Thursday, November 7, 2024

aDaire BUrNSeD, leXie GaGNON & hONOr WOOD The Cavalier Daily

This week in-brief

CD News Staff

Students cast their votes in pivotal federal elections

Millions of Americans cast their votes Tuesday in what has been labeled one of the most important elections in the country’s history, and students at the University were no exception. Charlottesville’s ballot had four races — including a Senate seat, a House of Representatives seat and a referendum that would amend the Commonwealth’s constitution, expanding tax relief status for families of deceased veterans.

University hosts annual Trick-or-Treating on the Lawn event

The Lawn saw a sea of extravagant costumes and bags filled to the brim with candy Thursday night at the University’s annual Halloween celebration — Trick-or-Treating on the Lawn. Lawn and Range residents, alongside a variety of University student groups, distributed candy to local families and University students of all ages between 5 and 7 p.m.

This year’s celebration marks the second year in a row of holding the event from 5 to 7 p.m. instead of from the previous timing of 6 to 8 p.m. Last year, the event was moved an hour earlier due to concerns about lighting and safety.

Lawn and Range residents first invited the Charlottesville community to trickor-treat on the Lawn in 1987. Since then, the event has grown into a tradition where trick-or-treaters, ranging from local toddlers to current University students, receive candy from Lawn residents and members of student organizations across all 54 Lawn rooms and the South Lawn. Lawn residents and Housing and Residence Life hosted this year’s event.

Charlottesville residents make up a large portion of the crowd on the Lawn each year. Robert Earle, Albemarle County teacher and Charlottesville local, said that TOTOTL offers a wide variety of people in the Charlottesville and University communities a chance to come together, building a sense of community.

“It’s really great to see people of all walks of life interacting and just having a good time,” Earle said. “I think it’s a good way to connect with the community, where the whole community comes out to be in one space … it’s something that makes U.Va. stand out in the area.”

11.6 11.3

To most students, as well as many others across the country, the most important item on every ballot was the presidency. The past five months have seen an especially tumultuous race, with President Joe Biden withdrawing in July and Vice President Kamala Harris replacing him at the top of the Democratic ticket. The then-expedited campaigning process pitted Harris against former President Donald Trump, running for the third consecutive time after losing to Biden in 2020.

Students voted at a variety of locations, the closest to Central Grounds being at Slaughter Recreation Center. Other nearby locations included the Miller Center, Trailblazer Elementary School and Johnson Elementary School.

In interviews conducted outside of polling stations, multiple University students said they felt that this election was particularly significant for the future of the country. Second-year College student Brendan Toney said in an interview shortly after voting that he decided to vote for the first time due to the stakes of the elections.

“It’s my first time voting … I thought I would exercise my right to vote,” Toney said. “It’s a very pivotal election to me and most people, so I want to have my voice counted.”

U.Va. students and physicians team up for another year of free kidney screenings

Chronic kidney disease is known among clinicians as “silent” — it can progress for years without visible symptoms. Without regular check ups, patients may unknowingly advance into later stages requiring dialysis or transplant.

The University’s Kidney Disease Screening and Awareness Program is trying to change that.

Founded Spring 2022, the collaboration between students, physicians and community members has offered open kidney health screenings at locations like Mt. Zion First African Baptist Church and the Islamic Society of Central Virginia. KDSAP accepts student members from all backgrounds, but many are exploring the pre-health track. For those students, KDSAP offers a unique chance to use lab skills in the real world, as undergraduates assist physicians in administering tests.

At this fall’s event, KDSAP members filled Portico Church Saturday with equipment to measure BMI, run urinalysis and conduct blood tests. In medical gloves and UVa. Health t-shirts featuring a cartoon kidney, KDSAP members prepared for their rotations.

To promote accessibility, all screening options are free with no prior registration required. After rotating through several testing stations, participants receive results and a consultation with one of the on-site physicians.

Ahead of the screening, Tess Eluvathingal Muttikkal, KDSAP community outreach director and third-year Engineering student, said she hoped they would see the usual amount of community participants — but added that the real goal lies beyond the numbers.

“Obviously every person that we’re able to screen is a person that we’re helping,” Eluvathingal Muttikkal said. “So we try to remember that every person matters.”

Students weigh in on America’s future after Trump victory

He is set to become the second president in the country’s history to serve two nonconsecutive terms

Grace Thrush & Thomas Baxter | Managing Editor & News Editor

In a decisive result, Donald J. Trump was elected to serve a second term as president of the United States, defeating current Vice President Kamala Harris and becoming the second president ever to serve two nonconsecutive terms. Students across the country took to the polls and waited until early in the morning for an election result. Now, many have mixed reactions to Trump’s victory, with some optimistic about the next four years and others worried about the country’s future.

The buildup to the historic election, dominated by President Joe Biden’s withdrawal from the race in July, was mired with unknowns. Pollsters and analysts were split in their predictions in the days leading up to the election, with many believing that an extremely close race was in the cards.

As polls began closing, however, it quickly became apparent that Harris was falling behind. Trump comfortably won Florida in the opening hours of election night and held firm leads in the southern battleground states of Georgia and North Carolina until they were called in his favor.

Harris underperformed Biden in key urban areas in the northern swing states, and the Associated Press called the race early Wednesday morning, with Wisconsin’s 10 electoral votes pushing Trump over the 270 required to win.

Another surprise of the night was that Trump appeared to be ahead in the popular vote — an accomplishment that eluded him both in 2020 and 2016. The result is not final as the blue state of California continues to count votes, but Trump still claimed the win. In a speech delivered while surrounded by family, allies and supporters in Palm Beach, Fla., Trump said that his lead in the popular vote was “very nice” and thanked his voters for their support.

“I want to just tell you what a great honor this is,” Trump said. “I want to thank you. I will not let you down. America’s future will be bigger, better, bolder, richer, safer and stronger than it has ever been before.”

Blake Boudreaux, president of College Republicans and fourthyear College student, said that he and other CR members were happy with the results in Virginia and across the country. He said that he believed many Americans were dissatisfied with the Biden administration, which was reflected in the outcome.

Additionally, Boudreaux said he was proud of the work that CRs did in the buildup to the election in getting Virginians to the polls — which included canvassing and door knocking efforts. Boudreaux also said that he has noticed a trend with young

voters shifting to the right. He hopes that the next step for the GOP will be to ensure that Trump is surrounded by people who can help him deliver on his campaign promises.

“The next four years are going to be a fight,” Boudreaux said. “I think most people were expecting Trump to win. Obviously, we had to put in a lot of work to make that happen, but as we’ve seen in the past, the most important thing about the presidency isn’t even just the people at the very top, but it’s who the staffers are.”

Harris conceded the election Wednesday at 4 p.m., saying that she spoke on the phone with Trump earlier in the day, and that though she intends to respect the results of the election, she will continue to advocate for Americans and their rights.

“The outcome of this election is not what we wanted, not what we fought for, not what we voted for,” Harris said. “But hear me when I say, hear me when I say, the light of America’s promise will always burn bright as long as we never give up and as long as we keep fighting.”

Second-year College student Ryan Shoztic said the clear resolution to this election was comforting, and that he feels the country can look forward to a peaceful transfer of power.

“I think it’s nice that we had a very well-run and obvious result in the election,” Shoztic said. “It lessens any arguments that can be made trying to downplay the legitimacy of our institutions.”

Ella Nelsen, president of University Democrats and fourth-year College student, echoed Harris’s sentiment of disappointment with the results of the election, but remained steadfast in her trust in the democratic process and a peaceful transfer of power between administrations.

Still, Nelsen said that many people in UDems are already very worried about what the future holds under another Trump administration, and that she is currently focused on supporting those in her community that are struggling to cope with Trump’s win.

“We are of course extremely disappointed in the results,” Nelsen said. “We saw this as a fight for democracy and a fight for women’s rights, as well as a fight for immigrant rights, for our environment … honestly, protecting the country from being led by a felon.”

Other students expressed their disappointment in the election results, spurred by a feeling of anxiety over Trump’s future policies in office.

Fourth-year College student Carla Tabet — who is originally from Munich, Germany but has resided in Falls Church, Va. for the past several years — voted for the first time

in this election after recently gaining citizenship status.

According to Tabet, she and her family applied for dual citizenship both out of their love for living in the U.S. and strong desire to make their voices heard in the 2024 presidential election, especially on the issue of women’s rights.

“We definitely wanted to apply as early as we could so that we could vote … for me, the most important part [of the election] was reproductive rights for women,” Tabet said.

While Tabet said processing times for citizenship can range from 10 to 12 months in Virginia, she was able to complete her citizenship interview and take her oath by Nov. 1, allowing her to cast her ballot.

Going into the election — energized by her newfound ability to participate in the U.S. democratic process — Tabet said she was optimistic about the election, believing that her preferred candidate Harris would come out on top.

“I was feeling optimistic, especially when I voted. I genuinely thought that Kamala’s social media presence and her campaign presence had really gained traction, and I was really hopeful for that,” Tabet said. “So it honestly took me by surprise when this election took this turn … [on] election night, I was very nervous when the results started coming in, but I still had that … hopefulness.”

Tabet said that Harris’ loss instills

in her a sense of uncertainty and fear, wondering how a second Trump administration will handle a variety of policy issues, including reproductive rights, NATO membership and the response to the war in Ukraine.

Despite this feeling of disappointment and apprehension over what the next four years hold, Tabet said she is committed to continuing to make her voice heard through voting — and she hopes that fellow young voters do the same.

“I’m not gonna let this one election … deter my will to live here,” Tabet said. “I’m going to continue voting in elections … I think, especially as young voters, [we] need to just keep at it, and keep saying what we believe in, and keep staying up to date.”

Though the presidential race received the most attention, a number of other federal elections were also on the ballot in Virginia. Republicans gained a majority in the Senate, and though many races have yet to be declared, the House of Representatives races around the country were heavily contested, with Republicans only needing 13 more seats to keep control compared to Democrats needing 28 as of Wednesday night.

In the races voted on by the city of Charlottesville and Albemarle County residents, incumbent Democrat Sen. Tim Kaine defeated Republican opponent Hung Cao by eight points, retaining his seat in a now Republi-

can-majority Senate. Republicans also retained the House seat for Virginia’s fifth congressional district, as State Sen. John McGuire beat his opponent Dem. Gloria Witt to take the seat that is currently held by Rep. Bob Good. Virginia also had a constitutional amendment on the ballot, which passed with overwhelming support, expanding tax exemptions for families of members of the armed forces that died while in service.

Still, many elections across the country have yet to be called, particularly in California where they continue to count absentee votes as long as they are received by Nov. 12. There are more than a dozen uncalled races in the state of California alone, and it may not be clear which party will control the House for several more days.

While some students express anxiety over the election results and others express excitement, Shoztic said that he hopes students will accept the results and keep an open mind about the nation’s future.

“This is the result of the election that more than half of the country wants,” Shoztic said. “It’s something that we’re going to accept and learn how to move forward with, even if it’s the person that we disagree with.”

COURTESY DONALD J. TRUMP FOR PRESIDENT 2024

Trump comfortably won Florida in the opening hours of election night and held firm leads in the southern battleground states of Georgia and North Carolina until they were called in his favor.

Virginia purges 1,600 voter registrations days before election

A split Supreme Court allowed the state to remove around 1,600 voters less than a week before Election Day

Merrill Hart | Senior Writer

In Tuesday’s presidential election, while Vice President Kamala Harris lost to former President Donald Trump nationally, she defeated him in Virginia by about five points. But just days before, as thousands of Virginians prepared to cast their ballots, the U.S. Supreme Court allowed the Commonwealth to strike about 1,600 voter registrations in a program that targeted noncitizens but actually removed several U.S. citizens from the rolls. The Oct. 30 ruling came less than a week out from Election Day.

The voter purge program under scrutiny was first enacted by Gov. Glenn Youngkin and involved updating voter rolls daily by comparing them with data from the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles to determine whether noncitizens were on the rolls. A coalition of immigrant rights groups and the League of Women Voters in Virginia filed a lawsuit challenging the program and alleging that the voter purge program is unlawful because it violates the National Voter Registration Act.

According to the plaintiffs, the data from the DMV is often inaccurate and out of date, and NPR and CNN both reported that the purge included multiple U.S. citizens. Locally, 16 voters were purged from Albemarle County, 11 in the city of Charlottesville and seven across surrounding counties, according to the Daily Progress.

While a federal judge in the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals ordered to halt the program until after Nov. 5, the controversial Supreme Court decision temporarily blocks that order.

Youngkin called for these removals Aug. 7 — right before the 90-day “quiet period” mandated by the NVRA. The NVRA’s quiet period prohibits states from systematically removing voter registrations within 90 days of a federal election. Virginia argues that their program is not systematic, but reviews status on an individual, case-by-case basis.

In addition to the NVRA, opponents to Youngkin’s program cited the Purcell Principle, a doctrine that says courts should not make last-minute changes to election procedure. However, Youngkin promoted Virginia’s same-day-registration for voters as a tool to safeguard against any inaccurate removals.

Kyle Kondik, managing editor of the University Center for Politics’ election forecast Saba -

to’s Crystal Ball, said he was surprised by the Court’s decision, and the decision seems aligned with President-Elect Trump’s concerns of voter fraud. Trump has falsely claimed that undocumented immigrants vote on a frequent basis — though multiple studies say otherwise.

“It’s whether there are people on the voter rolls who should [not] be there, versus the danger of removing people from the voting rolls who should be there,” Kondik said. “It seems disruptive to me to do this so close to the election, when you might be removing people from the rolls who are, in fact, citizens.”

While he also questioned the Court’s reasoning, John Martin, research assistant professor of law and Karsh Center for Law and Democracy fellow, said he expected the ruling given the Court’s conservative majority and their typical hesitancy to interfere with state control close to an election. The decision split along ideological lines, with the three liberal judges noting they would have denied Virginia’s request to purge voters. Martin said he was also unsurprised by the lack of explanation from the U.S. Supreme Court included in the half-page brief,

which he said is typical of cases decided on the emergency docket that require an immediate decision.

“This is an important decision — we don’t even know why the Court decided the way it did,” Martin said. “And a lot of election experts are, quite frankly, a little baffled.”

Ultimately, the presidential race in Virginia was not close enough for the voter purge to have impacted the outcome, with Harris beating Trump by over 220,000 votes. Yet last-minute changes may have caused stress or confusion for voters, especially U.S. citizens who believed they were registered only to discover they were not any longer.

“You’re talking about a fairly small amount of people,” Kondik said. “But obviously it’s important to that small amount of people, particularly if there’s someone who is eligible to vote and all of a sudden isn’t registered anymore.”

While the Supreme Court allowed the program to continue, their decision is not the final word on the matter — this case could return to the Court if appealed by the plaintiffs, but only after the election.

However, Martin said he

doubts the decision will threaten the NVRA in the long run. Instead, he believes future policy improvements should focus on election administration, especially officials who manage voting on the state level. Election boards are often appointed by the governor or other party representatives, which he said can suggest partisan decision-making in a process that should run independently.

“We need to really rethink how we are choosing the people in charge of election administration, not only because of the real threat that the process can become influenced by partisanship … but also just the appearance of potential partisanship,” Martin said.

Beyond Virginia, election boards in other states have challenged conventional voting protocol this fall. Georgia’s board, led by three Trump-endorsed Republicans, entered seven new election rules that were ultimately struck down by a state judge because the rules were passed too close to the election. One rule would have required hand counting ballots after polling places close.

Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott also purged thousands of

voters that the state identified as noncitizens, but a recent investigation by the Texas Tribune and ProPublica revealed that at least 10 U.S. citizens were purged.

In a trend of declining public trust in the democratic process, Martin sees Virginia’s purge as the latest blow.

“I think a lot of people are losing faith in these people that are supposed to be fulfilling the duty of upholding our democratic process,” Martin said. “I mean, you look at a decision like this just happened in Virginia, where they’re removing 1,600 people in a questionable manner, and you lose a little bit of faith, right? From those people that should have the most faith, because we need to have faith in our democratic process.”

The American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia encourages voters to double-check status with their local registrar and use same-day registration as needed in future elections. Locals can call 866-OUR-VOTE for more help or information.

KAYLA MOORE THE CAVALIER DAILY

The voter purge program under scrutiny was first enacted by Gov. Glenn Youngkin and involved updating voter rolls daily.

How will U.Va. select the next dean of students?

The Executive Search Committee is planning to select a candidate by the end of the spring semester

Zackary Holt | Staff Writer

In recent months, the University has been engaged in a nationwide search for the next senior associate vice president and dean of students, following the interim appointment of Dean Cedric Rucker after the departure of former Dean Robyn Hadley. The search committee charged with filling the position is expected to complete the process by the end of the spring semester, with finalists scheduled to visit Grounds early next year.

The dean of students serves in a senior leadership role within the Division of Student Affairs, acting as an advocate and liaison between students and University leadership. The role also helps to address issues facing the University community, promote student involvement and facilitate a culture of self-governance. According to Dr. Christopher Holstege, committee member and senior associate vice president for Student Health & Wellness, the typical appointment contract for the position is three to five years.

The recruitment for this position is being handled by a search committee of eight faculty, as well as two student representatives — Valentina Mendoza Gonzalez, Student Council president and fourth-year College student, and graduate Law student Morgan Hughes. The committee was formed through the Executive Search Group, a retained search firm within the University that oversees searches for some of the University’s administrative positions.

In an email statement to The Cavalier Daily, Kenyon Bonner, vice president and chief student affairs officer, said that members of the search committee were selected to reflect stakeholders that frequently engage with the dean of students and Student Affairs.

Bonner said that student representation was a priority, given the nature of the position’s relationship with the student body. He added that Mendoza Gonzalez and Hughes, the student representatives on the search committee, were chosen for their leadership backgrounds within student self-governance, which Bonner said would contribute valuable perspectives to the selection process.

Advocating for student well-being, the dean of students reports directly to the vice president and chief student affairs officer and oversees budgeting, planning and staff recruitment, according to the Executive

Search Group’s specifications.

The search committee says they are looking for an individual with at least a decade of leadership experience within higher education.

The position has recently seen a significant amount of turnover at the University. The new dean of students will be the fourth person to hold the title since former Dean Allen Groves left the University in 2021 after serving in the position for 14 years.

According to Bonner, the search is national in scope and has garnered significant interest from high-level candidates across the country. Additionally, Bonner said that the committee is prioritizing candidates’ student-focused qualities over strict qualifications.

“We don’t want to preemptively exclude any strong candidates because they don’t have a particular pedigree or fit a predetermined mold,” Bonner said. “But we certainly are looking very closely at candidates who have a strong student-focused background and approach.”

Bonner explained that the search committee will continue reviewing candidate submissions for the remainder of the fall semester, with the intention to have a pool of final candidates by the early spring. Bonner also stated that these candidates will visit Grounds for in-person meetings with students and other University stakeholders, with confidentiality measures in place to protect applicants’ current roles.

In an effort to gather broader student input into the selection process, the University’s search committee for the next dean of students hosted a listening session Oct. 25, led by Steve Farmer, committee chair and vice provost for enrollment. In the open invitation Bonner sent to all student class emails, he said the committee was hoping to hear student perspectives on various topics related to the search, such as the University’s current strengths and weaknesses, as well as the qualities students would like to see in the next dean of students.

During the session, students shared ideas about the experiences and characteristics they believe are necessary for the dean of students. A recurring theme was the importance of familiarity with the University’s culture of self-governance, with third-year College student Navya Aenugu stating that self-

governance is central to the University’s identity.

“Self-governance shapes U.Va. and makes it unique when compared to any other university … the idea that we choose the events we put on, the way that we go about [the] Honor system, the way that we organize ourselves, really speaks to U.Va.’s culture,” Aenugu said. “I think it is really important for the dean to understand student self-governance.”

Students also emphasized the need for a dean to be visible and approachable, actively engaging with the student body. Thirdyear College student Nicholas Whitener said that the next dean should prioritize making themselves available to students, as well as identify helpful resources for students that they may otherwise have difficulty finding.

“I think the dean of students should be available during school times,” Whitener said. “But I also think that the dean should help guide students towards resourc -

es that they think would maximize their time at U.Va., and help better enrich their academic career[s], socially, mentally and [through] other avenues.”

Whitener and other students, as well as members of the committee, cited Rucker’s performance as interim dean as a model for future deans to follow, describing him as consistently present and engaged with the student body. Whitener spoke on his observations of Rucker’s approachable style, having an uplifting and positive presence that helps make him welcoming to students.

“Every time I’ve seen Dean Rucker, he always has a smile on his face, he always says, ‘Hello, how are you,’” Whitener said. “I think that’s a good tool to help build connections with the students.”

Students from the session who wished to share more information, as well as students who were unable to attend or wished to remain anonymous, were giv -

en a survey that was used to solicit more feedback. According to Bonner, the committee will continue to incorporate feedback and other outreach efforts into the search process to ensure student responses are taken into account.

Once a candidate has been chosen and announced, Bonner said that the University will be looking to facilitate many opportunities for students to engage with them during the onboarding process.

“ The introduction of the new dean of students to the community and the opportunity to start building relationships, especially with students, will be a top priority,” Bonner said.

According to Bonner, the search committee will be providing periodic updates as they move closer to the end of the search and hopes to communicate major milestones throughout the process.

HANNAH TUTEN THE CAVALIER DAILY

The recruitment for this position is being handled by a search committee of eight faculty, as well as two student representatives — Valentina Mendoza Gonzalez, Student Council president and fourth-year College student, and graduate Law student Morgan Hughes.

OPINION

Good journalism is more than just news

The current moment is one which has devalued the work of opinion journalists — we cannot forget why this work matters

To endorse, or not to endorse, that was the question.

The United States has come to the end of another long, tenuous election season. For the most part, the events of the last few months were typical of what we have come to expect. But there was at least one notable change. Within the span of a few days, both the Los Angeles Times and The Washington Post announced that they would not be endorsing a presidential candidate. The leadership of both papers attempted to frame Editorial Board endorsements as actions which promote the perception of bias and undermine readers’ trust in news.

And while the actions of both The Post’s and the LA Times’ leadership constitute a type of censorship specifically directed towards editorial boards, the logic which underpins this censorship undermines the work of opinion journalists more broadly. We, as student journalists, believe the decision to censor endorsements constitutes a complete misunderstanding of opinion journalism — a misunder-

standing that simplifies our search for truth.

It is easy to think of this trend towards the disenfranchisement of editorial boards as a product only of this presidential election. It is not.

In many ways, these past few weeks are simply emblematic of a larger and intentional deprioritization of opinion journalism across the industry. In 2022, two of the largest newspaper chains explicitly deprioritized their opinion sections — one group of newspapers greatly scaled back the frequency of opinion columns, and another announced that they would no longer endorse for presidential elections. In short, The Post’s and the LA Times’ decisions to not endorse cannot be separated from a larger deprioritization of opinion sections at large.

Let us be clear — opinion journalism is not the same as news journalism. Newspapers have long made very conscious decisions to erect a firewall of sorts between subjective and objective sections, with both contributing

THE CAVALIER DAILY

The Cavalier Daily is a financially and editorially independent news organization staffed and managed entirely by students of the University of Virginia. The opinions expressed in The Cavalier Daily are not necessarily those of the students, faculty, staff or administration of the University of Virginia. Unsigned editorials represent the majority opinion of the editorial board. Cartoons and columns represent the views of the authors. The managing board of The Cavalier Daily has sole authority over and responsibility for all content.

No part of The Cavalier Daily or The Cavalier Daily online edition may be reproduced in any form, in whole or in part, without the written consent of the editor-in-chief. The Cavalier Daily is published Thursdays in print and daily online at cavalierdaily. com. It is printed on at least 40 percent recycled paper. 2022 The Cavalier Daily Inc.

HAVE AN OPINION?

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

QUESTIONS/COMMENTS

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

to the larger mission of seeking the truth. News journalists are expected to objectively report facts and solicit a wide array of sources. In contrast, opinion journalists are charged with enriching factual and objective news coverage by carefully crafting subjective perspectives which model debate and continue conversations.

Unsurprisingly, the critique often leveled at opinion journalism is that instead of seeking the truth, opinion journalism prescribes a certain way of thinking. In fact, this is the kind of critique which Jeff Bezos leveled at The Post’s editorial board when prohibiting their endorsement. What is ironic in Bezos’s critique is that in taking to The Post’s opinion pages to critique opinion journalism, he implicitly disproved the allegation that opinion pages prescribe truth. Bezos himself contributed to an opinion page which uplifts a rainbow of conflicting perspectives.

And this is a good thing. Any opinion desk worth its salt not only fails to prescribe one “correct” opin-

THE CAVALIER DAILY

MANAGING BOARD

Editor-in-Chief

Nathan Onibudo

Managing Editor

Grace Thrush

Executive Editor

Naima Sawaya

Operations Manager

Honor Wood

Chief Financial Officer

Charlie Healy

EDITORIAL BOARD

Nathan Onibudo

Naima Sawaya

Songhan Pang

Dan Freed

Paul Kurtzweil

Wylie Brunman

Farah Eljazzar

JUNIOR BOARD

Assistant Managing Editors

Hailey Chung

Blaine Hutchens

(SA) Annabelle Gristina

(SA) Emma Herold

(SA) Catherine Kuryla

(SA) Calla Mischen

(SA) Lydia Sweeney

(SA) Vera Woody

Assistant Operations Manager

Olivia Winesett

News Editors

Finn Trainer

Thomas Baxter (SA) Ford McCracken

ion but will likely leave its reader with just as many questions as answers. This is a healthy process for our democracy. By advancing competing perspectives and crystalizing tough questions, opinion journalists help us engage in collective conversations. And we should all agree that our increasingly polarized moment demands more conversation, not less.

Defending editorial boards and opinion pages should not be seen as minimizing ongoing struggles within the field of journalism, namely data which suggests a deep distrust of news media. There are many societal reasons for this distrust, not the least of which is the immediacy of misinformation on social media. Journalists, however, have a role to play in shaping public perception of our craft — simply blaming factors outside of our control gets us nowhere. Endorsements are a perfect example of the risk that comes with ignoring distrust — fail to fully explain the purpose of endorsements, and people start to believe they should not exist

Sports Editors

Ben Istvan

Xander Tilock (SA) Victoria Blankenship (SA) Michael Liebermann

Arts & Entertainment Editors

Delores Cyrus

Delaney Hammond (SA) Leila Mohajer

Life Editors

Mia Tan

Kate Johnson (SA) Elizabeth Parsons (SA) Grace Scott

Podcast Editor

Evelyn Lewis

Opinion Editors

Dan Freed

Songhan Pang (SA) Wylie Brunman

(SA) Paul Kurtzweil

Humor Editor

Wardah Kamran (SA) Emma Nero

Cartoon Editor

Sarah Elder (SA) Ada Malpani

Photo Editors

Leon Arceo

Adaire Burnsed (SA) Alison Pike (SA) Albert Tang (SA) Tess Ginsberg (SA) Kate MacArthur

at all. As such, journalists must be actively engaged in educating readers about the importance and relevance of our work.

Now more than ever our country benefits from clear-eyed conversations about political candidates and their platforms. Endorsements, editorial boards and opinion sections writ large do not exist to the detriment of the journalism industry. Rather, they not only compliment but also actively enhance objective reporting, journalism and democracy as a whole. Truth and progress cannot be found solely in the pages of a news article — we uncover truth and create progress through the conversations we have and the ideals we defend.

THE CAVALIER DAILY EDITORIAL BOARD is composed of the Executive Editor, the Editor-in-Chief, the two Opinion Editors, their Senior Associates and an Opinion Columnist. The board can be reached at eb@cavalierdaily.com.

Design Editors

Lexie Gagnon

Sarah St. John

Mariam Seshan

Chinese Translation Editor

Dailin Li

Social Media Managers

Covonna Bynum

Cody Scarce (SA) Halle McCormack

Finance Manager

Wilson Simmons

Advertising Manager

Will Peres

Website Manager

Leigh Bailey

Analytics Managers

Elisabeth Bass

Bella Binder

Irene Si

Archivist

Grace Franklin

DEI Chair

Leena Fraihat

Gov. Youngkin purges integrity from voter registration

Following the Supreme Court’s recent decision, Virginian voters’ access to the ballot box was endangered for this election and beyond

Gov. Glenn Youngkin found his greatest ally to disenfranchise Virginia’s voters — the Supreme Court, which delayed their ruling on Virginia’s voter purges. This effectively allowed eleventh-hour removals to continue. For the past few months, the Virginia Department of Elections purged 1,600 voters from voter registration rolls under the pretense of removing noncitizens — a demographic that Youngkin incorrectly blames for voter fraud. In garnering the support of the Supreme Court, Youngkin once again abandoned his duty to protect Virginian voters’ rights, setting a dangerous precedent for elections.

The term voter purge calls to mind images of dystopia. And while the outcome of this SCOTUS decision may manifest these ideas, voter purges are not always an illegally conducted process. State governments compare Department of Motor Vehicles records with voter registration rolls to confirm that voters are alive, living in the state, U.S. citizens and above the age of 18. This is standard bureaucratic practice. What is concerning is not the fact that purges are occurring, rather that the VDOE is engag-

ing in these purges past the Quiet Period Provision — the 90 days leading up to the election. The National Voter Registration Act sets this provision in place so that any investigation must occur 90 days before Election Day. The NVRA ensures that purged voters have time to be informed of their disenfranchisement and adjust their registration plans accord -

years, with none involving issues of citizenship. If VDOE purges voter registration based only on those who might be noncitizens — an uncertainty to which they have admitted — there is no way to avoid racial prejudice in these purges.

When the process is done without bias, voter purges take an immense amount of time. Purging

up voter registration infrastructure seems to be Youngkin’s yearly pre-Thanksgiving gift to the Commonwealth. In 2022, VDOE realized that thousands of voters failed to make it onto the online voter registration system a week before midterms. And in 2023, VDOE scrambled to add back eligible voters for the primary after wrongfully stating that certain

Mucking up voter registration infrastructure seems to be Youngkin’s yearly pre-Thanksgiving gift to the Commonwealth.”

ingly. Disenfranchising 1,600 Virginians within these 90 days not only contradicts this provision but also leads to more Virginians feeling uncertain about their registration status.

In conducting these purges, Youngkin has specifically targeted noncitizens with repeated and unsubstantiated fear-mongering about illegal immigrants voting in Virginia. Not only do these claims rely upon anti-immigrant vitriol, they are also woefully unfounded. Virginia has only had one case of illegal voting in the past two

within the 90 days before Election Day and foregrounding noncitizens as a cabal of illegally registered voters, one can easily imagine that Virginia’s voters could be targeted on identity markers like ethnic last names. Such incendiary rhetoric proves the reasoning behind the creation of the NVRA — one anti-immigrant governor should not make the difference between the integrity of the electoral system and the suffrage of naturalized citizens.

This concerning year of purges is no aberration. In fact, mucking

Youngkin wants to kick it old-school — “kick it” as in disenfranchising hundreds of Virginia’s voters, and “old-school” as in returning to Virginia’s former ranking as the 49th easiest state to vote in. But Youngkin is not the only culprit here — through their Notes app apology for a delay, SCOTUS approves of the governor’s method with no consideration for its deleterious implications. Such a precedent will allow voter purges to become a political tool of disenfranchisement, rather than a way to refurbish voter eligibility. It is only a matter of time before other states become inspired.

SCARLETT SULLIVAN is a senior opinion columnist for The Cavalier Daily. She can be reached at opinion@cavalierdaily.com.

voters had felony convictions. If every single October is met with a scandal about inappropriate voter disenfranchisement, it is time to tell it like it is — this governor thrives off of select citizens being deprived of their right to vote. By removing voters who should be eligible, VDOE impacts trust beyond one election. Youngkin has shown himself to be unreliable in directing voter purges, wielding VDOE as a tool for his own political machinations. This year’s actions will further degrade trust in a system already lacking it. And this increasing lack of trust presents perhaps the most significant barrier to voter turnout — those who do not trust a system are less likely to participate in it. In this way, this seemingly small purge will have myriad impacts on Virginia’s local, state and federal elections.

Data science without sustainability is insufficient

The University’s future-oriented focus on data science ignores the severe environmental threat posed by data centers

The University is working to establish itself as a national leader in data science during a time when the field is expanding rapidly. The School of Data Science was founded in 2019, with its building opening this year. This University has also invested in developing its Northern Virginia campus, which offers programs concentrated in data science. These University projects provide an example of forward-looking efforts to keep up with global trends. However, the University turns a blind eye to the drawbacks of data science — data science as it stands is not sustainable.

Technological developments and the University’s geographic location make the focus on data science a logical one. Artificial intelligence has exploded in recent years, and since AI functions by analyzing vast quantities of data, the expansion of data processing and that of AI go hand in hand. The quantity of data has grown enormously, with 90 percent of the world’s data being created in the last two years. These effects are especially felt in Virginia, the world’s largest data center market. This provides an incentive for the University to estab-

lish itself in this field, the same way a Silicon Valley university would be motivated to focus on technology.

However, the University ignores how this industry has grown into a global environmental threat. U.S. energy consumption is expected to increase by 2.4 percent by 2030, with

ply its data processing obsession in a sustainable manner, the University’s obvious efforts to associate itself with this industry make it obligated to consider these negative consequences.

Of course those who study, research or teach data science are not deserving of blame, but its deep connection

However, its data science programs are now far more heavily supported, while financial backing for sustainability work appears unchanged. Directing more of the University’s budget for research funding toward green energy projects would allow for the expansion of genuinely impactful

Put simply, Virginia does not have sufficient clean energy sources to support the expansion of data science.”

data centers accounting for more than a third of that growth. This is a massive change considering energy consumption has been constant for the past decade. Natural gas still sources around 50 percent of energy consumed in Virginia, meaning growing energy consumption will inevitably increase the use of natural gas and the harmful emissions it produces. Put simply, Virginia does not have sufficient clean energy sources to support the expansion of data science.

While the University is not responsible for the state’s failure to sup-

with climate change means data science as it stands is not the slam dunk the University’s wholehearted embrace of it might suggest. Thankfully, the University can take a number of steps to counteract these negative effects. First, the University should promote energy innovation by opening more avenues for raising the funds necessary to conduct research in the field of sustainable energy. In recent years, the University has matched its funding of research initiatives related to data science with fairly equivalent funding for those related to sustainability.

research already taking place in projects like the Fontaine Central Energy Plant. This shift in funding would not be detrimental to other fields, including data science, which currently seem to be more attractive to private donors. The University should also leverage its flagship status to collaborate with the Virginia government — which is ostensibly receptive to innovative energy plans — on these research efforts.

As an additional solution, the University should shore up its efforts toward sustainability in its own operations. Its 2030 Plan sets goals in-

cluding reaching carbon neutrality by 2030. While progress has been made, a look at the data uncovers that it is unlikely that this goal will be met. Emissions have actually increased since 2020, and it would take a dramatic shift to approach zero emissions in the next six years. Managing to uphold its commitments is a second fundamental step for the University to center sustainability amidst its continued data science expansion.

The University appears committed to a future defined by data but lacks the dedication to meeting this future’s energy needs in a sustainable way. The University’s commitment to the field of data science positions it well for tomorrow, but the benefits of this effort will fall flat if the University does not make a coinciding commitment toward the sustainability of its data science endeavors.

NATHANIEL CARTER is a viewpoint writer for The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at opinion@cavalierdaily. com.

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SPORTS

Charlie Webb is the unsung hero of Virginia field hockey

Webb, a male practice player, is the embodiment of the Cavalier way

Eleanor

Buchanan | Staff Writer

In many ways, Charlie Webb is a typical second-year student at the University — hoping for acceptance into the McIntire School of Commerce while juggling a rigorous course load and bustling social life. But unlike the rest of his peers, for four hours a day, six days a week, Webb trades his laptop and notebook for shin guards and a stick to practice with the varsity field hockey team.

Webb, a native of Haddonfield, N.J., is a practice player — an officially recognized member of the squad that trains with the team but cannot play in matches or receive financial compensation from the school. In practice, he plays whatever position is needed of him, often simulating opponents’ play style to help his teammates.

As NCAA field hockey has grown more competitive, numerous schools have incorporated male players into their team. Top programs such as Maryland, North Carolina and Penn State all have practice players on their rosters. Many are international students from countries where field hockey is more prevalent, like the Netherlands or Great Britain. Webb might not hail from Europe, but New Jersey is one of the most popular states in the U.S. for field hockey.

“Growing up, [my friends] played, and one day we were in the backyard and they were playing field hockey,”

Webb said. “And you know, I wasn’t just gonna sit in the backyard, so I … picked up a stick and started playing … And I just kind of stuck with it.”

Stick with it he did — at Haddonfield Memorial High School, Webb took up the mantle of practice player and manager for the field hockey team, participating in practice sessions and recording stats during games. He also played for Princeton Field Hockey Club, where he was allowed to take part in the occasional scrimmage with the permission of the opposing coach.

When it came time to begin the recruiting process, he faced a serious challenge. For one thing, since practice players do not play in games, they are not on the official roster and thus are not recruited by schools. That put the onus on Webb to reach out to coaches, many of which did not approve of practice players in the NCAA at all, according to him.

Out of the 20 or so schools Webb contacted, the University proved to be the best athletic and academic fit — Virginia’s field hockey program offered him a spot as a practice player, and the academic opportunities spoke for themselves.

While he has no official responsibilities beyond practicing with the team, Webb goes above and beyond whenever possible to ensure Virginia field hockey runs smoothly. During games, he can be seen carrying defensive masks from goal to goal or helping warm up the goalkeeper as the rest of the team stretches. When the team scores, he does a backflip in celebration and runs up and down the bench, cheering alongside his teammates.

“There’s definitely a choice aspect to it based on how much you want to put into it,” Webb said. “I kind of chose to go all in … I’ve really tried to create my schedule around field hockey the best that I could.”

That schedule also includes suiting up for the Virginia club field hockey team, which he helped to win the National Field Hockey League Championship last spring. The club is coeducational, and Webb takes advantage of the opportunity to play in official games, scoring in almost every appearance he makes. In the club’s recent match against Duke, he scored five of the team’s seven goals.

The contrast between starring

on the club team and sitting on the sidelines with the varsity team can be challenging for Webb, but he refuses to let his practice player status stop him from supporting his teammates. He makes sure to attend every away game, even if it means paying out of pocket to drive on his own. He keeps up with conditioning, even though he is barred from lifting with the team. Where others would be disheartened, Webb continues to emphasize his love for the team.

“Anything I can do to hype the girls up or help them out, that’s really … how I choose to channel that energy,” Webb said. “So instead of moping around about … not being able to play, I really try to take on active roles in other ways.”

Webb’s hard work has not gone unnoticed amongst his teammates.

Senior back Jans Croon was quick to sing his praises, emphasizing Webb’s importance in helping Virginia improve during training sessions.

“Charlie has been such a great addition to our team,” Croon said. “He’s not just a practice player, he’s also a member of our team. He comes to every practice, every event, every

game. He’s always there to support everyone. He makes us better at practice every day. And overall, he’s just such a great person, and player, and we’re lucky to have him on the team.”

In addition to playing for Virginia, Webb was recently named to the United States U21 Men’s National Team Training Squad, which met in Charlotte, N.C. over the weekend. Although men’s field hockey is the third most popular sport in the world, the U.S. has yet to catch up, as there is no NCAA male equivalent.

Webb hopes to see more boys get involved with the sport in the near future, especially with the Los Angeles 2028 Summer Olympics on the horizon. As the U.S. will be hosting, the USMNT is automatically granted a berth in the games, bypassing the competitive qualification process.

While Webb is excited at the prospect of playing in the games, he recognizes the daunting task before him — the U.S. men’s team has only competed in four total Olympic games and has not medaled since the 1932 Los Angeles games, where they earned bronze. Then there’s the challenge of even making the team in the first place.

“Just kind of getting better every week, every practice, to work towards that 2028 goal,” Webb said. “There’s a lot of work to be done… I gotta stay at it, for sure.”

Individual success might be in the cards for Webb in the coming years, but for now, his focus remains on the 2024 season with Virginia. He will undoubtedly play a large role in the team’s success moving forward, whether he’s pulling off celebratory backflips on the sidelines or bringing up team morale in other ways.

As the NCAA Tournament approaches, the Cavaliers are going to need his optimism on their side.

“At the end of the day, it’s so rewarding, especially when you win games,” Webb said. “And even though I’m not playing in the games, I feel the team is just so welcoming and inclusive that, you know, I feel like part of the team, and those wins are really … just as important for me.”

COURTESY USA FIELD HOCKEY

Webb, a second-year student at the University, was recently named to the U.S. U-21 Men’s National Team Training Squad.

The ACC needs to expand its women’s soccer tournament

Only six out of 17 teams qualified for the country’s most prominent conference tournament this year — Virginia was not one of them

Ben Istvan | Sports Editor

The beauty of the college postseason is that everyone, or most everyone, gets a chance. You’re the undefeated No. 1 seed in your conference? Cool, win a few elimination games to prove you deserve it. You went .500 and finished middle of the pack? Great, here’s one more chance to save your season against your conference’s best teams.

That beauty does not exist in ACC women’s soccer. Virginia has been the 12th best team in the country this season according to the NCAA Women’s Soccer Rating Percentage Index, but according to the ACC, the Cavaliers aren’t even good enough to play in their conference tournament.

That’s right — when the ACC Tournament kicked off Sunday night, Virginia was not among the contestants. In a stacked ACC that only allowed six of its 17 teams into postseason play, the Cavaliers’ 5-5 record and ninthplace finish fell short of qualification.

The setup of the tournament simply does not make sense. It is difficult to understand why, in a conference with seven national -

ly ranked teams, only six get to play for the title. The ACC has established itself as the best conference in women’s college soccer for decades but runs a postseason that excludes a fair amount of its talent.

Since the conference reduced its tournament field from eight teams to six in 2021, at least one formidable team has been left out each year. In 2021, North Carolina went 5-2-3 in the ACC but finished seventh and did not qualify for the postseason. The Tar Heels later earned a No. 2 seed in the 64team NCAA Tournament, designating them as a top eight squad in the country.

In the same year, both Virginia Tech and NC State were left out of the ACC Tournament but earned places in the national bracket. They both won their first round games to advance to the round of 32.

The following season, Clemson was the unlucky seventh-place team, finishing with a 4-3-3 conference record but receiving a No. 5 seed in the NCAA Tournament. The teams finishing eighth, ninth and 10th that season all qualified

as well.

In 2023, Virginia was the odd team out. The Cavaliers went 3-34 on the way to seventh place and subsequently missed the ACC Tournament, which would have provided them an opportunity to win a couple games and earn a spot in the big dance. Unfortunately, they were squeezed out by a flawed system.

The problem has only gotten more extreme this year. The conference added three new teams — Stanford, Southern Methodist and California — but did not make any room to get more squads involved in the postseason. As a result, Stanford was left out despite posting a 5-4-1 record, a No. 14 national ranking and a No. 9 ranking in the RPI.

As for Virginia, its five ACC losses came against teams that currently sit No. 1, No. 3, No. 6, No. 8 and No. 13 nationally. The Cavaliers are being punished for playing in an absurdly talented conference that requires a team to be a national contender to make the postseason.

This is a one-of-a-kind problem in Division I soccer. On the

men’s side of the ACC, barring the 2020 season, the tournament has invited all 12 programs to participate each year since 2016. Even with the uptick to 15 teams this year, it is still allowing every program to play for the conference title.

A similar dynamic holds in the major conferences in women’s soccer. The 16-team SEC plays a 12-team tournament, allowing 75 percent of the conference to proceed. The Big Ten grants more than half of its 18 teams a spot in the postseason. Neither conference is close to the level of the ACC, but both give far more of a chance to their respective competitors.

Larger tournaments have also proven their worth plentifully in the past. In 2018, while the ACC women’s soccer tournament was still composed of eight teams, No. 7 seed Florida State ran the table with three consecutive upsets. The Seminoles then went on to win a national championship. With the current setup, they would not have even qualified for the ACC Tournament.

If that is not proof enough

about the need to expand, look again at the wide-open ACC men’s soccer tournament. Just two years ago, No. 8 seed Clemson advanced to the title game and No. 12 seed Virginia Tech won its first round game after going 0-8 in the regular season. From 2015 to 2019, three teams seeded No. 7 or lower advanced to the semifinals and three double-digit seeds pulled upsets in their first-round games.

So, why can the same structure not be applied to the women’s tournament?

An ACC team has appeared in each of the last seven national title games. The conference has just three squads currently outside the top 70 in the RPI and nine resting inside the top 40. For a field with that much talent, determining that 11 out of 17 conference seasons should be over after 10 games is unfair, and downright foolish. Not every team has to get a shot. But to allow the deserving ones a chance, the ACC should expand the tournament to 12 teams, and at the very least, 10. The ACC should let the kids play.

Where does Virginia football go from here?

In the midst of a three-game losing streak, the Cavaliers’ postseason hopes are on life support

Peter Kriebel, Ryan Weiner and Casey Reims | Staff Writers

After a surprise 4-1 start to the season, Virginia football has taken a nosedive. The Cavaliers are losers of three straight games, the most recent of which was a 41-14 beatdown delivered by North Carolina. Against a team that was previously winless in ACC play, Virginia’s performance had fans streaming for the exits before halftime. That embarrassing Oct. 26 spectacle has called into question the job security of Coach Tony Elliott and sophomore quarterback Anthony Colandrea. With the future of Virginia football’s two most important figures up in the air, three Cavalier Daily sports writers break down what to expect for the rest of 2024.

Should Tony Elliott be on the hotseat?

Peter Kriebel, Staff Writer: The “hot” seat seems an unfit adage. If Tony Elliott sits on a proverbial chair whose temperature assesses his performance, that chair is a smoldering blob of lava. I think Elliott is a very good man, someone the players appear to respect and play hard for. But this is a results-oriented business, and if you don’t win games you’ll be on the curb carrying one of those sticks with the

red bandana knotted at the top. Ryan Weiner, Staff Writer: Absolutely. Nothing can save Elliott outside of a 180-degree turnaround. With a 4-8 season looming, Elliott has either lost the locker room or cannot coach well. Both are fireable offenses. He has not proven to be the recruiter he was at Clemson and team performance has not improved in his tenure, with offensive and defensive points per game sitting in the bottom half of the country, alongside no bowl appearances. In the new era of college football, this program needs someone who can recruit and coach. Elliott cannot do either at a high enough level.

Casey Reims, Staff Writer: Elliott’s seat is warm, but it is not hot yet. For it to stay that way, he has to squeak out one more win. Let’s not forget there was noticeable optimism surrounding this team after the 4-1 start. If Elliott can recapture some of that energy to close out the season, I think he will be granted a final year to see if he can fully turn the ship around.

Should Anthony Colandrea be benched for graduate quarterback Tony Muskett?

PK: Even if Muskett were to play better than Colandrea, whatever marginal benefit he would provide would not be worth hamstringing the future of the program. Bench Colandrea, and you give him a reason to transfer. The sophomore quarterback has not been perfect, but to heap the blame on him for the team’s slide would be reactionary. There are deeper problems with the team than just one position — problems that have masked Colandrea’s second-year leap. He has taken better care of the football and kept Virginia in all but three games this season.

RW: Absolutely not. This debate was settled in 2023 when Colandrea threw for 1,958 yards to Muskett’s 1,031 and displayed a dual-threat element that his backup lacks. Muskett supporters may argue that he avoids costly errors, but the game against North Carolina marked the first time Colandrea threw an interception in four weeks. A quarterback change will only cause more chaos within a program that is already in disarray. Elliott should stick with Colandrea and let him develop.

CR: Benching Colandrea is an in-

teresting idea, but one that poses more threats than benefits. With a young quarterback like him, you risk killing his confidence by taking him out and, even worse, giving him a reason to transfer. If that happens, the Cavaliers will be in much more trouble than they are now. Let’s face it — Muskett certainly is not the future for Virginia football, while Colandrea might be. Why not ride it out with the sophomore when the season is practically over already? There is no risk, only reward in that scenario.

Virginia’s four remaining opponents are No. 10 Notre Dame, No. 13 Southern Methodist, No. 23 Pittsburgh and Virginia Tech. Will the Cavaliers win another game?

PK: Even the most rabid Virginia football fan would tense up when asked to project the remaining four games of the season. Virginia had its spine ripped out by a North Carolina team on its third quarterback. There’s absolutely no reason to think the Cavaliers can hang against the class of the conference and beyond. Personnel deficiencies can be hidden, but when teamwide deflation becomes palpable

as it did against North Carolina, that’s usually a sign of a team dead in the water.

RW: That depends. If the team that showed up in the first five weeks comes back, Virginia can win another game. The Cavaliers lost five one-score games in 2023, staying competitive with multiple ranked opponents. They have failed to show grit as of late, and the loss to North Carolina emphasized how their mindset has soured. The willingness to compete needs to change if the Cavaliers want to avoid a seven-game losing streak.

CR: If, for one game, everything goes right, they have a chance. However, I fear the North Carolina game may have shown where Virginia stands against competent football teams. Unfortunately for the Cavaliers, the only opponents remaining on their schedule are more than competent. My head says Virginia can not win another game, but my heart says this team has what it takes.

Marriage Pact — a match made in survey

The matchmaking survey promises students the “perfect backup plan” by pairing them with their optimal love match

Lindsay Lian | Features Writer

For most students, November is the time for midterm exams, elections and trips home for Thanksgiving. But perhaps the thing that students have looked forward to most this month is Marriage Pact. The annual matchmaking survey, which couples up participants using a compatibility score, launched online for University students Monday morning. Marriage Pact gives students a chance to meet their future spouse during the glory days of college. Whether or not students strike gold with their match, the pact brings about plenty of fun — and a slew of awkward DMs.

Sophia Sterling-Angus and Liam McGregor, Class of 2019 and 2020 alumni of Stanford University, created Marriage Pact in 2017 as a final project for their economics course on market design. In the seven years since, Marriage Pact has garnered national attention with over 488,000 students participating across the country. This year, 88 colleges and universities across the United States are participating in the questionnaire.

During the 70-question survey, participants are asked to rank how strongly they agree or disagree with statements about their personality traits, beliefs and preferences in a relationship. The statements range from “I prefer politically incorrect humor” to “The phrase ‘I love you’ is a promise.” After an anticipation-filled week, Marriage Pact then sends an email to participants with their match’s name, school email and percent compatibility based on Marriage Pact’s elusive “algorithm.”

While all colleges that participate in Marriage Pact include a base set of questions in their surveys, each school’s Marriage Pact may include questions more specific to their student body. This year, four undergraduate students have taken it upon themselves to create a Marriage Pact survey unique to the University.

Kate Rothfuss, executive member of U.Va. Marriage Pact and third-year College student, said she and her fellow organizers aim to pique University students’ interest with unique survey questions.

“A lot of the more fun, explicit or kind of ‘out there’ questions are the ones that we put in,” Rothfuss said. “Those are the ones where

[we asked], ‘What would U.Va. respond to? What would get a reaction?’”

This year, with the presidential election at the forefront of many students’ minds, Rothfuss said they included questions related to the current political environment. While the national Marriage Pact had already added statements such as “It’s unethical to be apolitical,” Rothfuss and the other organizers threw in new statements about whether students prefer to match the political leanings of their partners.

“A lot of political [statements] were already in there,” Rothfuss said. “But questions like ‘How important are your partner’s political views?’ we put in there because that seemed something that could go a lot of ways in a relationship.”

Marriage Pact draws excitement leading up to the reveal of participants’ matches through a variety of tactics. The platform has historically revealed participants’ matches a week after the survey is released and, roughly 24 hours before the reveal, sends a teaser email to each participant with their match’s initials. Rothfuss recalled how last year’s teaser emails prompted a buzz in Clemons Library as students began speculating who their mystery matches could be.

“When the initials came out, you could hear a little whir of people start opening it and talking. They were looking on Instagram and trying to figure out who [their match] was. It gets people excited,” Rothfuss said.

In an effort to spark even more excitement, Marriage Pact added a new feature this year — a preview of the top ten matches and the worst match, which are listed on the Marriage Pact website with their initials and their compatibility score. As of Tuesday, the top ten matches showed a 100 percent compatibility and the lowest match only a 0.2 percent compatibility.

Peter Mildrew, executive member of U.Va. Marriage Pact and third-year Commerce student, said the U.Va. Marriage Pact executive team hopes to set a new record for student engagement this year. Last year, 43 percent of the undergraduate student body participated in Marriage Pact.

“This year, we’re aiming for over 50 percent, which would be crazy if we could get it,” Mildrew

said. “We’re shooting for the stars, and hopefully we’ll land somewhere up there.”

Additionally, Mildrew said the Marriage Pact team hopes to have a balanced pool of individuals so that every participant gets matched with someone of their desired gender. Often, more heterosexual women complete the survey than heterosexual men, leading the algorithm to give them less-than-perfect matches or platonic matches with other heterosexual women.

Mildrew said they hope to expand their pool to more heterosexual or bisexual men by reaching out to fraternity group chats and male floors of first-year dorms.

In the past three days, the team has used political references and self-deprecating humor on YikYak to encourage students to participate in this year’s Marriage Pact. Posts on Election Day included a reminder for students to fulfill their “civic duty” — namely, to vote and to fill out Marriage Pact.

While humorous in nature, Marriage Pact has actually helped some students find lasting love. Fourth-year Education student Erin Moulton found her match

when she completed Marriage Pact during her second year. After a few awkward conversations with her match on social media, she began meeting him in person. She said Marriage Pact helped ease them into their relationship, as there was little pressure to get together in person.

“It worked out well,” Moulton said. “Instead of immediately jumping into it, [Marriage Pact] just gave me his name, and from there, we just started hanging out.”

Moulton and her boyfriend have been going strong for a year and four months now. She said the Marriage Pact survey captured topics that were helpful in getting to know her partner.

“I would say they’re good questions for anyone looking for a partner because they ask about home life and also things like, ‘What do you see your lazy Saturday looking like?’” Moulton said. “It’s a good mix of questions.”

Moulton also noted that while she and her boyfriend were deemed compatible by the Marriage Pact algorithm, they were not necessarily alike. In fact, she said her boyfriend, assuming the algorithm would pair him with someone similar to him, answered

the questionnaire without complete honesty in hopes of attracting someone with a different personality than him. The decision worked in his and Moulton’s favor.

“I think the goal for Marriage Pact, at the end of the day, is to have someone that you are compatible with. So if that’s what you’re looking for, it makes sense to answer truthfully,” Moulton said. “But I guess you can also answer untruthfully, and it might work out.”

Moulton and her boyfriend happily found love in their inbox. For most students, however, Marriage Pact simply yields new friendships — or someone to pass by awkwardly on the Corner after some friendly Instagram stalking. Regardless, Rothfuss said Marriage Pact remains an exciting, light-hearted activity for students. She said she joined the U.Va. Marriage Pact team in her second year for fun, and she ended up witnessing the pact turn into something more significant.

“The idea that it’s a cool, fun side quest initially drew me in,” Rothfuss said. “But then, after doing it for a bit, [you] see how impactful it can be.”

LYLE DILLON THE CAVALIER DAILY

Cumbre takes Charlottesville to new heights

The locally-owned Argentinian coffee and pastry shop boasts flavors and prices that rival other Charlottesville favorites

Evalina Caruccio | Food Writer

Steps off of the Downtown Mall in what used to be a barbershop, Cumbre prides itself as Charlottesville’s newest coffee shop and bakery. The quaint shop offers authentic Argentinian delicacies like empanadas, alfajores, medialunas and more. Cumbre is a perfect spot to go grab a delicious, affordable lunch, complete with an espresso drink and a sweet treat. The best part? There’s not a line — at least not yet.

Located downtown on E Jefferson Street, Cumbre’s good eats are a quick 10-minute drive away. The shop is open from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. seven days a week, and they offer both takeout and dine-in options. My friend and I went midday on a weekday and were some of the only patrons there, hinting to me that we had found one of Charlottesville’s newest hidden gems.

Walking up to the 480-squarefoot building, I thought an entire restaurant could not possibly fit in such a small space — but I stood corrected. Cumbre made up for limited indoor dining space with a classy outdoor patio, laden with pea gravel and fur-

nished with picnic tables and large umbrellas to protect patrons from the elements.

As we moved inside, jaunty music followed us into the restaurant, and the smell of empanadas and coffee enveloped our senses. Painted on the far wall was the English translation of the restaurant’s name, Cumbre, from Spanish — “Highest point or greatest degree of perfection, intensity or greatness in something.” I was intrigued whether our lunch would make Cumbre worthy of its name.

Three employees greeted us with bright smiles at the counter and answered our questions about the menu. We ordered a box of three empanadas, a sandwich, some cookies and some espresso. Soon after we sat down, each dish came out on an oval wooden tray with sparkling water and a shortbread cookie — a small touch that really elevated the dining experience.

Of course, we couldn’t go to a coffee shop without vetting the coffee, so my barista bestie ordered a cortado. According to her expert opinion, it was wonderfully smooth with a

robust flavor. We were especially impressed by the intricate foam art on the top, considering a cortado does not consist of much milk. At only $3.50, it’s some of the more affordable quality coffee in town.

Next, we opened the box of three empanadas, which came at $12. Each empanada was branded with the type of filling on the side of the pastry, so there were no worries about mixing flavors up.

I reached first for the sweet corn and cheese. This empanada had a subtle chili flavor that united the sweet corn kernels with the sharp cheese. The texture of the filling was silky, and it contrasted exquisitely with the slight crunch of the outer shell of the pastry.

My friend’s favorite was the spinach and artichoke empanada, and I understood why — it had the creamiest filling out of all three. The flavors of the gooey cheese and fresh spinach were perfectly balanced in the flaky shell. Having tasted many bland spinach-artichoke dishes in the past, I was pleasantly surprised to bite into the well-balanced, earthy flavor profile of

this empanada. While each empanada was heavenly, the knife cut beef was my favorite. The name of this empanada refers to the traditional Argentinian method of filling an empanada with hand-sliced beef, rather than ground beef, to bring moisture and flavor to the pastry. The sliced beef made the empanada incredibly rich and juicy, and it was exquisite in concert with the perfectly-crusted dough.

The goodness at Cumbre didn’t stop with the empanadas — they also had a selection of breakfast toasts, sandwiches and salads. We decided to share the Prosciutto Pleasure sandwich. While a tad steep at $12.50, I would argue it’s one of Charlottesville’s better sandwiches. Thin prosciutto, fresh cherry tomatoes, mozzarella and pesto were layered on a fresh baguette. The sandwich came warm, which allowed all the flavors to melt together. The acidity from the tomatoes brightened the pesto, and the saltiness of the prosciutto made the melted mozzarella somehow taste even better.

No meal is complete without a

What — should — that mouth do?

29 frat brothers give us some much-needed insight into dirty talk

Anya Johnson | Sex & Relationships Columnist

Editor’s note: This article was written under a pseudonym as part of The Cavalier Daily’s new Sex and Relationships column.

One’s ill-equipped entry into the realm of sexual “Dos and Don’ts” in college brings about a range of questions. When should my hand move to the southern hemisphere? Will I still get lucky in my granny panties? Am I big enough for a Trojan Magnum XL?

Thankfully, the answers to these questions should arise after your first or second time — for instance, when the weenie only packs half of that extra large condom. But there’s one dirty dilemma that plagues us time and time again: what — should — that mouth do?

The language of dirty talk doesn’t come easily. When I first became sexually active, I quickly realized that lusty lingo wasn’t part of my native tongue. Right when it was time to lock in and put out, I didn’t make sexy sounds, nor did I utter promiscuous whispers. Instead, I remained silent while questions filled my mind. What should I say? How should I say it? Who is to listen?

I’m sure many of you have had similar experiences in the bedroom, wondering what to say, if anything,

while you’re winding and grinding away. The last thing I want is for you to keep facing the same flustered fate. Fear not — this column will assume the role of the Duolingo owl to foster your fluency in sultry slang. By the end, you’ll know exactly how to communicate your deepest desires during a breathy silence. Don’t be shy — let’s get moaning.

To inform this discussion, I’ve collected data from the experts — University frat brothers. Yup, those Bed Frame Bassists, Couch Connoisseurs and self-proclaimed Oracles of the O. These 29 brothers of a frat that shall not be named eagerly responded to a survey about their noise preferences in bed.

Starting at the tip of the peni — I mean iceberg, 65.5 percent of survey participants said that vocal feedback during sex turns them on and assures them of the quality of their performance, while a mere 3.4 percent said it makes them uncomfortable. 55.2 percent reported that dirty dialect “significantly” enhances their sexual experiences, and the remaining 44.8 percent said “slightly.” These results skew in favor of dialogue during intercourse, whether it’s sexy narration, playful teasing or

constructive feedback. However, a significant portion of survey respondents are less inclined to talk, so rest assured that the world keeps spinning — ahem, that the disco stick keeps dancing — if you prefer to put on a silent production of Open Legs, Closed Mouth. Now, who do these boys feel comfortable hooting and howling with?

34.5 percent of survey participants indicated that they would feel comfortable delivering a seductive soliloquy to a one night stand. Personally, I think the hot-and-unbothered nature of a spontaneous hookup would provide the perfect environment to take your spicy script for a test drive.

On the contrary, 41.4 percent prefer to be somewhat acquainted with their partner, perhaps within the more intimate dynamic of a steady, but casual, relationship. The excess 24.1 percent prefer only to dabble — or babble — with a long-term, committed significant other.

That’s cute and all, but we’re not finished yet. The survey would not have been complete without addressing the most controversial element of dirty talk — the D-word. Yep, that one. The infamous zaddy-adjacent.

27.6 percent of our participant pool hears “daddy” and yearns for

more, while 20.7 percent condemned the D-word as a non-negotiable no-no. Per my expert opinion, I reckon that this latter group will eventually turn to the Dark Side as time — and lube — wear on their bedsheets. The remaining 51.7 percent of survey participants feel that the term of endearment is “situationally acceptable.” In other words, read the room — or backseat, no judgment here — to figure out if some daddy talk would enhance the erotic ambiance.

I do believe that using the D-word is something everyone must try at least once. But if you’re not ready to fullsend a “f–k me, daddy,” there are many tried-and-true alternatives for when you want to give credit where credit is due. I’d recommend putting out a “nice thrust” or a “those hips don’t lie.” Or, you can use my personal favorite: “Can we get a sweet treat after this?” Chances are, your partner is just as anxious as you are about entering the territory of spoken sex. It’s terrifying to allow someone to get to know your body in its most vulnerable state, and it’s even more terrifying to be explicit about how to stimulate it in the naked moment.

If this is you, never fear. My advice is to think of dirty talk as playful and

sweet treat. The alfajores were calling our names from their spot next to the cash register in hand-wrapped packages. The cornstarch cookies filled with dulce de leche struck the perfect balance of cookie to filling — something not even Oreo has figured out yet. The shortbread-like texture of the cookie and the creamy dulce de leche made for a cookie that was both crumbly and moist. At $4.50, it might be a little pricey for a cookie, but if I were to splurge on a treat, I would reach for it again.

As small and unassuming as Cumbre might appear, inside you’ll find something exciting and totally unique. Cumbre’s mission to bring authentic and delicious Argentinian flavors to Charlottesville really shows in the taste and presentation of their products. I went home raving about empanadas, and I already have plans to bring my roommates for a fun, low-cost lunch. I believe Cumbre is beginning to climb to the summit of their success, and I’d recommend visiting the cozy cafe before there are too many people in queue.

communicative — it is not a pressurized performance, and it’s almost never as serious as it feels in the moment. Make yourself comfortable, get creative and try new things! Silly is the new sexy.

Remember, displaying confidence with your own sexual preferences fosters an environment of open communication and mutual respect. Expressing yourself in bed allows you to claim control over your relationship with sex and explore what gets your juices flowing.

Still, the ambiguity of the survey results speaks to how there’s no right or wrong answer to “what that mouth do?” Whether you decide to call your partner “daddy” or forego audioplay for a snatched and silent Mew, know that there is a way for you to get down any way you want to.

Congratulations! You’re now at least somewhat well-versed in the native tongue of Nast. The next time your sneaky link, lover or frat party frenemy asks, “What that mouth do?” you can simply reply:

“Nothing, if you don’t pick up this bar tab.”

Rent is due, motherf—r.

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

John D’earth is taking his final bow at the University

The acclaimed professor traces his musical journey ahead of his last ensemble concert and January retirement

Cooper Carlson | Staff Writer

After over 40 years of service to the University music department, John D’earth, Director of Jazz Performance, is set to retire in January 2025. Known for his striking trumpet skills, creative musical compositions and unwavering dedication to the arts, D’earth has become a cornerstone in both the University and local Charlottesville music scene, fostering a legacy that will resonate long after his departure.

D’earth said that he got his start in music early in life, as his father was an avid listener of jazz. As a result, he grew up surrounded by staples of the genre such as Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington and Ella Fitzgerald. D’earth said he had a childhood dream of becoming an actor, but this was quickly surpassed when he saw Armstrong play his trumpet in a movie, sparking a lifelong curiosity of the instrument and music as a whole.

“It blew my mind to see him play and to hear the music he was playing, which I loved when I was a little kid,” D’earth said.

D’earth first picked up the trumpet at eight years old, and his love for the instrument only intensified as he got older. The passion for playing that D’earth possessed as a young adult led him to leave college in the 1970s to join the vibrant jazz scene in New York City, surrounding himself with some of the best quality musicians on the planet.

In the city, D’earth co-founded his band Cosmology with drummer Robert Jospé and vocalist Dawn Thompson, D’earth’s late wife. The band lived and played in New York for over twelve years.

“I was very lucky through those twelve years that I lived in New York,” D’earth said. “I was able to play with some really substantial people and learn a lot.”

Despite being an invaluable experience, D’earth said it was hard to be heard in New York, as the city mostly catered to musicians who were at the top of the industry’s food chain. This competitive environment sparked a departure from the city for the band that brought them to Charlottesville in 1981.

“We were getting out of the city for the summer … but we stayed because things had started to go well with us here,” D’earth said. “In Charlottesville, there is a really vibrant jazz community

that actually finds a way to be heard.”

One of the most impactful ways D’earth integrated himself into the Charlottesville sound was through his involvement at Miller’s, the iconic restaurant and music venue which is famously where the Dave Matthews Band got their start, located on the Downtown Mall.

During his tenure performing at Miller’s in the 1980s, D’earth started the venue’s Thursday Jazz series as a way to incorporate a steady place for both musicians and listeners to relish in their love for the genre, which according to D’earth has remained one of the longest running jazz gigs in the country.

The ingenuity and talent that D’earth displayed at Miller’s was what led him to the University in 1982. The University’s Jazz Ensemble — which was a struggling student-run organization at the time — requested his help specifically.

“[The students] heard I had come, moved to town, and they knew that I had played with these big bands,” D’earth said. “So they asked me to come and help them, and they liked what we were doing, so they hired me themselves.”

D’earth’s involvement with the ensemble eventually turned into his full time position as the University’s Director of Jazz Performance. In his time at the University and in the Charlottesville area, D’earth has been in demand as a teacher for his extensive musical knowledge and ability to foster a young players’ talent.

D’earth has also composed for local groups such as the Charlottesville Symphony, developing a rich musical community in the area. Given by the Jazz Journalists Association, D’earth was a recipient of the Jazz Hero award in April for contributions to the expansive jazz community in central Virginia.

D’earth’s over 40 year long career at the University will culminate in his last concert with the University Jazz Ensemble. The program, entitled “New Beginnings,” is set to feature a variety of guest artists alongside the student band. D’earth said that all of these musicians reached out to him at various points during the semester asking to perform with him before his retirement, prompting him to invite them all to join on

stage for the concert.

One of these artists is alto saxophonist Pureum Jin, a graduate of the Manhattan School of Music and rising international jazz star. Additionally, four University alumni that have made a career in jazz will present on stage alongside D’earth — bassist Lisa Mezzacappa, baritone saxophonist Kathy Olson, pianist Kait Dunton and tenor saxophonist John Petrucelli.

Beyond this professional lineup, the concert will also feature student musicians from the University Jazz Ensemble, completing the strong band full of more extraordinary soloists that will perform. D’earth said that while most of the students in the ensemble do not plan to be professional musicians post-grad, they are sure to hold their own next to the professional guests.

D’earth explained that one of the main purposes of the ensemble is to help musically gifted students explore jazz and keep it in their lives in balance with their academics.

“By and large, [the people] in the Jazz Ensemble are not going to be professional musicians later in life,” D’earth said. “They’re going to be doctors, lawyers, English professors, historians, computer

scientists … and they have this wonderful talent in music.”

Although he is retiring from the University, D’earth said he does not plan on retiring his music career in the slightest. With his new abundance of time, D’earth said he will focus on performing with his quintet — made of J.C. Kuhl on tenor saxophone, Daniel Clarke on piano, Peter Spaar on bass, Devonne Harris on drums, and D’earth on trumpet — as well as his compositional work. Reflecting his diverse love of music, D’earth said he will also expand his drumming and singing skills hoping to perform and record those abilities sometime in the near future.

“‘I’ve actually got a bucket list,” D’earth said. “I’m taking drum lessons to really get better on the drums … and I want to sing in front of people.”

As a pillar of the University jazz program, D’earth leaves big shoes to fill for whomever takes his place. He occupies a unique place at the University, seamlessly balancing the roles of teacher, mentor, and director. Though he is leaving quite a legacy, he believes that the music department is more than capable of finding individuals to inherit his position.

“I feel like I’m leaving the jazz

program in really good shape,” D’earth said. “We have incredible people now on the academic faculty that do real creative music, and those people are Nicole Mitchell on the flute and JoVia Armstrong [on] percussion.”

In his last semester, D’earth said he hopes to leave his students with one final reminder — the importance of keeping music alive in their lives, no matter where their paths lead.

“Our goal is to never lose the music,” D’earth said. “Because it leavens everything in a person’s life and makes it better.”

For D’earth, jazz has been more than a profession — it has been a way to understand himself and connect with others. He said he hopes his students and the community at large will find in music the same grounding and joy that it has given him, carrying it forward as a quiet but constant presence in whatever they do.

See John D’earth and the University Jazz Ensemble perform “New Beginnings” at 8 p.m., Nov. 9 in Old Cabell Hall. Tickets are $5 for students and can be purchased online at the U.Va. Arts Box Office.

COURTESY JOHN D’EARTH

D’earth’s over 40-year long career at the University will culminate in his last concert with the University Jazz Ensemble.

Exploring MaKshya Tolbert’s ‘Shade is a place’

The poet, multimedia artist and University MFA graduate finds ongoing inspiration in the local canopy

Sophie Hay | Staff Writer

The phrase “Shade is a place” describes an ever-evolving body of work by poet and multimedia artist MaKshya Tolbert. “Shade is a place: relief is my form” titles their 2023 installation at New City Arts combining poetry and pottery in an immersive gallery space. And “Shade is a place” names their National Poetry Series-winning book set to be published in Oct. 2025.

Perhaps most significantly, “Shade is a place” exists as a philosophy for Tolbert. Inspired by their experience of the shade trees lining Charlottesville’s Downtown Mall, the phrase describes an approach to exploration and artistic expression which has shaped their creative process over the past two years.

The evolution of Tolbert’s work is ongoing, as they continue to find new modes of meditating on shade and expanding their sensitivity to the ecological, architectural and social spheres of their city through this lens.

“I … talk about [‘Shade is a place’] as a social practice and as a set of relationships — shade walks, stewardship projects, opportunities to support people,” Tolbert said. “It seems like every year, the form changes a bit.”

Tolbert first developed an interest in shade as a Master of Fine Arts student in the University’s Creative Writing Program, from which they graduated this past spring. Tolbert grew up in Arlington, Va., but said they were eager to leave the state after high school.

This desire took Tolbert to Stanford, where they completed an undergraduate degree in American Studies and Creative Writing, then to Italy for a Fulbright fellowship studying Black foodways and Virginia plantation ecology. There, they found their scholarship pointing them in the direction of their home state — the site of the environments they were researching.

“As someone writing about plantation ecologies, I’m in Italy, in California, everywhere except the places where the plantations are,” Tolbert said. “I was really curious to come back here and be closer to my family, to the plantations … I’ve been thinking about wanting to find a safe, livable life in a place that a lot of people historically have been pushed out of.”

After returning to Virginia, in the first year of their MFA, Tolbert encountered a troubling story from 2006 in a course on eco-feminism and eco-poetics —

that of a Black high school student who sat under an oak tree typically reserved for white students and returned to school the next day to find multiple nooses hanging from its branches. The situation intensified from there, ultimately leading to an unsolved arson attack on the school and attempted second-degree murder charges leveled at six Black teenagers.

Tolbert said learning of this series of events — incited by a student’s simple desire for shade — moved them to reflect on shade itself and their own relationship to it. They spent time wandering the Downtown Mall and drafting poems about its canopy and started sitting in on public meetings of the Charlottesville Tree Commission, a group of city-appointed volunteers who advise the City Council on the planting and preservation of shade trees on public property — Tolbert now serves as chair.

In 2023, they entered a sixmonth New City Arts Research Residency and began developing their multimedia installation, “Shade is a place: relief is my form,” out of New City Arts’ space on the Downtown Mall.

“To bring all of these questions I had about shade trees to the lit-

eral place where the trees are … [I needed] to be close by and think and turn on these questions,” Tolbert said. “That residency was where I began to try to put together sequences for the first time, ways to measure trees and to be able to think through these different formal ways that we talk about assessing trees and assessing their risks.”

The residency culminated in a 20-day exhibit in the New City Arts Welcome Gallery in Aug. 2023. Tolbert lined the floors with English ivy, displayed their own ceramic pots on pedestals and hung their poems from the ceiling — some of which were titled “Shade is a place” themselves. Tolbert said the majority of the poems showcased will be released as part of their book next year, a project which started out as their MFA thesis and synthesizes earlier iterations of the work.

“In some ways, the book is an archive of what that was like, what it was like to actually build a sense of place by way of dizzying myself on the Mall, by showing up to watch the work happen, to watch the arborists work, and then sort of see my work just blend into that,” Tolbert said. “My thesis in the grad program was a sweet opportunity to push myself

to put it all together, and that is what the book will be.”

As they anticipate the collection’s release, Tolbert has dedicated themself to environmental service — they are now training in tree stewardship and recently earned a wildland firefighting certification. Still, they have maintained an interest in shade and placemaking as objects of artistic inquiry, with plans to adapt “Shade is a place” into a play.

An upcoming artist’s residency with architecture firm Nelson Byrd Woltz combines their artistic and action-oriented impulses — Tolbert will support storytelling in the firm’s development of a new memorial to the Underground Railroad. They said the project feels like a natural progression of their writing on the Downtown Mall and its trees.

“For me to be invited in to help direct some of that discursive world, that’s, in many ways, a lot of what I was doing with ‘Shade as a place’ on the Mall, thinking about how we talk about where we are in space and time,” Tolbert said. “I’ll be offering a lot of that same language-based work while also being part of a planning team.”

Reflecting on their creative goals, Tolbert noted an ongoing

interest in one key aspect of the method which produced “Shade is a place” — loneliness. Tolbert said that feelings of loneliness invited them to consider shade as both a source of connection and a source of relief.

“I think what starts out as me wanting a sense of place and admitting loneliness gets me not only wanting to walk up and down the Mall and feel closer to the canopy but also wanting to invite people to feel closer to the canopy and to me. Shade [becomes] a literal possibility of relief, ecological shade, but also this relational possibility of relief,” Tolbert said. “I feel like loneliness and relief have become two different poles of this project.”

These questions of relief — the relief trees offer, who accesses relief and how relief manifests in space — continue to inform Tolbert’s work as a writer, ceramicist, tree steward, firefighter and Charlottesville Tree Commission Chair. As ever, Tolbert is motivated by their surroundings — Charlottesville’s trees and people and the places in which they coexist. The poetry collection “Shade is a place” is set to be released in Oct. 2025.

COURTESY NEW CITY ARTS

Tolbert first developed an interest in shade as a Master of Fine Arts student in the University’s Creative Writing Program, from which they graduated this past spring.

U.Va. Marriage Pact rolls out new “Ring by Spring” program

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

Wednesday, the University announced a partnership with U.Va. Marriage Pact to introduce a “Ring by Spring” program. After witnessing immature behavior from students during the Spring 2024 semester, Gov. Oldkin’s Board of Visitors proposed the initiative, citing immorality and crying in non-academic spaces as reasons for the program.

The Board found inspiration from Liberty University and Brigham Young University. After a semester where political division has occasionally broken up the student body, the Board hopes the program can unify students. Till death do them part!

In a recording leaked to the public, Board member Paula E. Womanning weighed ideas for the potential legal enforcement of the program, which has yet to be announced.

“We are currently debating having the University Police Department arrest and place temporary ankle monitors on repeat situationship

offenders, particularly those running around in public holding hands,” Womanning said.

The new program will take a similar shape to the academic Engagements pathways. Instead of quarter-long classes, students will choose their literal level of engagement.

Incoming students will be placed on either the Ring by Spring track or remain single until graduation on the Single Income No Kids, also known as SINK, track. Analysts at U.Va. Marriage Pact anticipate a third of the Class of 2029 to opt for the Ring by Spring track, marrying off an estimated 1,400 students.

The program will start at the application level on the Common Application, with the University now requiring an “Emotional Intelligence Value Test.”

The results will be plotted onto a Wedding Bell Curve, with students on the highest and lowest ranges of said curve having a higher chance of admission to the University.

After University admissions makes their picks, U.Va. Marriage

Pact will then handle the data, using a black market algorithm from Serbia to create matches. A rate of 56 percent compatibility will be required to finalize a match.

U.Va. Marriage Pact Algorithm Manager Q. Pitt expressed his excitement at the unprecedented level of institutional support that this initiative has received.

“In our discussions with President Ryan, he emphatically agreed with us that students’ love lives do NOT count as extracurriculars. They should always be last-ditch additions to the ‘experience’ portion of one’s resume,” Pitt said.

When Pitt was asked about how U.Va. Marriage Pact’s algorithm will create successful life-long matches, he waffled.

“Uhh, put the Republicans with the Republicans and keep any ‘cat people’ on a blacklist,” Pitt said.

The administration and U.Va. Marriage Pact aim to have the program implemented for the Class of 2029. U.Va. Marriage Pact explained the impact of this decision in a state-

ment emailed to students.

“U.Va. students are asked to be great AND good. We think that’s cool and all, but we’d much rather them be romantics AND willing to commit to a relationship,” Pitt said.

The Cavalier Daily did learn, however, that the Emotional Intelligence test will not be required of students applying into the School of Engineering and Applied Science. The Office of Undergraduate Admissions spokesman, Lemmey Inn, explained the decision, saying the test would be unnecessary for these unmarriageable students.

“Requiring these applicants to take the test would show an extreme overestimation of those students’ abilities to feel emotions,” Inn said.

Following the announcement, shockwaves went through many Charlottesville organizations and businesses, with Mincer’s announcing a new class ring option that doubles as an engagement ring. Competition between the University Chapel, St. Thomas Aquinas University Parish and St. Paul’s Memorial Church is

CARTOON

heating up as they compete for wedding bookings through 2040.

Most of the student body has been in uproar, with Contracted Independent Organizations like Men’s Club Rowing, Virginia Alpine Ski and Snowboard Team and Club Swim creating petitions to block the initiative. The previously mentioned clubs are known for their incestuous practices, with Club Swim creating ‘Swamilies’ of co-ed swimmers and Men’s Club Rowing trying to shove men in teeny boats.

However, the sentiment is not completely shared. Organizations like Chi Alpha, the Jefferson Society and the Yellow Journal have applauded the program.

In between annotating chapters of the Old Testament, Mira Cole, Chi Alpha Bible study leader, commented on the program.

“It’s time to restore the real meaning of the V in U.Va.,” Cole said.

ADAIR REID is a humor columnist for The Cavalier Daily. She can be reached at humor@cavalierdaily.com

Crumbs

Voteo and Juliet

Blake Maguire | Cartoonist

Conwell Morris | Cartoonist

ACROSS:

1 Cotton gin inventor Whitney

4 The Corner’s “Marg Monday” spot

9 Beer brand present at many a U.Va. frat party

14 One of two in a colon

15 Number of strikes in a turkey

16 “The Lorax” bottled air brand

17 Core components?

18 Dessert items with a high price?

20 Castle defense

22 “Ugh, get a room!” activity, briefly

23 “Star Wars: Episode II” attackers

24 Cause of a princess’s insomnia, in a classic fairytale

26 Coup d’ ____

28 Fight-ending letters

29 Earth’s pair of melting glacial masses

34 Actress Longoria or Mendes

35 State animal of Maine

36 Exposed publicly

40 “Good Luck Charlie” family name

42 Pacific island country composed entirely of atolls

43 “That is to say ...”

CROSSWORD

44 Settlement-building board game

47 Org. established by the 1947 National Security Act

48 Awkward stretch, for many ... or a literal description of 9-, 18-, 29-, 40-, 42-, 64- and 71-Across

51 Running joke

54 Bailout PC keys

55 Dine

56 Serena Williams won it six times

59 Ear-related prefix

61 Ensnare

64 Data storage devices

67 Game with “Reverse” and “Skip” cards

68 Classmates

69 Up to now

70 Fox News rival: abbr.

71 Strike down, biblically

72 In a sneaky way

73 Place for college students to take a stand?

DOWN:

1 Dutch cheese

2 University of New Mexico athlete

3 Superman misidentification

Quinn Connor | Puzzle Master

4 Molecule produced by the mitochondria, for short

5 Hit the mall

6 Architectural style of the Empire State Building

7 Campaign clashes

8 “The Good Old Song” contraction

9 Second “B” in U.Va. Cereal Club’s “BYOB” events

10 “Yeah ... not gonna happen”

11 New Orleans football player

12 Small stream

13 “_____ tall and handsome as hell” (Taylor Swift lyric)

19 Tetra- doubled

21 Hot gossip

25 Italian fashion label

27 Useful blackjack card

29 Toenail treatment, informally

30 Egg cell

31 Na+ or Cl-

32 Attack like a cat

33 Chevy Tahoe, e.g.

37 Shell station that needs gas?

38 “Call Me by Your Name” name

39 Twofold

41 Web or nanny follower

42 Prof’s helpers

44 Many ‘90s music purchases

45 Spirits but not specters

46 Give evidence, in court

49 Refuse

50 Magician’s rabbit concealing prop

51 Moguls on a ski slope

52 “_____ to recall…”

53 Marisa of “My Cousin Vinny”

57 Many a cruise ship stop

58 Gaelic tongue

60 October birthstone

62 Youngest Brontë sister

63 Word following beer or ping

65 Computer language used alongside HTML

66 “my b!”