Cavalier Daily. He noted that variants are to be expected, especially in large populations. “New virus variants occur all the time, and they are expected to arise in any virus population,” Cox said. “The larger the population size of the virus — i.e., the greater the number of infected human hosts — the more chances there will be for new mutations
ANISHA HOSSAIN | THE CAVALIER DAILY
to arise as the virus replicates.” As of Wednesday, there have been 120,383,919 confirmed COVID-19 cases worldwide. It is possible that many of these recent cases have been caused by new COVID-19 variants. Cox furthered that there are a couple ways mutations can affect fitness — the ability of an organism to pass its genetic material to its offspring. Some mutations may have no impact on the virus’s fitness while others are harmful. “Many of these mutations have little or no effect on the virus — they are selectively neutral,” Cox said. “Other mutations may alter the virus in a way that influences its fitness. In most cases, these mutations will probably disrupt the function of the virus and lower its fitness. These mutations will usually be eliminated from the viral population by natural selection, so we usually don’t even notice them.” Cox continued that a select number of mutations are advantageous to the virus and increase the virus’s fitness, allowing it to spread more quickly amongst the population they infect. These mutations are seen in the prevalent SARS-CoV-2 variants B.1.1.7, B.1.351 and P.1. Specifically, these mutations have changed the virus’s spike proteins, making it easier for the variants to attach to and infect host cells compared to the original strain. “These mutations should increase in frequency because they lead to increased replication of
viruses that contain the new mutations,” Cox said. While mutations in spike proteins have made the variants more transmissible, some evidence also suggests that these variants increase the risk of severe SARS-CoV-2 infection. The CDC currently reports over 4,600 cases of COVID-19 variant infection in the United States, but there are likely many more undetected cases. “What we know about these variants is really just scratching the surface,” Houpt said. He added that it is difficult to determine the amount of infections that have resulted from COVID-19 variants specifically — this would require thorough sequencing of the virus with specialized equipment and tests. Routine COVID-19 tests simply search for the virus’s presence and do not conduct in-depth sequencing of its genome. “We don’t know the full picture at this point,” Houpt said. Additionally, the presence of COVID-19 variants has raised some concerns regarding the effectiveness of the vaccines against the new variants. A recent study found that both the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines produced a similar antibody response against the B.1.1.7 variant and the original SARSCoV-2 strain. However, the study found that both vaccines were less effective against the B.1.351 variant. The Moderna vaccine was 12.4 times less effective at
producing neutralizing antibodies while the Pfizer vaccine was 10.4 times less effective. Houpt stressed that, although the vaccines are shown to be less effective against the B.1.351 variant, the vaccines should largely prevent severe infection, which often leads to hospitalizations. The emergence of new variants has also prompted a reevaluation of how quickly herd immunity can be achieved. In a U.Va. Health media briefing March 5, Costi Sifri, director of hospital epidemiology at the University, explained that herd immunity will likely require upwards of 80 percent of individuals to have immunity to COVID-19. Prior to the emergence of new variants, earlier estimates projected that between 60 to 70 percent of individuals would need to be immune against COVID-19 to achieve herd immunity. “What that number is exactly is not clear, but it’s probably going to be a combination of both people that have had immunity due to COVID-19 vaccination and people who have had immunity as a consequence of infection,” Sifri said. In order to help slow the spread of the virus, especially with the presence of new variants in the community, the University currently restricts indoor gatherings to six individuals and outdoor gatherings to 10 people. The University also requires students to attend weekly COVID-19 saliva prevalence testing. Moreover,
indoor dining in dining halls is limited to groups of four individuals. Sifri emphasized the importance of continuing to wear masks and practicing social distancing in order to slow the spread of the virus, especially with the presence of new variants and recent loosening of statewide COVID-19 related restrictions. “If we can make a collective effort to do that, I think the spring and the summer will probably look a lot different than it looks like right now,” Sifri said.
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