Thursday, April 25, 2025

This week in-brief

Students for Justice in Palestine criticizes University at “die-in” on Lawn

As the final event of its Palestinian Liberation Week, Students for Justice in Palestine organized a die-in — a form of protest involving lying on the ground as if dead — on the Lawn Friday afternoon. The protest saw roughly 50 participants and consisted of a speech by Josh Rosenberg, SJP president and third-year College student, followed by the reading of the names of 65 killed Palestinians, all members of a single family. A moment of silence followed before all attendees read a poem together titled “If I Must Die” by Refaat Alareer, a Palestinian writer and poet who was killed in December by an Israeli airstrike.

The event capped off Palestinian Liberation Week, which included educational and cultural events such as panels about healthcare in Gaza and a “Protest Poetry for Palestine” event, which was hosted in conjunction with the Asian Student Union and Flux Poetry & Spoken Word.

In his speech, Rosenberg spoke more broadly to the history of University students protesting human rights issues abroad, citing in particular activism against apartheid in South Africa that led the University to divest from the country.

“UVa. has a long tradition of anti apartheid activism,” Rosenberg said. “In 1990, after a decade of pressure from the Students Against Apartheid Coalition, U.Va. divested from South African apartheid. At a university that’s mostly been on the wrong side of history, that’s one of the few things we can be proud of.”

The die-in capped off Palestinian Liberation Week, which included educational and cultural events such as panels about healthcare in Gaza and a “Protest Poetry for Palestine” event.

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Two fraternities suspended, one terminated after hazing allegations

The Theta Chi and Sigma Alpha Mu fraternities had their Fraternal Organization Agreements suspended by the University, while the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity had its FOA terminated after allegations of hazing, according to Ben Ueltschey, Inter-fraternity Council president and third-year College student. While the Theta Chi and Sigma Alpha Mu fraternities face temporary suspensions, the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity will have its FOA terminated for a minimum of four years. It is unclear when the violations in all three chapters took place or when the University moved to suspend and terminate their FOAs.

In an unlisted video posted to YouTube by the Pi Kappa Alpha Memorial Headquarters, Justin A. Buck, executive vice president of the national Pi Kappa Alpha organization, said the University’s chapter is confirmed to have engaged in severe, unspecified hazing behavior that led to their termination.

Buck did not share additional details about the hazing, but added that he supports what he called “individual pursuit” by the University against over 20 members of Pi Kappa Alpha, which he said could lead to their expulsion. Additionally, Buck said the Pi Kappa Alpha national organization plans to pursue civil litigation against individual members of the chapter who are responsible for the hazing incidents.

Pi Kappa Alpha’s termination brings the total number of FOA terminations to three in the past two years, along with the Kappa Alpha and Phi Gamma Delta fraternities, whose FOAs were terminated in 2022.

Honor Committee plans Dorm Talks and finals week initiatives

The Honor Committee convened Sunday to discuss various options for “finals pushes” — the efforts the Committee makes to support students during finals season. The Committee also deliberated on options for Dorm Talks on artificial intelligence, which will serve to inform new students about the ethical use of AI and gain better insight into up-and-coming perspectives.

With finals week approaching, the Committee will hold several “finals push” events, which they have offered consistently in the past. Laura Howard, chair of the Committee and third-year College student, said that the annual events are designed to support students during finals season — when people might risk missing meals due to spending time studying.

“If people are struggling to find meals because they’ve been in the library, we’ll drop off food there,” Howard said. “It’s our initiative to help people out during such a stressful time, so we try to have all of the schools [host] events.”

The Committee also plans on distributing snacks and energy drinks to University libraries throughout finals season, as well as opening a tab for Grit Coffee.

In another effort to enhance student outreach and introduce incoming students to the Honor System, the Committee will also reintroduce dorm talks in the Fall 2024 semester. These informative and conversational sessions about the Honor system — traditionally hosted by Honor in first-year residence halls — will return for the first time since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

ALBERT TANG THE CAVALIER DAILY

HRL preassigns 25 percent of returning resident advisors

Some senior residents said they feel as if they are losing their voices in the resident advisor selection process

Cecilia Mould | Staff Writer

Ahead of the 2024-25 academic year, Housing and Residence Life preassigned 25 percent of returning resident advisors to specific dorms, including all RAs with Student Disability Access Center accommodations, ahead of the customary RA drafting process. This decision caused confusion and frustration among some RAs and senior residents, who said they felt that HRL was not transparent about the reasoning for the change and did not give straightforward answers about why certain RAs were preassigned.

The Cavalier Daily interviewed multiple RAs and SRs, who agreed to speak on the condition of anonymity to avoid jeopardizing their positions as employees of HRL.

One SR said that in past years, RAs were selected through a draft system in which SRs met on a selected day in the spring semester and took turns selecting RAs to form their staff for the next academic year. While it was not guaranteed that SRs would be able to pick every person they wanted on their staff or that RAs would get their first choice of SR, the process has historically given SRs and RAs a certain degree of autonomy.

According to Deputy University Spokesperson Bethanie Glover, HRL preassigned 25 percent of all returning RAs to spe -

cific dorms this year, including all RAs with SDAC accommodations.

One SR said that HRL notified SRs of this change one week before the draft selection on April 3rd. According to this SR, HRL said they preassigned certain RAs based on data — about the individual strengths and weaknesses of returning RAs — gathered from former residents through end-of-semester evaluations.

Despite these alterations, Glover said that HRL had not made any significant changes to the resident staff selection and placement process overall. “Resident staff leaders will sometimes make minor changes to the [selection] process, and this year’s changes were shared with senior resident staff in late March,” Glover said. “Around 25% of returning resident advisors are being pre-assigned to locations across Grounds to more evenly distribute their experiences and strengths. No new or returning applicants have been removed from the process.”

Some SRs are upset with this change, with two SRs saying that it has somewhat reduced the relative autonomy they have had when choosing their staff in past years. One of these SRs also said the change was unfair to RAs, stating that it did not take their accommodation and staffing

preferences into account.

“In regards to pre-placement, it feels extremely inequitable, especially to the RAs who have just been chosen for, instead of getting to hear their voice,” he said. “It also takes a lot of power away from the senior residents who have been entrusted with making our staff and trusted with making decisions… [Using] data points just isn’t a good idea when the job we do is very relationship and human interaction based.”

He also said that the process was less transparent than usual and that the change was not communicated until late in the process. HRL did not tell RAs if they were preassigned, and SRs were asked not to inform anyone on their staff if they were preassigned, according to one SR.

Another anonymous SR said that the data used to justify this change, which HRL told SRs was based on responses from feedback forms, was not reliable.

“I would just highlight how that data [based on resident feedback forms] has so many existing biases,” she said. “It’s not required that people have to fill out these evaluations and different RAs incentivize filling out evaluations. It’s so unreliable, so the fact that that was their excuse for placing strong and weak RAs is kind of crazy to me. Also, the role that [RAs are] in is not data driven. It’s all about human

interaction and interpersonal skills.”

The same SR said that some RAs of color feel as if they were preassigned in buildings in order to make the dorm’s staff more diverse and that they feel tokenized as a result. In a written statement to The Cavalier Daily, another SR agreed, saying that preassigning RAs based on perceived diversity needs can make RAs feel as if they were selected for superficial reasons instead of their skills and experiences.

Rather than preassigning only some RAs, residential staff that spoke with The Cavalier Daily said that there might be better ways to change the draft process, such as hosting RA and SR networking events to allow RAs meet a wider range of SRs and thus make the draft process more equitable. One SR also noted that he would like any future changes to consider opinions from RAs and SRs.

Some RAs also took issue with the change, with one anonymous RA saying she felt frustrated with HRL because the pre-assignments would not benefit RAs.

“I feel like [HRL] didn’t take into consideration how any of the RAs were feeling,” she said. “It felt like we were being placed in unfamiliar situations, and I personally work best with an SR that I know and that I can

establish a relationship with or at least could have had a conversation with beforehand and talked about possibly being on their staff. To randomly place so many people just disrupts how well we work together.”

Another anonymous RA said in a written statement that he felt the new system was poorly implemented, saying that it did not take input from RAs into account.

“On the RA front, it seems like the biggest problem was people being assigned to dorms that were misaligned with their preferences,” he said. “Personally, I don’t think it’s fair to completely ignore the requests of people who have dedicated two years of their college experience to the [HRL] program. I understand that HRL wants to spread out ‘different talents’ across all the dorms, but I think by upsetting these RAs they are only going to make things worse for themselves.”

HRL’s student co-chairs, who work with HRL to select, train and evaluate resident staff, did not respond to requests for comment.

ADAIRE BURNSED THE CAVALIER DAILY

Senior residents were informed about the change a week before the draft selection on April 3rd, according to an SR.

School of Data Science building to advance collaborative work

The newly-constructed school is the first building to be completed in the Ivy Corridor project

Lexie Stadler | Senior Writer

With new classrooms, student research areas and sustainability-focused architecture, the new School of Data Science building will not only serve data science students and faculty, but act as a hub for interdisciplinary collaboration and research at the University. The SDS works to live up to its nickname as “a school without walls” through both the building’s open layout and the curriculum’s goal of promoting research and collaboration across disciplines.

The new SDS building spans approximately 60,000 square feet and rises four stories high. It features four classrooms, two with 75-person capacities and two with 45-person capacities. The building also features two seminar rooms distributed across three levels, and both the classrooms and seminar rooms contain flexible furniture arrangements conducive to group work.

The SDS spaces are also transparent, with faculty offices and study spaces close in proximity to each other and surrounded by large glass windows.

The School of Data Science building is located on the Ivy Corridor, a University-owned parcel of land that spans approximately 14.5 acres at the intersection of Emmet Street and Ivy Road. The University Foundation — an organization responsible for expanding large real-estate developments at the University — states that the project timeline began in 1992. The grant to support the SDS establishment was provided by the Quantitative Foundation — a private foundation based in Charlottesville and led by Jaffray Woodriff, trustee and class of 1991 alumnus.

According to Emma Candelier, director of communications for the SDS, the building will open its doors and classroom spaces to students studying within the data science major in the Fall 2024 semester, hosting an inaugural cohort of 75 students.

Candelier said that the building provides a distinct collaborative space to data science students for the first time. Previously, data science courses were spread across Grounds in various locations, such as the Dell buildings and the School of Education. Candelier said that the SDS building now provides a hub for students to exchange ideas and research together, serving as the first home-base for data science students.

“It is [now] a physical embod -

iment of a school that was an institute,” Candelier said. “[We have] an actual physical space to say, this is our home, this is where we teach, this is where we learn [and] this is where we research together … I think that’s really important.”

The data science major, approved in March 2023, requires students to complete 120 credit hours over the span of three years. The major program currently has a cap of 75 students per cohort, which does not include students pursuing a data science minor. All the core classes required for the B.S. in Data Science major will be held in the SDS building beginning Fall 2024, with the possible exception of certain introductory classes, which may be held in other buildings depending on their size. However, the almost 800 students enrolled in the data science minor — introduced in July 2020 — will continue attending classes outside the physical SDS building due to space constraints. Despite these limitations, Candelier said that all students are welcome in the SDS space, regardless of their academic pathway.

The SDS building itself is also geared towards interdisciplinary collaboration. Referred to as the “nexus of discovery” within the Ivy Corridor, the SDS currently engages in five domains of interdisciplinary research, according to its website — health and medicine, environment and architecture, governance policy and society, education and research development and science and computation. Arlyn Burgess, associate dean of administration for the SDS, said that opportunities for cross-discipline work are not limited, but instead encouraged, as data science is propelled by the need for discovery in other fields.

“We see ourselves as a school that doesn’t want to be constrained,” Burgess said. “The idea of school without walls is removing limitations to the ways that we can grow and develop as we see what the future of data science holds.”

Beyond the open and transparent layout, the building also works to advance environmental sustainability — features such as ample natural lighting, openable windows that naturally ventilate, solar panels and an automated energy system are designed to promote green energy use longterm.

The SDS has previously com -

mitted itself to sustainability, in line with the University’s aim of reaching carbon neutrality by 2030. Burgess said that the building hosts 159 solar panels, generating approximately 70,000 kilowatt hours of clean energy.

To manage day-to-day energy consumption, however, the SDS will collect data on its own usage. The building’s energy system, facilitated by a Building Automation System, tracks energy consumption through sensors monitoring lighting, heating and other factors. The BAS also optimizes energy usage by deactivating HVAC systems in unoccupied areas of the building. Burgess emphasized that these data-driven metrics not only promote sustainability but also offer opportunities for students and faculty to analyze new data.

“The building automation system was made to be sophisticated so that it could actually respond to the [energy] data,” Burgess said. “The building [is] a living laboratory, where faculty and students can actually get ac -

cess to the data about the building and help create initiatives to nudge behavior to better utilize the building [and] create better energy usage.”

Though the SDS building offers a new space for collaboration, current faculty and staff numbers have grown significantly since the building’s planning stage. Burgess said that when the SDS building project first began in 2019, there were 16 staff and five faculty members, compared to the school’s 53 staff members and 55 faculty members today. Burgess said that the SDS may have to shift the building’s space usage in the future to accommodate the growth of the SDS, which can be made possible through the flexible and open layout of the SDS building.

“While we don’t have a lot of extra room here, for the next 10 years of growth, we do feel like we’ve created a very flexible framework and a very beautiful space,” Burgess said.

Construction is underway for other buildings in the Ivy Corri -

dor, housing various facilities and institutes like the Karsh Institute of Democracy — a University organization dedicated to preserving democracy through civic engagement. Additionally, a $50 million performing and visual arts center will provide venues for music and art, and a hotel and conference center known as the Virginia Guesthouse will create additional space for those visiting Grounds. The corridor will serve as a bridge between North Grounds, Arts Grounds and Central Grounds.

The opening celebration and ribbon cutting ceremony for the SDS will take place April 26, and the building will officially open to the public May 8. Faculty and staff will move into the building after the end of the Spring 2024 semester.

ALBERT TANG THE CAVALIER DAILY

The School of Data Science building is located on the Ivy Corridor, a University-owned parcel of land that spans approximately 14.5 acres at the intersection of Emmet Street and Ivy Road.

Local businesses make a return to the Corner

As a number of small businesses re-emerge on the Corner, community members commend the hub’s local character.

Arshiya Pant | Senior Writer

Keen observers walking along the Corner the past few months may have noticed some particularly nostalgic changes. From Littlejohn’s Deli making its way back to 1427 University Ave to a sign pointing pedestrians towards the newly-opened Chaps Ice Cream, a surge in local businesses has prompted many community members to both reflect on the storied past of the Corner and wonder about its future.

The Corner has historically served as a hub for University students, as well as Charlottesville community members at large. From restaurants such as The Virginian and The White Spot to shops such as Finch and Heartwood Books, the Corner has offered a wide range of recreational activities to visitors and locals alike.

However, the takeover of several big businesses, such as fast food restaurant Raising Cane’s which opened last semester, coupled with the loss of local shops, including sandwich shop Sammy’s on the Corner which closed in 2022, caused some worry for community members who expressed concern that the area’s local touch would be lost.

Rob Jiranek, owner of local guidebook and website Charlottesville Guide, has learned about the history and businesses of the Corner over the past five years during his time overseeing the publication. According to Jiranek, local businesses can struggle to compete for customers with chain restaurants and other big businesses that often have financial advantages.

“I think it is a bit of a struggle to maintain [the Corner’s] local character,” Jiranek said. “I mean, the fear is that you get more Chipotles and Cane’s chicken — [these are] certainly good services and popular with students, but when they come in, it usually means the loss of a local business. So I think that’s the risk [of having big businesses on the Corner], and I think that struggle is ongoing.”

Big businesses, due to increased financial stability and higher staffing levels that allow for longer hours and greater consistency, have grown to be popular among students. When Raising Cane’s opened in September 2023, students lined up outside the restaurant as early as 6 a.m. to be one of the first to eat at the new location. Second-year College student Will Holland was one of those students and said in an interview with The Cavalier Daily that he was excited for the brand’s expansion onto the Corner.

“I think the Corner is a really cool place for this [business], I love Raising Cane’s,” Holland said.

Other chains like Chipotle consistently attract large numbers of visitors, in part due to the popularity and name recognition of the brand,

but also due to competitive prices and hours.

While some students like the presence of large brands and fastfood chains near Grounds, others, such as fourth-year College student Sammy Finnegan, said she hopes the resurgence of small businesses such as Chaps and Littlejohn’s set a precedent that local businesses can flourish on the Corner. As someone who grew up going to Arch’s on the Corner, another ice cream shop, Finnegan said she was thrilled at the return of a local ice cream store after an Auntie Anne’s pretzel store had previously taken over the space.

“It was sad to see a big place take over,” Finnegan said. “I’m excited that a local [store] is getting an extra place to flourish … like other local businesses around here and hopefully continue to encourage the idea of having local businesses stay here.”

According to Jiranek, one reason small businesses struggle to stay open is due to their more vulnerable financial positions compared to larger competitors. He said big businesses and chains are far more likely to accept lease increases from landlords that local businesses may not be able to afford.

Despite this struggle, several “mom-and-pop shops” have remained

an important part of the Corner. One of these is Ragged Mountain Running and Walking Shop, which has been located on the Corner since its opening in 1982. The shop was originally opened by Mark and Cynthia Lorenzoni after they graduated from Michigan State University, and is now owned and operated by their children, Alec Lorenzoni and Audrey Lorenzoni Sackson.

According to Lorenzoni Sackson, one thing that provides their smaller shop a competitive advantage is that it has a mutually beneficial relationship with the University like many other Corner businesses — students don’t just shop there, they find job opportunities at stores as well. She estimated that 90 percent of Ragged Mountain employees during the academic year are students.

According to Lorenzoni Sackson, the shop’s close relationship with the community allows for unique interactions and partnerships with locals and University students that bigger businesses may not offer. These may include individual partnerships, promotions and a wide range of other collaborations with local and student athletes.

“When the student groups go looking for prizes, giveaways and sponsorships, they don’t go to the big

box stores,” Lorenzoni Sackson said. “They come to the tiny stores, momand-pop shops like us. It just goes back to the history of it all … having brick and mortar stores like us, Mincers, Heartwood, Finch and all those great businesses is just nice.”

Littlejohn’s employee Darryl Rojas worked at the deli on-and-off from 1996 to 2010, and returned to the restaurant again after it was reestablished earlier this year. Rojas said the local aspect of the store has not only created a community atmosphere, but has also created a one-ofa-kind dining experience that bigger chain restaurants often do not.

“The sandwiches are nowhere else in the world,” Rojas said. “You get to have a unique taste, first of all, and then being a student at U.Va., it almost becomes a tradition … Littlejohn’s was a go-to spot.”

According to Rojas, Littlejohn’s contribution in bringing a local element back to the Corner has allowed a welcoming, familiar atmosphere that allows for more personal customer connections and dining experiences.

“I usually come and check in on [customers] and ask them ‘how did you enjoy it,’” Rojas said. “I get a lot of what I call ‘happy chewing faces.’”

According to Jiranek, shifts

towards larger businesses are particularly concerning. Jiranek said business turnovers in favor of larger chains often result in a weaker connection between the shops and their customers.

“There are plenty of people that can name … the personnel in these [local] restaurants,” Jiranek said. “I mean, who can name the person at Chipotle or Cane’s? It’s not the same. These franchises are, I think, a risk to the Corner because they’re less personable by definition, by business model.”

Despite the financial stability that gives an advantage to bigger businesses, Jiranek said local shops and restaurants’ abilities to maintain closer relationships to the University community helps them better understand the unique proposition of operating a business on the Corner.

“There’s just a local personality and a proximity to the Charlottesville community, to the Charlottesville culture that is well understood,” Jiranek said.

ROBBIE FAVARO THE CAVALIER DAILY From restaurants such as The Virginian and The White Spot to shops such as Finch and Heartwood Books, the Corner offers a wide range of recreational activities to visitors and locals alike.

OPINION

LEAD EDITORIAL

Scapegoating students won’t stop hazing

The University must begin to deal proactively with a culture of hazing which administrative inaction continues to permit

In response to confirmed reports of “abhorrent and detestable” hazing activities, the University has expelled Pi Kappa Alpha for four years, and the national organization has revoked the chapter’s charter. Pi Kappa Alpha’s national organization has released a video detailing the “embarrassment” that individual members of the University chapter have caused the fraternity as a whole. Moreover, the national organization has asserted that they will be pursuing civil litigation against multiple individual members.

This instance of hazing is not abnormal. Neither is the response of the national organization. Both fit into a larger culture in which blame for hazing is deflected onto individuals. The University has contributed to this culture by retroactively addressing hazing with punishments for individual students and organizations and failing to take proactive measures that deal with hazing. This narrative of individualized responsibility is harmful because it fundamentally neglects the systemic nature of hazing in fraternities.

The hazing which prompted the University’s termination of Pi Kappa Alpha is by no means rare. In 2022, the University terminated its Fraternal Organization Agreements with Phi Gamma Delta and Kappa Alpha Order for “severe hazing behavior.” The same year, Kappa Sigma and St. Anthony Hall were suspended. This semester, Kappa Sigma has again been suspended. Theta Chi and Sigma Alpha Mu have also had their FOAs suspended this year. This litany of suspensions speaks to the pervasive nature of hazing within fraternities.

Despite the culture that is at fault, the national organization of Pi Kappa Alpha went to great lengths to distance itself from these hazing allegations and paint them as “hazing actions by individuals.” Moreover, in pursuing litigation against former members, the national organization further endeavors to distance themselves from the “outliers” who participated in hazing new members. The longevity of this culture suggests that blaming individuals is simplistic at

best and counterproductive at worst.

Many critics have argued that national organizations and alumni networks are themselves uniquely responsible for perpetuating this culture within fraternities. This should not be surprising — national organizations and alumni networks have long lobbied to tip the scales in favor of tradition. This, perhaps more than any singular individual action, has normalized hazing and protected organizations from the consequences of it.

Universities are not exempt from inculcating this culture. Here, the University has taken a hands off approach to Greek life. Each year, the University re-signs its FOA with each non-suspended fraternity present on Grounds. The main purpose of this agreement is to formalize a relationship in which fraternities and the University are largely independent. In practice, this separation means that the University has limited jurisdiction over fraternity behaviors. In this way, the University tacitly endorses a prevalent hazing culture while also formalizing a system in

which they have little responsibility to actually address this culture.

But when hazing becomes publicized, administration cracks down — they punish individual members, suspend organizations and reiterate anti-hazing rhetoric. In short, they publicly overcompensate for their previous hands-off approach in a way that punishes the individual without proactively working to address the culture. This cycle of underregulation and extreme punishment is both punitive and ineffective and permits the University to absolve itself of its institutional responsibility to find means through which to address hazing.

For many students and alumni, fraternal organizations are a logical extension of the educational community which the University seeks to build — at their best, they create long-lasting relationships, provide mentorship and contribute positively to the community and to daily student life. However, national fraternal organizations, University administration and, to some degree, students have spent too long

with their heads buried in the sand, unwilling to deal constructively with the culture of hazing that is prevalent in fraternity life.

There are no easy solutions to a problem as pervasive as this one, but it is clear that individualizing the blame simply enables this culture to grow. Instead of retroactively responding to extreme hazing allegations, we, and especially the University, must begin asking more probing questions about the role of fraternal organizations on Grounds. For in asking these questions, we will be able to investigate the underlying assumptions which ground Greek life in our community. Perhaps, the first question worth asking is whether these organizations should continue to exist at all.

OPINION

Ramp up physical accessibility on Grounds

According to the Americans with Disabilities Act, public universities are not required to make existing facilities accessible for individuals with disabilities. It is unsurprising, but also disappointing that the University is inaccessible — certain dorms and paths to class engender a culture of ableism. Disabled students are continually affected by this caveat in the ADA. By limiting students with disabilities’ access to Grounds, the University limits access to the student experience on Grounds. In the absence of comprehensive legislation, the University must take responsibility for the inaccessibility of Grounds and work to promote accessibility for all students despite misguided laws.

The Student Disability Access Center serves students with disabilities, ensuring that they have full access to the University landscape. In keeping with this mission, SDAC defines mobility impairments that students with disabilities may face — from a twisted ankle to a chronic, invisible illness. Considering these challenges that students with mobility impairments face, SDAC has worked under ADA guidelines to provide accessibility maps. These illustrate all routes and buildings on Grounds, labeling them as bar-

Our University continues to overlook infrastructural inaccessibility, estranging students with disabilities

rier-free for students with disabilities, partially accessible or “other.”

However, in this attempt to help students with disabilities navigate Grounds, the University has utterly failed to adequately deal with the lack of barrier-free structures. In fact, these accessibility maps perpetuate falsehoods about the accessibility of structures and paths on Grounds. Many of the most popular

buildings that are relatively close together. Having such a systemically inaccessible physical landscape on Grounds inhibits various students with mobility issues, making their daily commute difficult and, at times, impossible.

In addition to the inaccessible routes on Grounds, only one third of first-year dormitories are considered to be “barrier free,” and

that have mobility impairments in Gooch-Dillard. Conclusively, it seems that the “partially accessible” label overshadows massive inaccessibility for residents with disabilities.

Gooch-Dillard fits into a larger norm of ableist dorm structures. Other first-year dorms including Courtenay, Dunglison and Fitzhugh share similar character-

If accessibility is a focus of the 2030 agenda, then the administration must be doing more than installing a couple of ramps on the Lawn.”

areas on Grounds are inaccessible and inconveniently laid out on the accessibility maps provided by the University.

And the examples speak for themselves. For a student to get from Brandon Avenue to the Lawn, it would require a route through elevators, ramps and buildings that are not clearly labeled or detailed on the map itself. If a student with disabilities had a fifteen-minute space between their classes, it would be difficult for that student to make it on time even from New Cabell Hall to Monroe Hall — two

two-thirds are “partially accessible.” “Partially accessible” is an exceptionally ambiguous term that often obscures a fundamentally inaccessible reality. For example, the Gooch-Dillard suite-style dorms are considered “partially accessible,” but a closer examination reveals that they are not even remotely accessible. These dorms sit on steep hills with no way of getting to the bus stop without stairs and second-floor suite bathrooms that are inaccessible without using stairs. In this way, it is borderline impossible to accommodate students

As promised in President Ryan’s 2030 plan, the University aims to become an institution of greater educational and economic accessibility for new students. It is ironic, then, that the University has so consistently overlooked the physical accessibility needs of students with disabilities. If accessibility is a focus of the 2030 agenda, then the administration must be doing more than installing a couple of ramps on the Lawn. Instead, they must renovate existing structures with an eye for complete — not just partial — accessibility. Taking a firm step towards physical accessibility will hold our University to a higher standard and allow the institution to more completely realize its mission of accessibility, providing a truly top-tier, safe and accessible environment for all students.

SCARLETT SULLIVAN is a senior associate opinion ediotr who writes about politics for The Cavalier Daily. She can be reached at opinion@cavalierdaily.com.

istics to Gooch-Dillard — steep hills to reach the dorms and no elevators to get to one’s suite. Additionally, according to accessibility maps, the upper-class housing complex Lambeth boasts a single elevator. Hereford Residential College, while wheelchair-accessible to a certain point, requires stairs for most floors. New and old dorms alike struggle to provide accessible entrances and wheelchair-accessible elevator access with split-level floor designs. By not constructing uniformly accessible dormitories, the University forces students with disabilities who live on-Grounds to be constantly restricted in their day-to-day routine in a way that able-bodied students simply are not.

True financial aid must be transparent

The University has a duty to its applicants and students to make its financial aid and admissions process more transparent

Education reform is a hot button topic in legislative bodies across the country, but it is often discussed without any commitment to tangible change. Due to this lack of legislative action, reform occasionally sprouts from the courts instead of legislatures.

Such an instance is currently underway as a lawsuit against elite institutions across the country alleges that many universities have been abusing a legal exception in order to avoid paying out as much financial aid as they should. Though the University is not targeted by the lawsuit, the implications and revelations of the lawsuit should inspire greater transparency at the University in order to ensure that financial aid is properly and equitably distributed.

Universities are permitted to collaborate on how they calculate financial aid for the purpose of achieving consistent calculation methods across schools. But they are forbidden from taking a students’ financial needs into account when admitting students. Doing so would give universities the discriminatory power to avoid admitting students who would cost too much. However, the recent lawsuit mentioned above alleges that some

institutions colluded in using their financial aid calculations in a way that prioritized wealthier students. This is in contrast to their legal responsibility — simply distributing aid to students already admitted.

And based on these schools’ behavior, it appears these universities were caught red handed. Dartmouth and Northwestern, among many other universities, recently paid out. The sheer number of schools settling is indicative of an institutional failure within higher education to equitably deploy financial aid calculation methods. It is clear that change is needed within the financial aid systems of higher education.

preemptively instead of correcting after illegal behavior occurs. This scrutiny is particularly relevant here because the University has already struggled to diversify its student body across economic backgrounds. Despite providing and advertising bountiful student aid packages, the University continues

the University’s nominal commitment to financial aid is laudable, a notable lack of transparency in financial aid makes it difficult to be confident that the financial aid office practices what it preaches. When examining this lack of transparency alongside a lack of economic diversity, it is not difficult

The University has not been committed to making tools in the financial aid process accessible to the disenfranchised.”

to rank last out of all state flagships in relation to economic diversity. Despite the University’s verbal commitments to diversity, it is clear more action is needed.

Although the University was not explicitly challenged by this lawsuit, the same scrutiny deployed at other universities should also be used here.

This will help the University to ensure that fair practices are maintained

The University has a track record of avoiding transparency in the financial aid process. When it was discovered in 2022 that only nine percent of colleges reported accurate financial aid packages, more than 360 colleges pledged to make the financial aid process more transparent and share more intricate details about their financial aid packages. The University was not one of these colleges. While

to conclude that there must be a connection. The University has not been committed to making tools in the financial aid process accessible to the disenfranchised. Outside evaluation is key to safeguard the decision making that ensures equity remains at the forefront of our financial aid practices. Obviously, complete transparency in financial aid is not possible. However, there are not merely two extreme options — complete transparency or complete secrecy. Colleges should be more than capable of releasing more detailed analysis of their financial aid processes without disclosing critical

information. In this way, they can provide necessary information that would benefit students while also preventing the pitfalls of complete transparency. The trust between administration and student bodies seems to have been broken across the country. In the wake of this fracture, the University can and should take steps toward making convoluted systems more transparent and digestible for the public. Releasing more comprehensive data on aid, breaking down types of aid and making calculations accurate would not reveal exactly how decisions are made, but they would ensure that the outcomes of decisions could be analyzed for unethical activity. Through this, the University would be able to submit itself to informal public review, ensuring protection for low-income applicants in the future. The University should make a point to stand away from the crowd by pulling back at least a portion of the curtain that veils financial aid and admissions.

PAUL KURTZWEIL

is a senior associate opinion editor who writes about economics, business and housing for The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at opinion@cavalierdaily.com.

Haunted by 2023 defeat, Virginia gets Notre Dame rematch

A mammoth regular-season finale carries palpable anticipation and postseason implications

Michael Liebermann | Senior Associate

Nobody has to mention the last time Virginia men’s lacrosse played Notre Dame. The thought of it just lingers in everyone’s minds — the late lead that evaporated and the four Fighting Irish goals in four minutes to send Virginia trundling home. Now, though, a rematch is on the horizon, an inescapable narrative swirling around Saturday’s charged rematch.

The heartbreaking 2023 loss has hardly entered this team’s conversations. It was the kind of defeat that mentally stuck with the players and coaches alike, so painful it needs no mention. But it has served as a motivating force for what has generally been a victorious season thus far.

“How much of a topic of conversation has it been? It hasn’t been,” offensive coordinator Kevin Cassese said in March. “But it hasn’t had to be. And the reason why is because that loss and that hurt is something that got stuck with the guys and continues to stick with them.”

Cassese has viewed the situation from a unique vantage point, having just joined the staff this offseason and so having dodged the firsthand pain. He has only experienced the agony through the sustained suffering of the men he coaches and the staff he works alongside.

“That is something that is just intrinsically going to motivate the guys,” Cassese said.

Cassese, a veteran coach and decorated former player, a man familiar with the proceedings of a lacrosse season, can certainly understand. He can understand the sleepless nights and the heaving mental torture. Coach Lars Tiffany, though, has lived with the ache since the final buzzer in May.

“It still lingers,” Tiffany said in November. “It motivates, though.”

In the loss’ aftermath, Tiffany turned to a familiar resource for guidance on how to move forward. He needed someone acquainted with a similar kind of suffering, someone who understood the feeling — he needed some wisdom from another veteran coach.

So Tiffany visited the best, closest consultant on this topic. Another title-winning coach, Tony Bennett, who works just a Matt Nunes bomb-clear away from Klöckner Stadium. Bennett’s 2018 loss to No. 16 seed University of Maryland, Baltimore County, brought on an onslaught of frustrated anguish — but the subsequent 2019 National Championship converted him into an authority on rebuilding.

All sorts of coaches have now turned to Bennett for advice, most notably Purdue men’s basketball coach Matt

Painter after his own team’s loss to a No. 16 seed.

“[Bennett] called it the painful gift,” Tiffany said. “I’ve used that phrase myself. And so it’s something that drives and motivates us.”

The memory of the loss propelled Tiffany’s team through fall practices and well into the spring season. The Cavaliers shredded their first three opponents, all ranked teams, before losing to No. 3 Johns Hopkins. Then they rattled off seven wins in a row, getting back to their dominant winning ways.

But uncertainty has arrived. No. 2 Duke drubbed Virginia, 18-12 April 14, raising warning signs of wobbliness. The Cavaliers then traveled to the JMA Wireless Dome April 20 to confront No. 7 Syracuse, fighting in an instant classic.

The game featured blinding action, goals rocketing both ways before a crowd of 8,348, charting a riveting chapter in a legendary rivalry. But Virginia surrendered the game’s final four goals to lose 18-17, conjuring up echoes of the painful fall to Notre Dame, in which the Cavaliers also fumbled a late lead.

“Today was an epic, heroic game,” Tiffany said after the Syracuse game.

“We lost today’s battle. But we haven’t lost the war.”

The next battlefield is Klöckner Stadium, and the timing seems almost poetic. A rematch of last year’s Final Four thriller — concluding conference play in spectacular fashion — seems almost too good to be true.

“The ACC,” Tiffany said. “Who knows what they do?”

Schedule manipulation or otherwise, things worked out nicely. The eyes of the lacrosse world will now swivel to Charlottesville to witness a fascinating matchup. On one side sit the Fighting Irish, who are second in the nation in scoring offense, man-up offense, scoring margin and shot percentage. On the other side sit the Cavaliers, who lead the nation in assists per game, ground balls per game, and rank second in created turnovers per game and clearing percentage.

The stats present a fairly accurate marker of the teams’ styles. Notre Dame is efficient and punishing. Virginia is more scrappy, a little less refined, its identity resting on a foundation of grit and tenacity. All told, it makes for an appetizing matchup between a team that has scarcely faced a bump in the road and one that almost

seems to aim for them.

Notre Dame Coach Kevin Corrigan holds a roster brimming with talent. Graduate goalie Liam Entenmann is the putative best goalie in the nation. Graduate attackman Pat Kavanagh and junior attackman Chris Kavanagh operate a loaded attack alongside graduate attackman Jake Taylor. Then there is the midfield trio — senior Eric Dobson, freshman Jordan Faison and graduate student Devon McLane — the heart of Notre Dame’s offensive engine.

Virginia, of course, has its own firepower. Graduate attackman Connor Shellenberger is a frontrunner for the Tewaaraton Award — the accolade given each year to the most outstanding college lacrosse player — graduate attackman Payton Cormier leads the nation in goals per game and freshman attackman McCabe Millon is arguably the country’s best newcomer. Virginia’s midfield is stacked and crafty, and the defense is hounding and physical.

The imminent rematch perhaps lacks the complete majestic appeal it presented a few weeks ago, when Notre Dame occupied the No. 1 ranking and Virginia perched at No. 2. Still, many storylines surround this immi-

nent weekend clash. Notre Dame is seeking an emphatic conclusion to a dominant season, and Virginia is aiming to escape from the mud that has bogged it down the last couple of weeks. Both are gunning for priority ACC Tournament and NCAA Tournament seeding. And then, of course, there is the emotional side of the rematch.

“I couldn’t wait to get another stab at those guys,” senior defenseman Cole Kastner said.

Kastner mentioned he circled the game on his calendar the moment the schedule came out. But, then again, it needs no further hyping up or physical representation of its importance. It has roosted in everyone’s heads since May.

“It’s haunted me,” Tiffany said.

The ghosts have clearly endured for months, but now Virginia gets a chance to dispel them. A victory against the Fighting Irish would provide cathartic revenge, stabilize a teetering team and serve as the launchpad for another potentially incredible postseason run.

ALBERT TANG | THE CAVALIER DAILY

Virginia battled against Notre Dame in the 2023 Final Four, ultimately losing in the final minute.

Women’s swimming and diving — the newest NCAA dynasty

The Cavaliers furthered the program’s legacy in 2024, but they can still go even further

Grace Gould | Senior Associate

Last month at the 2024 NCAA Championship, the Virginia women’s swimming and diving team secured its fourth straight national title — that achievement only extended the dynasty the program has been building for years. While they aren’t alone in winning four consecutive championships — Texas and Stanford won five straight titles in 1988 and 1996, respectively — Virginia may soon join those ranks in 2025. Made possible by top-notch recruiting, the program remains at the top of the sport despite constant key losses in personnel.

The recent rise of Virginia and its world-class swimmers can be traced back to the 2017 hiring of Coach Todd DeSorbo. Before DeSorbo’s hiring, the Cavaliers were a modestly successful program, finishing in 12th at the 2017 NCAA Championship. DeSorbo’s coaching abilities were on immediate display the following season, as Virginia rose to ninth at the 2018 NCAA Championship and captured the ACC title. It would still be another three years before the Cavaliers would win their first National Championship, but DeSorbo’s impact was felt right away as he began recruiting top swimmers from around the country.

The key to the success of Virginia’s program is inextricably linked to recruitment success with superstar athletes such as Kate Douglass, senior Alex Walsh and Paige Madden. At the 2021 NCAA Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships, those three athletes all won individual golds, carrying the Cavaliers to the top spot.

While the loss of Madden hurt in 2022, the Cavaliers persevered to defend their national title thanks to contributions from then-freshmen Emma Weyant and Gretchen Walsh, winning four of five relays. This was the first of many times that Virginia showed an ability to shrug off the loss of key team members and keep pushing forward.

Virginia’s ascension to national dominance was still not over after its back-to-back success, as DeSorbo’s team claimed the 2023 NCAA Championship by 127 points over Texas, winning all five relays this time. This huge margin of victory came despite the loss of Weyant to Florida, a blow that was cushioned by the transfer arrival of then-junior Maxine Parker from Georgia. Parker swam on the Cavaliers’ 200-meter and 400-meter relay-winning teams at the NCAA

Championship, also placing top15 in three individual events.

After another key personnel loss in the 2023-24 season, this time it was a graduating Douglass, it was clear that someone would have to step up for Virginia. Douglass had three individual event wins at the 2023 NCAA Championship and had been a strong leader for the Cavaliers throughout her career. Answering the call, Gretchen Walsh stepped up big time by winning a total of seven gold medals at the 2024 NCAA Championship and smashing three American records in individual events. Thanks to Walsh’s display, Virginia was nationally victorious for a fourth consecutive season.

While Virginia’s four-peat is in part due to the program’s ability to replace its superstar swimmers, DeSorbo doesn’t just excel in the recruiting world — he possesses outstanding coaching talents too. A recent example of his guidance is graduate student Jasmine Nocentini, a Northwestern transfer that Virginia landed coming into this season. While Nocentini had never previously scored a point at an NCAA Championship, she proved crucial for the Cavaliers, winning the 100-yard breaststroke nation -

al title and four relay gold medals to help the team to victory. Virginia is clearly a program bigger than any one athlete, but they may not be much bigger than DeSorbo.

Luckily for DeSorbo and his staff, they still have one more year before they have to replace another world superstar — Alex Walsh, a 19-time individual NCAA champion during her four-year run with the Cavaliers, announced Monday on Instagram that she will return to Virginia for a fifth season. Her return is crucial for Virginia’s squad, which, with the addition of new faces, may prove stronger than ever next season.

Freshmen Cavan Gormsen and Tess Howley had very promising debut seasons, both earning First-Team All-American honors. The Cavaliers will also benefit from the arrival of Leah Hayes — the No. 2 swimmer in the 2024 recruiting class — and the return of sophomore Claire Curzan, who redshirted this year to prepare for the Paris Olympics this summer. With these additions and the return of both Walsh sisters, Virginia is shaping up to be in peak form for next season.

While Virginia is indisputably the most dominant pro -

gram in recent memory, it must continue to sustain long-term success to be considered the alltime greatest dynasty in women’s swimming and diving. In NCAA history, Stanford has won eleven championships, while Georgia and Texas have won seven each. The Cavaliers rest on four as of 2024, but they appear poised to push that number upwards in the near future.

In the end, regardless of which school is heralded as the greatest of all time historically, it is glaringly obvious that Virginia is the greatest women’s swimming school of the modern era. When next season comes around, Virginia will be looking to match the Longhorns and the Cardinal in the NCAA’s history books. If DeSorbo and his staff continue to cultivate star power at the level they have in the last half decade, they may be headed down that path.

ALBERT TANG THE CAVALIER DAILY

DeSorbo and the Cavaliers celebrate their fourth consecutive NCAA Championship.

At Virginia wushu, everybody is “Kung Fu Fighting”

A derivative of kung fu, University wushu is making its mark on the national collegiate stage

Xander Tilock | Sports Editor

Their kicks are fast as lightning, their ascension to dominance is inspiring and their performance is electric and breathtaking. Under the leadership of Markus Lin, outgoing president of Virginia club wushu and second-year Engineering student, wushu is a strong representative of excellence for amateur University athletics across all levels of competition.

To understand collegiate wushu, one must first travel back to the sport’s origin. Developed in 1949, wushu standardized the traditional practice of Chinese martial arts. It is a complete curriculum that incorporates tai chi, kung fu and other earlier practices. While not included in the NCAA, wushu is a thriving sport within several collegiate communities, such as UCLA, Stanford, Oregon, Ohio State and Texas.

“[Wushu] is a competition-based sport,” Lin said. “It has been highly tailored to the competition environment … It allows for consistent scoring across multiple judges and schools.”

An inter-school competition meet features three levels — beginner, intermediate and advanced. Each level also features different events based on the type of weapon — barehand, staff, straight sword and broadsword. Unlike other sports, wushu begins with each competitor already holding the max points one can win.

For advanced levels, competitors start out at 10 points, while intermediate competitors begin at eight or nine points and beginners start with a max of seven points. The goal of a round is to limit errors, as a mistake results in lost points.

Virginia wushu is unique for its dual purpose. The Cavaliers recently traveled to a national competition hosted by UCLA, where the Cavalier squad tied for the most gold medals and placed third overall in total medals. While the team dominates in competition, they also proudly perform choreographed demonstrations at the University’s Chinafest, helmed by the Chinese Student Association. Elite national and local success aside, the team is open to new members with little previous wushu experience. Many of the club’s current members joined from the activities fair, endeavoring to learn a sport that was completely new to them.

“Wushu is definitely beginner-friendly,” Lin said. “There is

a very clear starting point … How much energy you put into wushu is what you’ll see coming out.”

With minimal barriers to entry, Virginia wushu offers so much more than fun competitions and inspired demonstrations. According to the BMC Psychology journal, martial arts also provide the added benefit of improved mental health. The sport’s artistic and performative elements coalesce towards a focus on discipline, precision, passion, balance, coordination and full-body exercise.

“A big component of wushu is self-improvement,” Lin said. “Training to see yourself improve.”

Lin has certainly drawn a rewarding experience from the sport, as he has been practicing wushu — with an emphasis on kung fu — for years. His older

brother, Chris Lin — who choreographed stage combat for Shakespeare on the Lawn — graduated from the University in 2023 and was an active club member throughout his time on Grounds. “Wushu was a huge part of my childhood, not just as something I really enjoyed, but something hugely cultural that my brother and I could connect our Chinese heritage with,” Chris Lin said. “To this day, it remains a huge part of my identity. Wushu’s combination of athletic and aesthetic elements has never not been mesmerizing to me, and seeing the club so active, loved and shared with the greater U.Va. community has meant so much. I am so very proud of what they’ve been able to accomplish.”

Like the Lin brothers, fourthyear College student Kai Alfonso has also been involved with mar -

tial arts for many years. Visiting wushu’s station during the activities fair, Alfonso was drawn to the vibrant and inclusive group.

“What makes it fun is just the community and friendships you make,” Alfonso said. “I have been busier this semester but I am always welcome at practice and socials. It is a truly special community.”

Looking forward, Markus Lin has set plans for the team next semester. He aims to bring in new members at the fall Activities Fair and take September as an introductory month for inexperienced wushu competitors to gain an understanding of the sport. October will be set aside to prepare for performances — especially with the CSA — and November will be preparation for competition season, where the Cavaliers will likely be a

championship favorite at any given meet.

“I am excited to see the growth and direction the club will go in,” Lin said. “We’ve got a steady base of beginners and intermediates and I can’t wait to see people reach the stage where they are able to practice wushu outside of our practice on their own.”

Built on inclusive values, Virginia wushu is set up for continuous success. A strong showing at national competitions is a welcomed bonus, but the heart of wushu at the University is a personal journey of self-improvement — the very bedrock of community, athletics and a meaningful life.

MAC DOUCETTE THE CAVALIER DAILY

Fourth-year College student Kai Alfonso completes a stellar kick.

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

U.Va.’s Aerial Dance Club is taking artistry to new heights

The club stuns in their ability to create strong bonds and celebrate a unique art form

Charlotte Walden | Staff Writer

A world of gymnastics, intense movements and flowing silks exists here in Charlottesville, thanks to the University’s Aerial Dance Club. Since the group’s initial founding in 2012, the small club with a strong sense of community has masterfully weaved aerial into the fabric of the University dance scene. Through practices, end of semester showcases and, on occasion, performances on South Lawn, the club beautifully showcases their unique and intricate artform on Grounds.

Stemming from acrobatics, aerial dance requires performers to climb pieces of suspended fabric and contort themselves in the air. A combination of athleticism and grace, the dance style is a physically demanding one, requiring a great amount of upper body strength and a command of the silks to achieve the dance’s distinguishable fluid and lyrical look.

Julia Tucker, Aerial Dance Club president and thirdyear College student, said that months of physically taxing work goes into perfecting the routines and skills in their performances.

“I think it’s kind of funny because we get two different reactions [from spectators]. Sometimes people are like, ‘Oh, that looks really difficult.’ But then sometimes it’s like, ‘Oh, I could totally do that,’” Tucker said. “So I think admiring the work that we put into what we do [is important] … when you’re watching the performance, you aren’t seeing the hours of work that go into it.”

While the dance style may sound intimidating, Tucker said that a key aspect in attracting dancers to the club is their openness to students of all experience levels. Tucker shared that she herself was a newcomer to aerial when she first joined the club and had only ever practiced tap or jazz up to that point.

“I had never ever touched any aerial apparatus before joining the aerial dance team,” Tucker said. “And that’s actually a very common experience amongst our members.”

Tucker said that because of the club’s niche nature and welcoming environment, it has become extremely popular. However, Tucker explained the club can only have a maximum of 20 stu -

dents because of insurance reasons, making a spot on the team highly coveted.

To make the admittance of new members into the group unbiased, Tucker said the club has implemented a lottery-based system to ensure that everyone interested in joining — no matter their background or relationship with aerial prior to joining — has a fair chance. At the beginning of each semester, prospective members fill out an application form to enter the lottery.

“So many people apply that we do a lottery because we want to be equitable,” Tucker said. “We don’t want to [give] preference if you’ve had aerial experience because doing aerial is really expensive — we want to give [everyone] the opportunity to do it.”

Because of the club’s small number of dancers, members have fostered a close community

within the University. While Selah Mitchell — the club’s financial chair and third-year College student — said that roughly half of the club’s dancers graduated last year, she also said that this year the team has worked on rebuilding and maintaining the tight-knit nature that is integral to the group’s dynamic.

“We wanted to work on doing … different social events to make the younger members, or underclassmen feel welcome and a part of the U.Va. community,” Mitchell said. “[We want members to] know there’s a safe space within our team and there’s someone to talk to or laugh with and stuff like that.”

According to Sneha John, the club’s vice president and fourthyear College student, the Aerial Dance Club has provided a social and supportive environment. She said that her favorite aspect of

the club are the friendships it has brought her. John said that what has backdropped her favorite memories of learning difficult moves and performing at the club’s showcases are the bonds that she has created with her fellow aerialists.

“We all enjoy aerial dance, but also we somehow all really enjoyed becoming friends with each other on a larger scale,” John said. “These truly are the people who will be by my side for the rest of my life and for that I will be forever grateful to U.Va. Aerial Dance.”

Along with working hard to perfect their craft and cultivate a strong group bond, Tucker said that the group is also making more of an effort to increase their visibility outside of the dance-sphere at the University. According to Tucker, the group would love the opportunity to

perform for other organizations in the future.

“I think long term [a goal would be] maybe just growing our presence at U.Va. We have an Instagram account, but maybe growing that in size,” she said.

The future of aerial dance at the University is bright, as the club will continue to captivate students and community members alike. Students interested in becoming a part of the group will have a chance to enter their lottery in the fall. Until then, updates of the club and videos of the club’s performances can be found on their Instagram, YouTube and Facebook pages.

COURETOUSY ARIEL DANCE CLUB

Stemming from acrobatics, aerial dance requires performers to climb pieces of suspended fabric and contort themselves in the air

“The Spaces We Seek” explores displacement and belonging

The University Museums Internship Class spent the past year crafting the exhibit, which is on display at the Fralin until Jul. 14.

Emily Pitts | Senior Writer

The students in the art history department’s University Museums Internships course work with museum professionals to curate an art exhibit, carefully selecting pieces that work to highlight an important theme to the Charlottesville community. This year, the team of students worked together to curate “The Spaces We Seek,” an exhibit centering around the ways in which people take up the physical and metaphorical space around them.

The year-long, six-credit Museums Internships course is a special opportunity where students interested in museum professions can learn more through working at an art museum in Charlottesville. Partnering with either the Fralin Museum of Art or Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection, students collaborate with their classmates, working 100 hours per semester within the museum to curate an exhibit centered around a central theme of their choice.

The students in the Museum Internships class landed on “The Spaces We Seek” as their final theme. Representing a variety of different cultural backgrounds and visual art styles, the intentional selection of each piece in the exhibit explores how identity interacts with the way in which a person occupies — or is displaced from — a

space. Morgan Strassner, member of the program and fourth-year College student, spoke to the significance of space in the Fralin.

“There are so many different ways to conceptualize space and how we interact with it,” Strassner said. “We’re also using the space, the literal space of the Fralin, to amplify these stories that haven’t been [told].”

To create the perfect exhibit is meticulous in nature, and it takes a lot of time, according to Strassner. The students began working with advisor and academic curator M. Jordan Love on crafting “The Spaces We Seek” at the very beginning of the Fall 2023 semester, and their work culminated in the exhibit’s opening on Apr. 3.

“The very first class, Jordan sent us an email to start thinking about what kind of themes [we] want to explore … what [we] want to amplify in the Fralin,” Strassner said. “We all came together and discussed those themes and voted. After that, we looked in the permanent collection on the Fralin’s website, to find pieces that would fit [the theme].”

After choosing their theme, students spend the fall semester selecting the pieces that will go into the exhibit. Each student then chooses one particular piece as their contribution

and conducts extensive research on the history of the work, its artist and the way it represents the discussion of space-seeking.

According to fourth-year College student Justin Kim, collaboration is at the center of the selection process of both the theme and the individual pieces within the exhibit. Kim said he was grateful for the class’s emphasis on teamwork, which he believes was key to the success of their final product.

“I really appreciated the opportunity to not just bounce ideas off other students and with full time staff, but to have ideas rejected and suggested for improvement,” Kim said. “I think it was really unique to approach something as a group and have all our different perspectives and opinions on where we wanted to end up.”

Strassner’s piece, “The Thingly Thingness of Things” by Mexican artist Enrique Chagoya, focuses on the erasure of indigenous populations in space, an example of a voice often marginalized, especially in visual art. The work — located on the wall opposite the entrance — features an eye grabbing pop art style, which draws immediate attention upon stepping into the room.

Modern pop art is not the only style featured in the exhibit. Kim decided to display a photograph entitled “Silencio Militar” from a series by Colombian photographer Juan Manuel Echavarría. The photo contrasts two military hammocks with a classroom chalkboard, which Kim says shows the overwhelming effect of Colombian political conflict on the children of the country.

“[The photos] really captured me because of this idea of space in the absence of presence,” Kim said. “I think that sort of parody is interesting, especially in museums where people might be alone with their thoughts. They’re having a conversation with the artist and with different cultures that typically they wouldn’t encounter on a day to day basis.”

The students in the class said they hope the wide variety of pieces on display and the quiet and reflective atmosphere of the art museum encourage museum-goers to examine the spaces they inhabit in their own lives. Kim said that the variety of perspec-

“My piece mainly discusses the different ways that colonization has taken space from native individuals,” Strassner said. “When you look at it, all the heads of Native people have been covered up by white Hollywood stars and military people … It’s really interesting, his work.”

tives included in the exhibit reflects how people with diverse identities can occupy space in different ways.

“These artists don’t want their work to be purely negative, or purely showing a cynical interpretation of our world,” Kim said. “The fact is that their creative expression is lasting, and it’s meaningful. It doesn’t say just one thing about a group, their existence or the space that they’ve occupied and it can’t say one specific thing about what that process looked like for them … We wanted to definitely do away with ideas of minority groups being lost in the turning wheel of progress.”

Upon exiting the room, there is an interactive wall where visitors are invited to create their own space through drawing on and hanging up postcards. Strassner said she hopes that these postcards not only depict space but also take it up themselves and that the exhibit allows audiences to reflect on spaces in their own lives.

“The Spaces We Seek” will be on display on the second floor of the Fralin until Jul. 14. Those looking to enroll in the University Museums Internships Class next year must apply by May 1.

Sofia Romulo inspires self-expression through nail art

Romulo’s is a story of connection, creativity and confidence — all coated in several layers of gel nail polish

Melanie Chuh | Senior Writer

When money is tight and stress is at an all-time high for college students, self-care can be hard to find. But University students need not worry — second-year College student Sofia Romulo has their backs, providing fun and affordable nail art from the comfort of her cozy apartment.

Romulo’s hobby started in her junior year of high school while she was working at her friend’s parents’ nail salon as a receptionist. As her co-workers experimented with new designs on her nails, Romulo said she began to appreciate manicures as an art and vehicle for self-expression. Romulo then brought that art with her to college, doing manicures her first year as a way to make friends at the University.

“[Doing nails] was a nice way to make friends because it’s hard for a lot of people to find time and find an excuse [to hang out] one-on-one,” Romulo said. “So I feel like my first year … it was a nice way to not only meet people but also to have real conversations with them.”

Romulo documents her hobby

through an Instagram account dedicated to her nail art, where she posts photos of the nails she does for her clients. Since the account’s creation, Romulo’s following has grown well beyond just her sphere of friends to include other University students, as well as those in the greater Charlottesville community. A testament to this reach, Romulo shared that she recently was asked to do someone’s nails for their high school prom.

“I think it’s especially exciting when people come to me for stuff like [proms],” Romulo said. “I’m like, ‘Oh, you trust me for a big occasion?’”

Despite the growth in her clientele, Romulo said she has made an effort to keep her prices from going over $60 because she believes that cost should not be a barrier for those that want to treat themselves to getting their nails done.

Romulo said that the accessibility of her business has allowed her to meet people “from all over the place.”

She said that one of her favorite parts about doing the nails of people who

have found her through social media are the memorable conversations she gets to have with those she most likely wouldn’t have met otherwise.

Along with the variety of people Romulo has met through her growing clientbase, she also said she enjoys the diversity in clients’ design requests because they give her the opportunity to creatively collaborate with her customers.

When clients approach Romulo with requests for a solid color nail or a simple French tip design, Romulo said that she encourages them to go outside their comfort zones, inspiring them to get more avant-garde and unique styles. Romulo said that her encouragement has emboldened her clients to embrace nail art as “a form of self-expression” just as she does.

For Maya Roeung, a regular client of Romulo’s and fourth-year College student, getting her nails done by Romulo has allowed her to try designs she had previously been hesitant to ask for from other nail artists.

“I always had the desire to get my

nails done in these really eccentric and crazy ways, but I’ve never had the guts to go [ask for them at] a traditional nail salon,” Roeung said. “[Romulo] pulls things out of you that you don’t even know that you really wanted.”

Romulo also said she loves her clients who push her to try more challenging techniques, like 3D embellishments, bright colors or abstract shapes. Along with these intricate techniques, Romulo said her clientbase also requests themed designs, presenting her with inspiration pictures to recreate. From Spongebob Squarepants’ Bikini Bottom flowers to the Microsoft Windows logo, Romulo has brought these eccentric visions to life with precise brushstrokes.

Romulo said that what she enjoys most about the process is the creativity she gets to spark in others and the joy their nails bring them once she is able to show them the final product.

“Watching girls who sometimes don’t usually feel as girly and get their nails done, and then watching them immediately as their demeanor chang

-

es when they walk out the door … it’s very cute, and I love it,” Romulo said.

According to Romulo, the ability to provide her clients with an extra sense of self-confidence has been extremely fulfilling for her.

“Now that I’ve been doing it for a while, you see how it does change the way people look at themselves, even just for a little bit and it’s nice,” Romulo said.

Through her mastery of nail art, Romulo has become both an artist and a muse for the University and Charlottesville communities, inspiring and invigorating her clients with her creative spunk, passion for meeting new people and core belief that everyone deserves to feel confident. Schedule your own nail appointment with Romulo through her nail art Instagram, @nailsofrom.

Littlejohn’s has returned. The iconic Corner sandwich shop reopened April 15 in its storefront on University Avenue after a four-year closure. Their largely unadvertised “soft launch” welcomed students and Charlottesville residents to the refurbished deli, which — despite some modern touches — preserves the memory of the original shop. To maintain the journalistic integrity of our food subsection, we ordered $70 worth of sandwiches and sides to keep our readers informed — and our bellies full. We thoroughly enjoyed our four sandwiches, and we recommend a visit. The revived Littlejohn’s presents a delicious and conveniently located, albeit pricey, food spot that gives patrons a taste of old and new.

From 1976 to 2020, Littlejohn’s was a longtime staple for students until the pandemic woefully forced its closure. Sammy’s On The Corner — a Philadelphia cheesesteak shop — took over the storefront briefly before shutting down the summer of 2022. The following year, Class of 1994 alumnus Bill Smyth joined forces with business partners Stefan Friedman and Dain North to resurrect his favorite college sandwich spot. After seven months of restoration and preparation, Smyth’s dream became a reality, and the legacy of Littlejohn’s now lives on.

Littlejohn’s is open from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Sunday “until further notice,” per a sign on their door. The original shop had longer hours, and after tasting the food we understood why — the sandwiches would make for the perfect late-night bite.

We walked into Littlejohn’s at 2 p.m. to discover a substantial latelunch crowd waiting on their orders. 80s rock music played over the speakers, bringing patrons back to the deli’s heyday. The restaurant’s loyalty to the University was clear, with several menu items named after local heroes and pictures of Virginia sports teams adorning the walls. Even within the first weeks of reopening, the place felt lived-in and well-established.

We spent 10 minutes studying the extensive menu offerings on the black board above the counter. Once we had chosen our selection, we placed our orders under the familiar neon “Order Here” sign at their new electronic kiosks. We added four sandwiches and one side to our cart, and our eyes widened at the total of $71.48. The menu did not list prices, so the steep cost of our lunch was a surprise.

The triumphant return of Littlejohn’s

Sampling the menu of the modernized, but still familiar, sandwich shop

Kate Johnson and Blaine Hutchens | Life Editors

We started with the Five Easy Pieces sandwich, one of the items from the pre-pandemic Littlejohn’s, and we quickly realized why it was kept on the menu. Each bite packed a nice balance of classic deli delights — honey ham, smoked turkey, Muenster cheese and crisp bacon. A slathering of 1,000 island dressing and herb mayo added a creamy sweetness, and the slaw added some crunch. Pumpernickel was a fantastic choice of bread — its distinct flavor was present, but it didn’t overpower the rest of the components. All of the ingredients and their proportions seemed intentional, and we later agreed that it was the best sandwich of the day.

Next, we tried the Steak and Cheese sub. Mozzarella and provolone cheese melted over chopped rib-eye steak and caramelized onions. Shredded iceberg lettuce and sliced tomato offered cool, refreshing complements to the warm base of the sandwich. The amount of herb mayo on the bread was a bit overwhelming,

an issue compounded by the relatively small amount of steak. We were disappointed that we had paid $18.99 for so little rib-eye — it honestly tasted more like a Mayo and Cheese sandwich.

We bounced back from the Steak and Cheese with the Kyle Guy sandwich. The pile of honey ham, smoked turkey and cheddar scored major points with us — the hefty layers redeemed the smidgen of steak on the sub. The simple, nostalgic pairing of deli meat and cheese brought us back to elementary school lunches in the best way. The contents of the sandwich came under the crunch of toasted wheat bread, which enhanced the overall texture.

The Steak and Cheese and the Kyle Guy both came with a pickle on the side, which we used as a palate cleanser. The pickle delivered a nice punch of acid, but the texture was a bit strange — tough and crunchy on the outside yet soft on the inside. We agreed that the pickle wasn’t a big dill

— pun intended.

We ended our sandwich tasting with a bang — the Nuclear Sub, the sandwich that inspired Smyth to bring back Littlejohn’s. The sub was loaded with a pile of barbecue chicken that was at once sweet, smokey and spicy. A handful of creamy slaw complemented the chicken and relieved some of its heat. The mass of chicken and slaw spilled out of the weak confines of the sub roll, which prompted a slew of napkins and careful, hunched-over-the-table bites. We wished that the turkey and Muenster cheese had a larger presence on the sub — the singular slices of each were submerged in the chicken. However, the flavors balanced each other well, showing why this sandwich has always been a Littlejohn’s favorite — it really blew us out of the water.

We ended our lunch with Shirley’s Macaroni Salad, named for North’s mother who perfected the recipe. The salad made for a light conclusion to our meal, which we appreciated after

our strikingly dense Nuclear Sub. The macaroni noodles softened into the mayonnaise, and the chopped veggies — tomato, gherkin and cucumber — added a welcome crunch.

Upon finishing our food, we agreed that Littlejohn’s has plenty to offer University students in need of a yummy bite to eat, whether it be in between classes or for a grab-and-go dinner on the walk home. With no shortage of menu items, the deli has something for everyone, including meatless options like the East Village vegan sandwich and the vegetarian Four-Cheese Sub.

Averaging around $15 per sandwich, Littlejohn’s lies on the pricier side of the local sandwich market. However, it is worth the visit to relish in a decades-old Charlottesville tradition. The revamped space and updated menu give new life to the Corner institution, and we don’t doubt that the shop will continue to stand the test of time.

HAILEY CHUNG THE CAVALIER DAILY

The revamped space and updated menu give new life to the Corner institution, and we don’t doubt that the shop will continue to stand the test of time.

University gym culture uplifts student fitness

From workout partners to fitness groups, students are building a welcoming gym community on Grounds

Mia Tan | Life Editor

When asked to describe a typical “gym bro,” students say they’re familiar with the type — a grunting, muscle tee-ed fitness guru with no shortage of creatine. But few say they actually see such characters on Grounds. Their descriptions of the University gym scene include friends, classmates, TAs and even professors simply focusing on one thing — their everyday health.

Their prioritization of well-being, not just muscle gain or weight loss, raises the bar when it comes to gym culture on Grounds.

For student gym-goers, sustaining motivation to work out is a key step in building a healthy relationship with the gym. Second-year College student Isabella Paterson said working out gave her a sense of normalcy when coming to college. With four University gyms within reach, she said the gym is an accessible physical outlet, especially for students who want to keep moving after high school sports.

“When you come to college, there’s so much more accessibility to gyms,” Paterson said. “I think it’s one of those things where you come from a sport in high school [and] you don’t want to do that sport anymore, but you still want to stay active.”

Some run into the challenge of working out consistently, though. Without a practice schedule or an arranged time to go to the gym, motivation to work out may slip away. To counter this problem, students turn to workout partners and friends to stay focused. According to third-year Engineering student Malik Kabra, surrounding yourself with others’ energy can help reinforce self-discipline.

“It’s kind of holding yourself accountable — having someone there. It’s like studying with your friends,” Kabra said. “I don’t think I could work out consistently at home just because … there are other things that are attractive like my bed and the kitchen. So having a place where you can lift is super nice.”

While some find gym motivation through workout schedules and friends, others develop a consistent routine on their own. Third-year College student Taylor Roomsburg said tracking her progress is itself a driving force when lifting. For her, setting personal goals — and seeing herself achieve them — inspires her to keep working out.

“I love getting a new PR [and] just having something that I could work

for,” Roomsburg said. “When I can get … a number that I can see, it really proves that my work is paying off.”

Students are not completely insulated from negative pressures to look or eat a certain way. Many gym influencers on social media cross the line from motivation into obsession, promoting unfounded diet tips and toxic gym practices. Amid these pressures, some students have felt the need to avoid social media accounts that depict unrealistic body standards.

“I feel like social media has a very skewed perception of what you can do in the gym. A lot of those people on social media are professionals, and you shouldn’t compare yourself to them,” Paterson said. “You should go to the gym to make yourself feel good, not necessarily to look good.”

The University offers resources through Student Health and Wellness to counter potentially unhealthy attitudes toward working out. With support services related to physical strength, mental health and overall well-being, SHW encourages students to develop healthy relationships with their body.

Students have also found ways to stay active through Kinesiology class-

es offered in the School of Education and Human Development. In these one-credit, one-semester courses, students learn how to lift weights or play sports such as volleyball, squash, golf and basketball in a low-stakes environment. These classes resemble secondary school physical education without the embarrassment of running the FitnessGram Pacer Test in a baggy uniform. Roomsburg, who took a Kinesiology lifting class with a friend, said she enjoyed having scheduled, built-in time to work out during the week.

“It was super fun, [and] both of us had lifted before but it was good to just kind of have a routine with it,” Roomsburg said. “I definitely would be interested in doing some more [classes].”

According to Kabra, building relationships with other gym-goers — whether through classes or student groups — helps cultivate a sense of belonging. He said he was lifting at the Aquatic & Fitness Center during his first year when a fourth-year student came up to him and asked if he wanted to join a gym club at the University. He said this invitation made the on-Grounds gym community feel less

Letting go of my first year FOMO

How I found my place at the University by saying “yes” — and “no”

Mai Hukuoka | Life Columnist

As I write this, I am in utter disbelief that my first year is coming to an end. These last eight months flew by. Coming to Charlottesville from Pennsylvania, a five-hour drive away, was a huge culture shock — much more so than I imagined it would be. In an attempt to transition to University life, I found myself saying “yes” to way too many things, which left me feeling detached from my surroundings rather than at home on Grounds. When I eventually learned to say “no,” I found myself embracing the everyday aspects of college life, which allowed me to truly feel comfortable in my own skin at the University.

I came into college wide-eyed and exuberant, giddy about being independent for the first time — I’d no longer have to ask if I could go out, and I’d be in full control of each aspect of my life. I could reinvent myself — maybe adopt a whole new personality or even a British accent. However, following the initial rush of Wahoo Welcome, Convocation and block party, I found myself at a standstill.

I had never seen so many new faces or engaged in so much small talk, but I

felt out of place. My in-state classmates — who make up 68 percent of my class — had already established friend groups from their high schools. Unlike my new friends, I couldn’t drive back home on the weekends for a quick getaway. I even had to stay on Grounds over fall break.

I became homesick. Though I loved the people I met, I couldn’t help but feel a twinge of envy every time my new friends knew the lore of a random passerby or had connections to groups and jokes that I had yet to know. I missed that feeling of comfort and stability — of being in the loop — that I had back home.

These insecurities snowballed into a series of bad decisions. I found myself forcing overcompensation — going out every weekend and putting on a facade to avoid FOMO. I felt like I had to stay out late in order to have fun and make friends. This inevitably burnt me out, and I suffered the consequences of sluggish mornings, a messy room and ever-building shame about who I was making myself be.

Finally returning home for Thanksgiving break, I lamented to my friends

about my decision to come to Charlottesville. I missed my childhood friends terribly, and the University felt too far away from everything I knew. I even talked about transferring. I will admit that I am a chronic complainer, and I wallowed in self-pity for a while.

However, I am also a realist — I knew that transferring would bring me more trouble than not. I knew that I didn’t actually want to transfer — I just craved a sense of belonging. I couldn’t just wish for a sense of familiarity and comfort. Instead, I had to do my part to make the University smaller — to make this school my new home.

It sounds contradictory, but I realized that in order to find my place here, I had to hone my ability to say “no” — which is harder said than done. My instincts as a longtime victim of FOMO and the urge to be “that girl,” — with a bountiful social life and the social media presence to prove it — took a while to tame.

It was difficult to turn people down, especially the people that I wanted to accept me. However, failing to set healthy boundaries took a tremendous toll on my health, and I lost

control of my own decisions and priorities. I realized that when I gave myself the option to say “no,” I made myself open to independence in a different way than I first envisioned.

The word “no” often carries a negative connotation, akin to closing doors, but I found saying “no” to open them. I found myself with more time to focus on what I truly wanted and more time to establish a stable routine — time for doing elaborate skincare, studying for classes and engaging in hobbies. Refusal became a form of self-care. I found myself less stressed and more willing to engage in the social activities I said “yes” to.

I will admit — I made great memories as a result of succumbing to my FOMO, from the flashing lights of frat parties to the grease of a 1 a.m. Gus Burger. Reflecting on these past eight months, I know that I wouldn’t have the love that I do for this community without having embraced every social opportunity available to me.

But what has truly made me feel like I belonged at the University has been living here day-to-day. It has not been the crazy weekend nights, but the

daunting.

“If I go to some new [gym], it’s always super intimidating because I don’t know the people, and I feel more self-conscious about how I look or how I do things,” Kabra said. “But if you spend enough time there … you realize everybody’s just there for a reason.”

Since then, Kabra has remained active through Virginia club pickleball and club baseball. These clubs, as well as other groups centered on physical activity — such as Virginia club powerlifting and the Barbell Club at U.Va. — support positive attitudes toward fitness on Grounds.

For these students, the most Herculean gym pursuits are less about achieving the build of a Greek god and more about building long-lasting, healthy relationships with the gym. Kabra said whenever he works out, he feels a sense of camaraderie among fellow gym-goers — a spirit that extends to anyone hoping to get involved in the University gym community.

“Everybody shares the same interest,” Kabra said. “People are just there to lift and vibe. If you go there with the same attitude, it’s going to be a good time.”

mundane microwave cooking, sharing deep conversations with my roommate late into the night and redecorating my dorm room in accordance with the seasons — all the simple, but essential, first-year things.

I can now walk about Grounds, see a familiar face, smile and wave. I’m not envious of my in-state peers, but rather I’m thankful that I have the opportunity to experience new things and meet new people — on my terms, of course. There is a beauty to entering a new place with an unfamiliar culture and having to immerse yourself in it, but only if you give yourself time, space and grace to do so.

I am grateful to the University, though my time has just begun. I am grateful for the mediocre dining hall food I bonded with my friends over and for the postage stamp of a dorm that I live in. If you asked me whether I would go through this all again — all the ups and downs — I know that I would answer in a heartbeat, “yes.”

MAI HUKUOKA is a Life Columnist for The Cavalier Daily. She can be reached at life@cavalierdaily.com.

HUMOR

U.Va. Spirit Week 2024 dates announced

Editor’s Note: This article is a humor column.

Student Affairs announced a themed ‘week’ to be added into the University’s official 2024-25 academic calendar. Occurring between May 6 and May 12, U.Va. Spirit Week, aims to celebrate all that is “U.Va.”

In its announcement, Student Affairs lamented the lack of school pride amongst the student body and identified it as the main impetus for the new week. They cited egregious offenses such as undergraduate students wearing clothes branded by other academic institutions and graduate students having the audacity to ask for stipend payments to be paid on time.

Student Affairs’ memo reads that “U.Va. Spirit Week will allow students to reflect on their role within the University, explore their devotion to school traditions and contribute financially to the Charlottesville community, aka the area around Grounds.”

The planned events are University-themed and attendance is mandatory. “We want to ensure that students develop a strong passion for all things Wahoowa,” said the Student Affairs Secretary of Events. “No matter what.”

The schedule is as follows —

Monday, May 6 — U.Va. Devotion Kickoff and Mass Bodo’s Bagels Fest Gather on the Lawn and enjoy free Bodo’s Bagels. Menu options for each student are limited to a plain bagel with no cheese or a sprout layered sandwich. Your order will be added to your tuition.

Tuesday, May 7 — Jefferson Trivia in a Historically Accurate Fashion Test your knowledge of Thomas Jefferson in a trivia contest sponsored by Jefferson Council. Questions relating to the “problematic” components of his life will be discarded. Rewards include a coupon for the Monticello gift shop, a Jeffersonian wig and a photograph of Jefferson.

Wednesday, May 8 — Honor Pledge, Sign it Today!

Solidify your commitment to the honor code by writing your name in the University’s ancient book of community trust. Make sure to have your social security card with you. Bringing a lock of hair from a family member is recommended.

Thursday, May 9 — President Jim Ryan-Themed Tour around Grounds

Come together on the South Lawn at 3 a.m. for a tour around Grounds. The tour will be about our president and led by a University Guide possessed by Ryan’s spirit!

Friday, May 10 — CavMan and Men’s Football Team Celebration at Crozet Pizza

Sing brainwashing praises of our football team and eat pizza with CavMan. What are we celebrating? We don’t know! Conversations with CavMan must include a chant of “Wahoowa” after each sentence.

Saturday, May 11 — U.Va. Career Center, Learn We Exist!

While receiving a University of Virginia degree alone should guarantee you an occupation, sometimes we need a nudge. Meet outside Clemons Library and take the journey to the Career Center to receive either life changing information or absolute garbage advice.

Sunday, May 12 — Shannon Library Scavenger Hunt

Join us for the last U.Va. Spirit Week event in Shannon Library. Locate a small, orange-painted book amongst the few others in the building. Be aware that you will receive instant disqualification if you do not wear orange.

U.Va. Spirit Week joins a plethora of themed weeks held across the spring and fall semesters. Among these are Global Week, Honor Week, Humanities Week, Judiciary Week and U.Va, Health Week. These weeks are not to be confused with their shorter wannabe counterparts —

CARTOON

Tip Culture

Conwell Morris | Cartoonist

Family Weekend and Finals Weekend. Other notable mentions include Wahoo Welcome Week, which lasts six weeks. Springfest is also a favorite, but to attend you’ll first have to complete the Herculean task of finding UPC’s new Instagram account.

When asked about U.Va. Spirit Week, one singular student offered a strong defense in support of its aim.

Student Affairs Intern Virginia Lyin said, “I think this week is exactly what this University needs. This University runs on the spirit of its students, and the money they inevitably donate as alumni.”

The Cavalier Daily has reached out to Student Affairs for a comment on the ethical concerns raised surrounding the timing of U.Va. Spirit Week — it occurs right in the middle of spring examinations. Student Affairs has not responded. More information regarding this to follow in the coming weeks.

CAMILA COHEN SUÁREZ is a humor columnist for The Cavalier Daily. She can be reached at humor@cavalierdaily.com

Isabelle Tindall | Puzzle Master