To our readers,
Eleven months ago, I wrote my first letter from the editor to you. In it, I committed to in spiring critical conversation and action on Grounds and to cata pult this paper into a digital age. At the time, I could have never imagined the history we would witness as a paper — and as a community — over the coming
year. In just eleven months, we reported on the most significant change to the Honor system in University history, heated debate over appointments to the Board of Visitors and most recently, the tragic and fatal shooting of three students.
Put simply, this last year has been nothing short of challeng ing. I find it hard to believe that today marks our 16th and final
print edition together. Though I know it will take time for us all — myself included — to process the events of the last year, I hope we have delivered on at least a few of those promises I made at the beginning of the term.
Our staffers have continued to impress me every day with the grace, empathy and professional ism they extend to one another. The future of this organization
is so bright, and I feel confident that when the 133rd term ends in a little less than two months, this newspaper will be left in good hands.
Throughout it all, we remain indebted to you, our readers — on behalf of the entire 133rd term, thank you for trusting us to share your stories. I remain grate ful and humbled to have served the community I love in this role.
It has been the greatest honor of my life to tell the history of now.
With lots of love, Eva M. Surovell 133rd Editor-in-Chief of The Cavalier Daily
Members of the Charlottesville community gathered Monday evening at Carver Recreation Center to hear from the three final candidates for Charlottesville chief of police — Latroy Durrette, Michael Kochis and Easton McDonald. Candidates answered questions from community members and the general public, focusing on accountability and community engagement.
Charlottesville Police Department has not had a permanent police chief since former chief RaShall Brackney was fired in September 2021.
Durrette has been a CPD officer since 1993 and acting chief of police since Brack ney was fired. When asked what motivates him, Durrette spoke about the need for action in order to bring about collective healing in Charlottesville.
“It’s not just enforcing the rule of law, it’s building connections with the commu nity,” Durrette said.
Kochis has been chief of police in Warrenton since 2020, where his force has gar nered attention for its anonymous rating service, which allows civilians to rate their interactions with officers. Like Durrette, Kochis is focused on promoting community involvement in policing and emphasized the need to reconcile the ways officers have failed their communities.
McDonald has been a major-division commander in Loudoun County since March 2021, where he is responsible for overseeing the department’s operational support di vision. During the forum, McDonald stressed the importance of community feedback for police — both positive and negative — and the need for accountability.
The final candidate should be announced by next week after selection by Interim City Manager Michael C. Rogers and approval by City Council.
Members of the Iranian Student Association gathered at the South Lawn 12 p.m. Wednesday to show solidarity for the Iran Scholars for Liberty’s international day of campus protests. Under a chilly rain, protesters sang Iranian protest songs and shared excerpts from the ISL’s statement demanding action from academia and gov ernments regarding the Islam Republic regime’s human rights violations in Iran.
An ongoing revolution against the government erupted after the Sept. 16 death of Mahsa Amini, a Kurdish woman detained by the Iranian “morality police” for allegedly violating hijab regulations. The government claims her cause of death was a heart attack, but her family and many supporters believe she faced police brutality.
According to an official statement by an Iranian general Monday, over 300 people have since been killed in the following protests and political unrest.
Abtin Afshar, ISA president and doctorate student, welcomed attendees by read ing an excerpt of the statement released by the ISL demanding action from govern ment officials and academic leaders.
“The unity of the academic voice and leveraging our platform to promote dem ocratic values will influence the world’s interactions with Iran and will advance the world toward peace and equality,” the statement reads.
The statement goes on to list action items such as official statements from leaders condemning Iran’s government, protective measures for Iranian students and the release of all political prisoners in the country.
“First, we want to get the voice of Iranians heard by people outside of Iran, and second, by raising this awareness, we hope to put pressure on Western countries to support this movement.” Afshar said.
During the group’s general body meeting Tuesday, Student Council’s represent ative body passed a memorial resolution to honor the lives of the three students fa tally shot in the Nov. 13 shooting — second-year student Devin Chandler, third-year student Lavel Davis and fourth-year student D’Sean Perry.
“The Student Council representative body recognizes November 13 as a day that has now altered the norms and fabric of this University,” the resolution reads. “Al though we will always carry the weight of this loss with us, we join our community in commitment to lighten the burden by continuing to care for and lift up each other.”
The resolution was sponsored by Ceci Cain, president of Student Council and graduate student, Jaden Evans, vice president for administration and fourth-year College student, Riley Reynolds, vice president for organizations and fourth-year College student and Gaby Hernandez, chair of the representative body and fourthyear College student.
Lara Arif, co-chair of the LOTL Committee and fourth-year Batten student, has been involved with the Lighting of the Lawn Committee since her first year on Grounds. In the time since, Arif said the group has become her favorite involvement at the University. Its 48 members come from all four undergraduate classes.
“Ever since first year, I’ve just been in love with this event — what it means and what it does for the community,” Arif said.
LOTL was founded following the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks as a way to foster unity among the University and Charlottesville communities. Planning for this year’s event began in early March, but picked up later that spring. Throughout the fall, the Committee has held general body meetings every Monday evening to prepare.
The Commitee is responsible for raising the funding necessary to put on the show — including the cost for receptions, audio and visual needs, paying Facilities Management and lighting. This year, the group re
ceived support from the Student Engagment Fund through Alumni Hall, the Parents Fund, the office of the vice president for student affairs, various CIOs and individual donors.
Arif noted that a unique chal lenge faced by the Committee this year was that she is one of just three individuals in the group to have ex perienced a Lighting of the Lawn before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Last year’s LOTL was hosted amid mask mandates and 2020’s LOTL was virtual.
“We’ve been locked down and restricted in different capacities throughout the past few years, but this is the first year where things start to feel normal again,” Arif said.
“This LOTL in a lot of ways would have been the first sort of a hallmark tradition that a lot of us will get to experience that is back to that nor mal state.”
This sense of togetherness orig inally served as the inspiration for the Committee’s theme this year —
“Full Power.” Since the tragic deaths of Lavel Davis Jr., D’Sean Perry and Devin Chandler in a fatal shooting
the evening of Nov. 13, however, the meaning of this theme has changed.
Members of the Committee’s Executive Board convened quickly to determine how to best move for ward with planning for LOTL.
“Everyone was on the same page that this more than ever is needed by the community this year,” Arif said. “This Lighting of the Lawn is more important now than it’s ever been.”
Still, Arif said the Committee felt that it would not be appropri ate to host the same event as in years past. Rather, the group would need to meet students halfway and ac knowledge that the University com munity is still grieving and many might find it difficult to celebrate during that process.
“The hardest part was sitting down two weeks ago and having to predict what the energy on campus would be two weeks in advance,” Arif said. “We had to guess what stu dents would be ready for two weeks out and luckily, I think we guessed correctly.”
To honor the lives of Davis, Perry and Chandler, the Committee plans
to light up the players’ jersey num bers in the windows of the Rotunda prior to the start of the light show. All three were members of the Vir ginia football team. The traditional LOTL poem has also been rewritten to commemorate the strength and resilience of the University commu nity, and will be read by Economics Prof. Kenneth Elzinga, Associate Dean of Admission Jeannine La londe, men’s basketball Coach Tony Elliott and Julie Caruccio, asst. vice president for research on the student experience.
The group also abandoned two of the songs it had originally chosen for the event’s light show after decid ing that its traditional EDM music would not be appropriate, scrapping more than a month of coding work. This meant two entirely new songs — which Arif teased as “better than any of my four years” on the Com mittee — had to be coded in less than a few weeks. The songs used during the LOTL light show are tra ditionally kept top-secret among the 48 members of the Committee.
“I think one of the best parts is
that surprise element that LOTL has by not telling people what the songs are and having it be this big surprise celebration,” Arif said. “I really think that with the three songs we have in the program this year, students are all going to have that experience.”
The Committee also decided to re-orient its theme, a decision Arif characterized as particularly daunt ing given that the group had already ordered all of the merchandise and prepared all of the marketing mate rials for the event.
“We’ve reinterpreted this “Full Power” theme to not necessarily be an interpretation of normalcy, but more so a celebration of the strength of the community when you all come together and unify together,” Arif said. “We’re really stressing that it’s only when you come together as a community that you can all have the full power — that’s the full power to love, the full power to remember the members that we lost and the full power to offer light in what really feels like dark days on Grounds.”
A number changes have been made in the last several weeks to re-interpret the event
The Dean Chairs Directors of the School of Architecture voted this week to update the academ ic eligibility requirements for student employment from a 3.3 minimum GPA to a general aca demic good standing, as defined by the University. The eligibility change will begin applying to the application cycle for spring 2023 positions.
Thomas Ryan, president of the Architecture Student Council and fourth-year Architecture student, was involved in the process to up date the student employment re quirements by collecting student opinions and communicating that data to the faculty and staff.
Ryan said student employment is important because it offers flexibility and opportunities for career advancement. Students are able to be involved with research and practice teaching skills in the classroom, which bolsters their education.
Student employment with
in the Architecture School takes a few different roles. There are student instructor assistantship roles, which are similar to a more traditional teaching assistant po sition. Students are also eligible to work with the Architecture building manager or to be a re search assistant for a professor.
The Dean Chairs Directors — a group made up of 27 faculty and staff members — voted Tuesday to reduce the requirements for stu dent employment. The previous policy requiring a 3.3 GPA was originally instituted in 2020.
For undergraduate students, academic good standing requires students to be enrolled in a degree program they have not yet com pleted while “making satisfactory progress toward completing all of their degree requirements in a timely manner.” For graduate students, academic good standing requires students to complete at least 12 credits of coursework that semester while maintaining at
least a 2.0 GPA and no more than one grade below a C minus or a general credit/no credit.
Ryan said many of the stu dents he spoke with felt that the old policy was outdated compared to the current Architecture goals. Some students who were unable to work under the policy felt like their advancement in their field of choice was limited because of fewer research opportunities.
“A lot of students were feel ing like they were undervalued or possibly embarrassed by the poli cy,” Ryan said.
Leading up to this week’s vote, a wide range of student workers and organization leaders surveyed Architecture students and wrote a petition based on their findings. The petition, which has over 200 students, faculty and staff signa tures, encouraged faculty, staff and leadership to remove the minimum GPA requirement.
“Access to University-affili ated income is critical for many
students who depend on their jobs for both financial and social stability,” the petition statement read. “[Student jobs] help advance students’ professional and educa tional opportunities beyond the classroom.”
Malo Hutson, dean of the School of Architecture, said the minimum GPA requirement was instituted before he arrived as dean in June 2021. Consequent ly, Hudson made sure to include students and staff in the process leading up to the vote as a part of his effort to ensure accountability and transparency with his admin istration.
“As soon as I found this was an issue, I said ‘let’s engage everyone,’ and that’s what we’ve done,” Hut son said. “And it’s a process that I’ve focused on because it can’t be me as dean dictating this. It has to come from a full-on process. I want to hear what faculty and staff have to say and then take that recommendation.”
After intentionally engaging with students and faculty, Hutson said he felt the decision was un controversial. Ryan similarly said the decision to change the student employment guidelines has had very little opposition from stu dents, faculty and staff.
Further, Ryan also said this change was a group effort — a number of student and student groups worked together, and the faculty has been supportive of the process.
“Dean Hutson has done a really good job of propelling us all for ward and really driving home that the students are the biggest asset that they have,” Ryan said.
Plans to create an appeals process for students seeking em ployment who do not meet the re quirements is set to take place in spring 2023. An updated version of the policy will be uploaded to the Architecture School website early next week.
The Senate discussed an amendment to a proposal that would change the way the Sen ate appoints their faculty repre sentative to the Board of Visitors during a meeting Tuesday.
Currently, the Senate elects a single individual to be the fac ulty representative to the Board. Susan Kirk, senate chair and as sociate professor of medicine, is the current faculty representa tive to the Board. Faculty Sena tors themselves are elected by the University school they represent.
While other Board members are appointed by the governor, the Senate is permitted to elect one non-voting representative to sit on the Board. The change in representation was proposed af ter the Board told the Senate that it would not allow any senatorial representation if the Senate did not offer multiple candidate op tions for their consideration — giving the Board more control over the Senate’s already limited role in the Board representative selection process.
The proposed amendment would instead require the Senate to propose a slate of three candi dates to the Board, who will then
select one individual from the three to serve as the represent ative. The amendment has long been a topic of contested debate among senators.
In October, the University’s chapter of the American Associa tion of University Professors sub mitted a letter urging the Senate to compromise with the Board on its request to change the way the faculty representative to the Board is selected. The letter out lined two possible compromises to address the representation is sue — neither of which involve the adoption of the proposed amendment.
During Tuesday’s meeting, senators voted on whether to accept changes to the proposed amendment, which include a system of ranked voting. The amendment itself will not be vot ed on until the next Senate meet ing in December.
Law Prof. Sarah Stewart Ware introduced the amended text. One change clarifies that the Senate would select a represent ative and then two alternates to present to the Board, instead of a more general slate of three po tential representatives. Another
change adds that nominees may be selected from current mem bers of the Senate or from the body of faculty members eligible to serve on the Senate.
The largest addition to the amendment is a system of ranked voting for selecting preferred candidates to send to the Board.
“The candidates have to have a majority of positive votes,” Ware said. “That’s how we ensure that anyone who ends up on the list, whether they’re the represent ative or an alternate, has broad support.”
Ware said that the Board has previously indicated to her that they would accept the Senate’s first choice for the representa tive.
Education Prof. Brian Pusser said he thought the amendment was “convoluted” and included “elaborate layers” that weren’t necessary. Pusser asked for clar ification about language which automatically includes the Chair of the Senate in the election for candidates to serve as representa tive. After a brief back and forth between Pusser and Jennings, Kirk asked that Senators “take a step back” before voting on the
proposed change to the amend ment.
“A lot of these amendments to the amendment are sort of per mutations to try to satisfy con cerns to allow this to move to a vote,” Kirk said. “Ultimately, that’s what we need to do if we are interested in keeping a facul ty representative at the Board.”
The amended text then went to a vote and passed with 42 yeas, 8 nays and 5 abstensions.
Senators used the remainder of the meeting to discuss the by law amendment itself, now with the amended text. As has been the case with previous meetings, senators debated the merits of the amendment at length.
Ware reiterated that the Board has said it would accept the Senate’s first choice for rep resentative, and said she feels the proposed bylaw change keeps the Senate “in control” of their rep resentative.
“I understand and share some discomfort with the BOV having a say here, and we could say no, but then I think we’re opting out of participating in those delib erations,” Ware said. “And I sin cerely believe that the University
would be worse off for it.”
Prior to discussion on the proposed bylaw change, the Sen ate also voted in favor of a mo tion to reconsider — essentially holding a “redo” on a vote — for amendments to four bylaws.
The first changes the mini mum of senators in each school to two. The second allows senate chairs to continue serving until the end of their term as pastchair with full voting privileges even if they are not re-elected as a general representative of their school. The third allows senators to have both general and specific proxies for voting, which would make voting by proxy easier. The final one changes the dates of Senate terms to align better with the faculty’s calendar.
The amendments will now be voted on again virtually.
As the meeting concluded, Jennings said she thinks it’s im portant to fully support faculty and students through the coming months, as the external investi gation into the Nov. 13 shooting on Grounds commences.
The full Senate meets again Dec. 13.
A minimum 3.3 GPA is no longer required for students employment at the School of Architecture
My roommates and I have started buying disposable cameras before we have a busy week with celebrations and events. It is so special to end up with printed pic tures that we can all go through as a group and split up. Having pictures we can frame or hang on our wall for the rest of the year makes the memories feel even more permanent. Polaroid cameras and disposables are very similar — when you develop pictures from a disposable, however, you sometimes are provided with a CD so you can have digital copies as well. The CVS on the Corner is a great place to get pictures developed within walking distance from Grounds.
Before we spent our summers apart, some of my friends and I created either specific Snapchat stories or Insta gram pages for our travels and our experiences in new states. I spent my summer working an internship in Ar kansas and created a Snapchat story for my friends who wanted to follow along. It allowed me to keep track of everything I did and share it with my friends. This has also been one of my favorite ways to keep up with my friends’ adventures as they studied abroad in past se mesters.
BeReal basically does the job of documenting your col lege experience for you. Every day, the app notifies you that you have two minutes to document what you’re doing at that very moment. You can post after the two-minute deadline. The idea behind the app is to be authentic and even if you post late, you still only have two minutes to take whatever picture you want. At any point, you can look back in your own account and see the BeReals you have posted, essentially documenting every day you used the app. The Rotunda and my room mates are really the stars of my BeReal.
Aside from photos, writing is also a great way to document your college years. Taking a minute every week or so to take note of everything that you do those past few days will allow you to remember some of the smaller moments.
This is less time consuming than journaling and is much more spur of the moment. It is super easy to just break out your notes app on your phone and quickly write something that you did with a friend or some small happy moment that happened to you that day on Grounds. This is a much more informal way of keeping track of events, but it works all the same.
This is an idea that I really want to try, but it does take some discipline. You and a group of friends can create a Snapchat group chat where you each send pictures or videos of anything you want throughout the year. The only catch is, you can’t open it right away. At the end of the school year, as a group, you should all open the Snapchats and reminisce through your past year together. It is sure to make you laugh, cry or even just relive all the silly and documentably moments from the past year.
This is a super fun idea. Writing letters to a friend can be a great way to tell a story of something that happened in your day, week or month. You may be writing the letter at a seemingly inconsequential time, but you never know when you might look back and remember that week with fondness. Writ ing back and forth will give you both a chance to revisit the letters at a later date. I did this my first year with my high school friends to keep each other updated on our experiences at our different colleges, and looking back at the letters we sent is so special.
PowerPoint nights are so much fun. To motivate you to reminisce over past memories — or even make sure to document new ones — you should schedule a PowerPoint night. You and a group of friends can all gather around a TV and present a handful of fa vorite pictures, videos and stories from your time together at the University.
One non-digital way to document your college experi ence would be through a scrapbook. This is something that may seem silly at the time, but in a few years it will be so nice to flip through a physical book of mem ories. Ticket stubs to concerts or sporting events at the University can be included along with any small notes or stories from your time with your friends. Pic tures are a necessity, but there are so many other ways the scrapbook can document your years here.
I didn’t like Live Photos at first either, but hear me out. Live Photos on iPhones and Motion Photos on Androids offer you a chance to capture a moment rather than just a picture. Live Photos capture both audio and a few seconds on either end of the pic ture, so it can capture the true emotion of the photo graphed moment. These photos can be converted into videos and used to create a video montage at a later point as well.
As the semester winds down, students across all years at the University recount their most memorable moments
Miriella Jiffar | Features WriterOver the past few months, stu dents at the University have wit nessed Grounds come alive in a se mester comparable to pre-pandemic years, due to the removal of many COVID-19 restrictions starting last spring. University operations, club meetings and many more hallmarks of undergraduate life have resumed in-person with full force, providing students opportunities to connect across Grounds and enrich their lives outside of the classroom.
The novelty of a student’s first se mester in college is always palpable each August. For Paloma Sanchez, first-year College student and in ternational student from Peru, ac climating to an American university this semester has introduced a host of exciting and challenging experi ences. She’s begun to find her niche at the University by seeking out fel low students who share related expe riences and interests.
“I thought it was going to be a much harder transition,” Sanchez said. “But I actually met a lot of Lati nos here. They all live in one build ing, so I was able to meet a lot of people that have similar cultures as me and speak the same language.”
While enjoying the community
she shares with other Spanish speak ers on Grounds, Sanchez also quick ly came to love the other aspects of a traditional college experience in the United States — cherishing the school spirit, dorm life and her new found independence at the Univer sity.
“I love it, it’s a typical U.S. college experience,” Sanchez said. “For ex ample, in Peru there are no football matches — well, American football. So going [to the games], that was so fun … Being able to live in dorms, that’s something that doesn’t happen there.”
Sanchez also utilized the wide variety of clubs and organizations at the University to meet new people and get involved with the communi ty. She participates in the nonprofit chapter of Operation Smile as re cruitment chair, and is a member of the student group Towards a Better Latin America, which allows her to be with other Latin-American stu dents and widen her social network.
For Mary Hinton, a third-year transfer student to the College, it is also her first semester on Grounds.
Like many other transfer students across Grounds, she’s been adjust ing to the University, trying to meet
new people and make friends in her classes or clubs.
Hinton’s been able to establish that sense of community she was looking for through her extracurric ular involvements — she volunteers with the VISAS program as a lan guage consultant, and participates in FLUX Poetry and Spoken Word.
Her favorite part about being involved with FLUX is the welcom ing community they foster at their open-mic nights each week, and how it is a safe space for everyone to join without anyone ever feeling excluded.
“My most memorable moment was when I got up to read [my po etry] for the first time,” Hinton said, “Because I had never done anything like that before, it was just really em powering. This year, I’ve been trying to put myself out there more. And I think doing that made me feel like I’m more capable of doing other things and getting more involved.”
Balancing the endless priorities of a college student — classes, ex tracurriculars, career exploration, a social life and perhaps a part-time job — can be taxing. For fourth-year University students, many are com ing to terms with the fact that their
four years on Grounds are ending. Fourth-year College student Andi Sink has realized that it is best to prioritize their interests in order to ensure their remaining time at the University is spent meaningfully.
“So it’s just trying to think about things that you’re going to get the most out of, even if it’s not for jobs,” Sink said. “[I’m] trying to prioritize classes that are going to be useful to me that aren’t just like throwaway classes, but ones that I’m actually in terested in.”
Particularly notable moments for Sink this semester were when they filmed a protest against Vir ginia Governor Glenn Youngkin’s Model Policies in Richmond for their documentary capstone project in the Media Studies major, when they performed in Voyeuristic In tention’s Rocky Horror show at the Paramount and when they assumed the editorship of the Maxine Platzer Lynn Women’s Center’s magazine “IRIS.”
“Being the editor, it’s been a re ally big learning experience,” Sink said. “So that’s been really, really re warding. It’s great to be able to help writers grow which sounds super cheesy, but, but it’s true. I feel like
It is never too late to learn how to bake an apple pie from scratch and create something delicious for your friends and family. As some one who enjoys eating extra sour green apples on the daily, baking apple pie is my love letter to my fa vorite fruit.
My story with apple pie isn’t as traditional as the typical family rec ipe that’s been passed down several generations — this recipe is of my own making backed by deep inter net research and various trial and error. I embarked on this recipe last year when I felt stressed and sought for a creative — and delicious — outlet. I took it upon myself to bake an apple pie from scratch.
I researched countless recipes and food blogs to find recipes that were feasible given my limited re sources. After a year of experience, I have been able to craft the perfect recipe for a pie crust and filling that the average college student could tackle.
Prep time: 1.5 hours
Bake time: 45 minutes
Ingredients:
Dough 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour ½ tablespoon granulated sugar ½ teaspoon sea salt ½ pound cold unsalted butter (2 sticks) diced into ¼” pieces 7 tablespoons ice water
Filling 6 cups thinly sliced, peeled ap ples ¾ cup sugar 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour ¾ teaspoon ground cinnamon ¼ teaspoon salt ⅛ teaspoon ground nutmeg 1 tablespoon lemon juice 1 egg
Dough directions:
1. Place flour, sugar and salt into the bowl and mix.
2. Dice the butter into small cubes and add to the mixture.
3. Mix the ingredients thorough
ly until small spheres begin to form.
4. Add 7 tbsp ice water and mix until moist clumps begin to form. I recommend adding 4 tbsp first, mixing for two minutes and then adding the three remaining tbsp to balance out the moisture.
5. The dough should still be rel atively powdery but the mixture should be ready if some dough can stick between your fingertips. If this isn’t the case, feel free to slowly add a little more water until this is true.
6. Once the dough is ready, place it onto a tray or cutting board. It should still feel a little powdery and sticky as you collect it into a large ball.
7. Divide the dough into two separate spheres and flatten into disks.
8. Wrap each disk with plastic wrap and place into the refrigerator for one hour.
Filling and baking directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 425°F.
2. Carefully slice apples into thin to medium slices. Thinner slices
bake more easily but don’t worry about making them paper-thin. Place slices into a large bowl.
3. In a separate bowl, thoroughly mix the sugar, flour, cinnamon, salt and nutmeg.
4. Evenly pour the lemon juice onto the apple slices and then pour the spice mixture onto the slices. Mix thoroughly.
5. Remove dough from the re frigerator once an hour has passed. Spread flour onto a flat work sur face to massage one disk to place and spread evenly onto a 9’’ pie pan. Use a fork to poke small holes in the dough to ensure it bakes evenly.
6. Spoon apple slices into the crust-lined pie plate. I recommend being methodical about placement to maximize slice distribution.
7. Knead and lay out the second disk of dough using flour on your hands and the surface. Flatten out into a large disk.
8. Using a pizza cutter or knife, cut thin strips of dough out of the disk.
9. Place strips across the filling
‘IRIS’ is a really unique publication on Grounds because it’s focused on helping the writers get where they want to be.”
However, the most vivid memo ry Sink has of the fall semester is the Nov. 13 shooting, when second-year student Devin Chandler, third-year student Lavel Davis Jr. and fourthyear student D’Sean Perry were fa tally shot. While a horrific event and senseless act of violence, Sink said the way students, faculty and staff came together in its aftermath was a resounding reminder of the Uni versity community’s resilience and strength in the face of difficulty.
Second-year College student Ben Willoughby noted that he will also remember the subsequent show of support by the community, bringing students closer together.
“I feel like a lot of the time I spend here, everyone is going their own way and sometimes it’s hard to feel that community,” Willoughby said. “Seeing people come together was impactful. [I didn’t] really realize how small this school really is, but hearing other people’s experiences was a good reminder that we’re all in this together.”
vertically and then braid them hori zontally by interchanging the strips above and below.
10. Crack one egg and pour egg white into a small bowl without the yolk. Mix thoroughly using a whisk until the liquid is slightly bubbly. Using the whisk or a brush, gently spread egg white mixture onto the pie and sprinkle sugar on top.
11. Bake for 45 minutes or until the crust is golden brown. Allow to cool for about twenty minutes.
Creating this apple pie recipe is one of my proudest accomplish ments from my time at the Univer sity. Nothing compares to the joy of sharing something I made myself with the people I love. To optimize the pie-eating experience, I also rec ommend trying it à la mode — with vanilla ice cream on the side.
If you do happen to try the pie recipe this holiday season, I hope you also share it with loved ones. In my short time as an apple pie en thusiast, I’ve found baking to be a love language of its own.
As the fall semester nears an end, all of Virginia’s athletic pro grams that compete primarily in the fall have seen their seasons come to a close. Women’s soc cer and field hockey sustained a season of success, men’s soccer rediscovered its footing as an elite program and cross country and volleyball made significant strides forward.
Meanwhile, at the beginning of a new era for Virginia football with Coach Tony Elliott in his first year in Charlottesville, the Cavaliers (3-7, 1-6 ACC) had a rocky season drawn to a devastat ing conclusion following the fatal shooting of junior wide receiver Lavel Davis Jr., junior wide re ceiver Devin Chandler and junior linebacker D’Sean Perry Nov. 13.
The road forward for the football team will be marked by uncertainty and difficulty, but while its 2022 campaign has end ed, Virginia will undoubtedly play inspired football in 2023 in the memory of its fallen team mates.
On the soccer pitch, the men’s and women’s teams both had successful seasons, each with a unique significance. After two consecutive losing seasons and missed NCAA tournament ap pearances for the first time since 1980, Virginia men’s soccer (10-45, 5-1-2 ACC) rebounded in a big way in its 2022 campaign.
Despite falling in the opening round of the NCAA tournament to Marshall in penalty kicks, the Cavaliers injected life back into one of the most prestigious soc cer programs in the nation.
Led by junior forward Leo Afonso — a first team All-ACC selection — and senior defend er Andreas Ueland — the ACC defensive player of the year — Virginia turned it around after an embarrassing 6-1 loss at the hands of then-No. 9 Maryland. The Cavaliers took down rival Virginia Tech in a thriller be fore going on to best five ranked opponents over the course of the season including a signature shutout victory at then-No. 3 Syracuse in late September.
While Virginia will lose Ue land and possibly Afonso and junior forward Philip Horton to the professional ranks, the Cav aliers will return a host of key players and have set themselves back on the right track.
“We’re in a place where I feel like I have seven, eight starters in place, and I can pinpoint ex actly what we need to do to com pete better for a trophy,” Coach George Gelnovatch said.
The women’s soccer team will go down as the most success ful Virginia fall 2022 squad. The Cavaliers (16-4-3, 6-2-2 ACC) advanced to the quarterfinals of the NCAA Tournament before
falling to top-seeded UCLA in an overtime heartbreaker.
Their season was marked with a number of ups and downs. Virginia peaked at No. 2 in the national rankings coming off a thrilling comeback win over then-No. 2 North Carolina in September but then faltered, enduring a three-game winless streak in October. The Cavaliers then found a rhythm late in the season, reeling off wins in their last three regular season fixtures before embarking on a postsea son run.
However, women’s soccer re mains a program of what-ifs as Virginia has yet to win a national championship despite perennial regular season success and a long list of deep postseason runs — a narrative the Cavaliers will hope to put to bed in 2023 with a num ber of key pieces likely returning.
Another consistently elite Virginia program is field hockey. The 2022 team, under the direc tion of legendary Coach Michele Madison in her 17th season in Charlottesville, excelled despite falling in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament in shootout. The Cavaliers (13-8, 3-3 ACC) faced a gauntlet of high ly ranked teams throughout the season including a pair of match es against the eventual national champions No. 1 North Carolina.
Virginia made an impressive run to the ACC tournament fi nals, toppling a pair of top-15 teams before eventually falling
in a close contest against the Tar Heels. The program is in good hands with Madison at the helm going forward and will surely be competitive once again in 2023. Virginia will return a number of prolific goal-scorers includ ing freshman midfielder Daniela Mendez-Trendler.
“I couldn’t be more proud of this team, not just today but the entire season,” Madison said after the season-ending loss. “They’ve supported themselves and sup ported me, showed up every day like they showed up today.”
Moving to the race course, both the women’s and the men’s cross country teams put togeth er impressive seasons with the women’ side finishing ninth at the NCAA Championships and the men’s team finishing 22nd.
For the women, it was a ban ner year and one in which they continually exceeded expecta tions. Virginia’s performance at the NCAA Championships was not only its first appearance at the event since 2015, but it was only the Cavaliers fifth top-10 finish in program history and their first since 2013. After fin ishing in 10th place in the 2021 ACC championship, a ninthplace national finish is an incred ibly impressive improvement.
“Finishing ninth at the NCAA Championships demonstrates the commitment to the process of building a national-calib er program and they just took a meteoric step forward in that
process as they established them selves among the nation’s best,” Vin Lananna, director of track and field, said.
The men’s side also demon strated strides forward this fall after not appearing in the NCAA championships either of the last two years. Virginia placed second in the southeast regional cham pionships to clinch an automatic berth in the NCAA’s, as sopho more Justin Watchel led the way with a third-place finish.
Shifting to the only fall sport played indoors, the 2022 season for Virginia volleyball was one of progress. With just one con ference win and a 10-32 record across 2020 and 2021, the Cava liers (12-17, 4-14 ACC) hoped to take a step forward under the di rection of Coach Shannon Wells in her second season. Virginia did just that.
There was no meteoric rise, but Virginia earned 12 wins to go along with four conference victo ries. The Cavaliers toppled Flor ida State for the first time since 2010. Virginia swept the season series against Virginia Tech, and in the team’s home match against the Hokies, the Cavaliers set an all-time attendance record at Memorial Gymnasium with over 1,100 witnessing the win.
There was no postseason for this volleyball squad, but it is clear that Wells has the program trending in the right direction.
schools. Despite all of the recruit ing, Kastner still had not ruled bas ketball out of the question.
“You could be a guy who’s, you know, just looking tall at the end of the bench, or you can actually go make an impact,” Kastner said one coach told him during the recruit ing process.
As Kastner became heavily pur sued by college lacrosse coaches, he began to realize he had more poten tial and prowess on the lacrosse field rather than the basketball court.
Later that year, Kastner watched the Cavaliers lift the lacrosse na tional championship title in May 2019. With a little more effort and a spring season that saw Kastner receive All-American honors, he received an offer from Virginia and took it immediately as he entered senior year.
Kastner arrived on Grounds in the fall 2020 and finished his fresh man year with a national champi onship. He broke into the starting lineup at the end of the season, starting in all four NCAA tourna ment games and made an impact on their tournament run, creating seven turnovers and scooping up 14 ground balls.
In the fall of his sophomore year, Kastner was invited to meet with a few of the men’s basketball coaches. They offered him an opportunity to join the team, as they were fielding a small roster that year and could use an extra guy on the bench. Unfortu nately, the overlap between basket ball and lacrosse was too much for it to work out.
“If it did work out, I would have loved to,” Kastner said.
The Menlo School outside of Palo Alto, Calif. was set to play a basket ball state playoff game led by senior Cole Kastner against Oakland Tech the night of March 3, 2020.
Early in the game, Kastner drib bled towards the basket and went up for a layup. As he propelled himself in the air, he was met by a defender beneath him who sent Kaster tumbling to the ground. He hit the ground and heard two jolts from his shoulder. Kastner suffered from a dislocated shoulder and torn labrum. For Kastner, it was set to sideline him in his final high school basketball game, but he had other ideas.
Miraculously, Kastner checked back into the game, playing with only his left hand and helping send the game into overtime before Men lo eventually lost. Kastner, the sec ond team all-state center, left it all out on the court for his final bas ketball game. It was a full display of Kastner’s love for basketball, but de spite his passion and talent for the
sport, he was set to attend Virginia in the fall to play for Coach Lars Tif fany as a lacrosse defender.
“Rare combination of high-end speed, exceptional lateral footwork, height and savvy game sense,” Tif fany said of Kastner following his freshman season at Virginia. “Cole carries the most generous of spirits, sharing his genuine care and con cern for others.”
Fast forward to 2022 and Kast ner is currently a junior, a tenacious defender standing at an intimi dating 6-foot-7 and is known for his turnover-causing abilities. As a sophomore, Kastner was sixth in the nation in caused turnovers with 32. In addition, Kastner scooped up 29 ground balls on his way to being named ACC Defender of the Year and USILA Second Team All-American. Before all of the ac colades and a successful college ca reer, Kastner grew up with aspira tions to be a basketball player and played lacrosse simply for fun.
Kastner immersed himself in
basketball at a young age and quick ly rose to become a talent in the sport. Growing up, he played Ama teur Athletic Union basketball. This setting not only allowed for Kastner to improve his craft, but also put him directly in front of the eyes of many college coaches.
“You go out there and you’re playing guys who are five-star re cruits who are getting recruited by Coach [Mike Krzyzewski] and Coach Calipari,” Kastner said. “You go out there and you might freak out a little bit guarding these guys on defense. The pressure of guard ing five-star recruits was intimidat ing on the court, but on the lacrosse field it was a completely different mindset.”
On the lacrosse field, due to not playing in premier camps and leagues, he wasn’t aware of who was being recruited. This allowed him to center his attention more on the game and have fun. Kastner began playing in sixth grade as a midfield er but converted to a defender right
before high school.
At the beginning of his jun ior year in high school, Kastner’s mentality about lacrosse changed.
As of Sept. 1 his junior year, col lege coaches were eligible to begin communicating with and recruiting prospects. Kastner was unsure if he would receive any offers and had plans to attend a basketball pros pect camp that day. The day rolled around and Kastner’s phone was flooded with calls. At first, he was unsure who these coaches were un til he discovered they were lacrosse coaches rather than the basketball coaches he initially expected.
“That was a pretty cool, hum bling moment for me,” Kastner said.
Many college lacrosse coaches envisioned his potential on their rosters. In response, he joined the club team West Coast Starz and began to shift his focus towards la crosse. Soon after, Tiffany reached out to him. Tiffany was competing against other coaches who were scrambling to bring Kastner to their
As an example of a college la crosse player who successfully made the transition to basketball, in 2019, attacker Pat Spencer of Loyola Mar yland won the Tewaaraton award, given to the most outstanding la crosse player in the nation. Spencer then transferred to Northwestern to play basketball, and in July 2022, he signed a contract with the Golden State Warriors.
“It would be a dream come true,” Kastner said. “Just the fact that [Spencer] made that dream into a reality is so inspiring to me … I would love to try and do fifth-year in basketball like what Pat Spencer did and play at the Division I level.”
Time will only tell for Kastner, but for now he will continue to focus on lacrosse with the hope of bringing another national cham pionship home to Virginia. This season he looks to lead by example and make sure to continue to set the standard for what it takes to be a champion once again.
New footage shedding light on the events of Jan. 6 on Capitol Hill reiterates why Donald Trump is to blame for the violence
While former president Don ald Trump announced his run for the Republican nomination in the 2024 presidential election last week, the Select Committee to Investigate the Jan. 6 Attack on the Capitol continues to re view evidence to determine what exactly unfolded and whether or not Trump was the main agitator of the attack. Footage released Oct. 13 further proves that Don ald Trump was the driving force for the attack that day, and the support he continues to receive from political leaders weakens our democracy.
In the new footage, Sen. Schumer and Rep. Pelosi made a plea to former acting attorney general Jeffrey Rosen because of the safety concerns of members. Staffers were receiving reports that representatives and staff ers were barricading themselves on the Congressional Floor and were putting on tear-gas masks in preparation of a breach. Sen. Schumer then raises the ques tion all Americans watching the
attack continue to ask — “Why don’t you get the president to tell them to leave the Capitol?”
This question exemplifies the findings of the entire investiga tion — the idea that everything that occurred leads back to Trump. By asking for Trump to respond, he was insinuating that even as the crisis unfolded that Trump should take responsibility for being a catalyst of the attack.
Trump, in a speech before rioters made their way up to the Capitol, emphasized that he and his sup porters would be able to claim victory in the 2020 presidential election if former vice presi dent Mike Pence did not certify the election and chose to send it back to the states for a recount.
In this move, Trump was active ly separating himself from Pence and other members of his cabinet that did not push the narrative of a false election outcome. Trump peddles inaccuracies surrounding the legitimacy of mail-in ballots being counted — or not being counted — in the 2020 election.
His allegations of electoral fraud, focusing on swing states like Michigan and Pennsylvania, con tinue to be affirmed by not only his supporters, but by members of Congress.
Even as Trump has lost lawsuit after lawsuit surrounding elector al fraud in these states after Jan. 6, he has unfortunately main tained momentum and support from existing allies, weakening any chance to revitalize our de mocracy. The investigation into Jan 6. and Trump’s actions are seemingly turning into a blame game between his defendants. For example, former attorney general William Barr was interviewed by the Committee and testified that he told Trump that election lies surrounding Dominion voting machines would be a “grave dis service to the country” by contin uing to believe such lies. Howev er, while Barr was a star witness in the Committee’s proceedings, he said that if Trump was to be the Republican nominee in 2024, he would still vote for Trump.
Barr is not alone in being com plicit in the consequences of the insurrection. During a press con ference on July 27, 2021, Majori ty Whip Rep. Scalise questioned Rep. Pelosi and why she did not ensure that the Capitol Police were prepared for that day and called the Committee’s proceed ings a “sham.” In June of this year, Scalise backed up questions that accused Pelosi of deliberate ly delaying the National Guard response. However, Scalise was shown in the new footage being in the room as Pelosi, Schum er and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell called for as sistance from the Department of Defense and the National Guard. Hence, Scalise knew that Speaker Pelosi called for help, yet peddled lies as a political measure. This continued political sup port for Trump — despite losing lawsuits, inciting an insurrec tion and being disproved about electoral fraud — is why the new footage given by the Commit tee is crucial in clarifying what
occurred on Jan. 6 within the Capitol. It validates the mis sion of the Committee and why Trump should be attributed as the main instigator of Jan. 6. By having members of Congress on video who experienced the crisis firsthand, the footage calls out the complicacy and hypocrisy of those officials that continue to sustain their support for Trump despite knowing the truth of what happened. Furthermore, it lays out the hypocrisies of people in power that swear to uphold their oath of office, yet turn around and deny a blatant attack on the institution they serve for the sake of political gain. This footage is a breakthrough in the investiga tions of Jan. 6 and it will hope fully set off the political changes needed if the U.S. is to maintain the beacon that U.S. democracy is to the rest of the world.
APAL UPADHYAYA is a View point Writer for The Cavalier Daily. She can be reached at opinion@ cavalierdaily.com.
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Every day, students walk past the Kitty Foster Memorial located right outside of Nau Hall. Dedicat ed in 2011, the memorial includes a metal “shadow catcher” structure to sit where her house did and a small wall outlining a cemetery for the predominantly free Black commu nity Foster was a part of. There are also three brief, faded information al signs. While the memorial high lights the archaeological impor tance of the site, it should provide more vital information and context to the significance of Foster and the broader Venable Lane community.
Foster was a free Black woman who owned over two acres and a house just south of the Universi ty in the 1800s. She moved to this area after becoming free from slav ery in 1820 and proceeded to raise five children on the property while working as a washerwoman for the University. She lived here until her death in 1863 and was a part of the broader free Black community at Venable Lane, often referred to as “Canada.” The exact origins of the name “Canada” have not been iden tified, but some believe it to be re lated to the abolishment of enslave ment in British Canada territory that occurred as the community
was being formed. Some have also suggested this name was intended to be derogatory, denoting a place that is “geographically close but cul turally distant.”
Located within Grounds, Ven able Lane is an example of a com munity of free Black Americians who overcame many racial and economic adversities prevalent in the American South. This fact be comes evident in examining a 2003
institutions and the private hous ing market worked against people of color.
The University must justly me morialize the Venable Lane Com munity. However, this has not been accomplished by the Kitty Foster Memorial. The memorial leaves out vital information about the Venable Lane community and significance of Black property ownership. The community is only mentioned once
role in the community’s premature demise should be acknowledged within added informational sig nage. The University’s suppression of the Venable Lane community can be linked to the construction of Old Cabell Hall to, in part, shield the University from the commu nity. Shortly after the building’s construction, a huge influx of white developers and residents moved into the region in the early 1900 and
locations around the University. The memorial fails to draw im portant connections between the intersecting history of the commu nity and University. The influential role that the University played in the community’s demise is vital to the understanding of this site and should be acknowledged within the memorial.
archaeological report on the site. The community held a variety of occupations. Many worked as wash erwomen, seamstresses, carpenters and brickmasons for the Universi ty. In addition to housing a sizable renting population, the communi ty also offered the conditions for Black property ownership as lots were subdivided and sold amongst Black Americans. For many Black Americans during this time peri od, owning and managing a home was unattainable, as government
on an information sign that sim ply states the community existed. Informational signs are available addressing the community within Gibson Hall, but on the memorial these informational posters are only referenced in regard to Kitty Foster specifically, not the Venable Lane community. New informational signage that specifically addresses the significance of the Venable Lane community should be included as part of the Kitty Foster Memorial. Furthermore, the University’s
implemented racially restrictive covenants in deeds. These covenants prevented the sale of the property to people of color. Conveniently, in the 1970s the University acquired a majority of the land that once made up the community, and today has expanded academic buildings, res idence halls and a student health center where the neighborhood once existed. This is just one exam ple of a coordinated effort between Charlottesville and the University to remove Black communities from
Given the current failures of the Kitty Foster Memorial to justly recognize and memorialize the Ven able Lane Community, the Board should establish an inclusive com mittee with relevant stakeholders to further investigate and make recommendations to address the memorial’s shortcomings. At the bare minimum, this should consti tute an added informational sign focusing on the community and its intersection with University history on the memorial. We have the re sponsibility to justly memorialize the free Black community of people that lived here. It is imperative that the memorial is able to accurately inform future social justice discus sions and policy.
JACOB RIZZIO is a Viewpoint Writer for The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at opinion@cavalierdaily.com.
U.Va. administration must recognize the horrible living conditions in the motel suite-style dorms and conduct renovation next summer
When I tell someone I live in the Alderman Road suite-style dorms — colloquially referred to as the “motels” by students — I tend to hear, “Oh, gosh! I thought nobody lived there.” The Universi ty groups these dorms into the Al derman Road Residence Area, and by affiliation with other residence halls, students refer to motels also as “new dorms.” This naming, however, contradicts reality — the motels are not new.
The Housing and Residence Life website states that new bath rooms and air conditioning were installed prior to the 2020-21 ac ademic year. However, the overall upsetting conditions of the mo tels — especially compared to ful ly-renovated residences — raises concern about the quality of the conducted partial renovation and the University’s failure to provide an explicit renovation report. The reality is that the motel dorms need to be fully renovated, and it is the University administration’s responsibility to take action.
The interior — hospital-white lighting illuminating the pale, chipped walls, dust-soaked chairs and corners inhabited by mold
— is repugnant to residents and visitors alike. The absence of amenities, such as study rooms and elevators, which are present in the majority of other first-year residence halls, accompany such features. Moreover, the recent ly-installed water filtration taps are questionable, as they were mounted in bathrooms within a few hours and without a proper cleaning system, evident from the poor pressure of water flow and
also known for having the largest rooms out of all new dorms, but spacious rooms do not compen sate for poor conditions. Possess ing the largest windows does not eliminate the inability to open them. They cannot be cleaned without being opened, so the windows’ dirtiness obstructs the sunlight and causes poor light ing. Finally, HRL advertises the motels as a way of fostering com munity and interconnectedness
from entering the room. This poses severe health concerns for students, further emphasizing the urgency for renovations. The University’s failure to act on this issue became especially evident with an email from HRL Oct. 13 to all on-Grounds residents, which addressed the mold and mildew concerns in some of the buildings. The email claimed that “while there is no way to elimi nate all mold, mold spores, and
Mold and dirt have infested the motels for too long.”
residue left after each refill.
Students might assume that the motel dorms’ close proximity to commonly-used facilities like Scott Stadium and the Aquatic and Fitness Center make up for its poor living conditions. How ever, that is not the case, as Mc Cormick Road, Alderman Road and Gooch/Dillard residences are just minutes further from these same facilities. The motels are
among the residents. Suite-style dorms distribute 10 people among five rooms, one bathroom and a common area. Nonetheless, the common spaces currently are not suited for student bonding as they are poorly furnished and require additional effort to clean.
The issue of mold-infected air conditioning in the motel dorm’s is exacerbated by the tightly-shut windows, preventing fresh air
mildew indoors, eliminating ex cess moisture is ultimately the key to controlling mold in your housing.” Justifying inaction on their part, the University shifted responsibility onto the residents themselves, providing a “Mold Prevention Page,” the central sug gestion of which was consistent cleaning. HRL cannot assume that all residents are financially able to purchase the supplies needed to
clean. Mold and dirt have infested the motels for too long. In short, residents cannot be expected to be satisfied with everyday life amidst unsanitary conditions.
The Facilities Planning and Construction Annual Report for the 2016-17 calendar year states that the McCormick Road Hous ing renovations were completed in “three phases, each lasting 14 months.” This means a total of 42 months for the renovation of a “400,000 square foot complex” with six buildings that accommo date nearly 1,400 students. Despite the inconveniences of reconstruc tion work, especially prevalent in the current upheaval of com plaints regarding the endless cycle of construction on Grounds, it seems the renovation is possible to be conducted in a plausible period of time. I call on Universi ty administration to renovate the three motel buildings so that cur rent issues are not faced by future generations of incoming students.
ALEXANDRA VOROBYEVA is a Viewpoint Writer for The Cavalier Daily. She can be reached at opinion@ cavalierdaily.com.
In a recent Instagram post, the University revealed its grand, new plan of installing skylit study courts and presentation halls at the Alder man Library. Though the vision looks very auspicious, this is just another empty promise from the University regarding its construction processes. In case that you don’t have an Insta gram account, here are some insights from the comment section —
Clark Library — “We send our condolences to the further postponing of the completion deadline. Honestly though, we would not complain over being the prettiest library on Grounds for another five years.”
Orientation and New Student Program — “We did not ask for reno vations in the first place. Please finish it ASAP, we are really running out of bragging points here during orienta tion.”
Clemons Library — “We have
been experiencing extreme staff short age and overflow of procrastinated students every Sunday. And you are blocking the only view we have on the second floor with your tower crane.”
Student A — “Now the deadline is going to be 2037 or something.”
Student B — “Our socializing group has canceled multiple late night events due to the closing of the li brary.”
Renovation worker — “The Board keeps changing their minds. We can’t do anything about it. We also want to be done. But they are the people pay ing so…”
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry — “Please finish up the renovations, you are blocking a main entrance to the Ministry of Magic. Due to the pandemic, there is a short age of Floo Powder and many wizards and witches are getting laid off. Hope you understand our concerns.”
Yet not all of the comments are
filled with complaints, agony and desperation. There are two types of students that are very hyped about the pushing of the deadline. Pro-Clark activists have spoken out about their anticipation for a spike in Clark at tendance. Students in the School of Architecture with a focus in mod ernism put out stands at Clemons to educate people on the art of Brutalist buildings. However, these two groups are mere minorities. Many of us are with Orientation and New Student Programs. As a student in the Class of 2026, I was very scared of jinxing my chance to visit Alderman Library by the time I graduate. The Orientation Leaders could do nothing because many of them also have never visited Alderman Library. To people who are also very worried whether the renova tions will ever be completed, here is some advice —
1. Go to Clark. You know you
won’t get work done no matter which library you go to. Clark is a close sub stitute for Alderman. From the mu rals on the wall in Clark Hall to the classical looking interior design of the library, Clark would give you a sense of nostalgia.
2. Reread all of Harry Potter. To reminisce over the McGregor Room, rereading Harry Potter would at least fulfill some of the fantasies we all have about Alderman.
3. Know that the University popu lation is with you. Though it looks like Alderman has not made any progress since April, know that other construc tions have. Look at McCormick road, it only took them the entire summer to fix 150 feet of road. Exhibit B, Sta dium Road. It took them a month to fix 20 feet. Multiply these two con structions to the scale of Alderman Library, mathematically speaking, it will be done in the next 10 years, just in time for Orientation for the Class
of 2035 or 2036.
Many students, especially upper classmen, simply have no expecta tion for the University at this point. There is no way that many of us will see the new library before we gradu ate, but think about the generations after us, think about our grandkids. The University promises to educate us and it has done a wonderful job on educating us on how to give up hope so that future students are prepared to be disappointed. To further edu cate students and prepare first-years, the University should put out a new ENWR course on how to cope with a broken heart over Alderman Library. We cannot reduce the construction time, but we definitely can lower the bar of expectation.
ISABELLA LI is a Humor Column ist for The Cavalier Daily. She can be reached at humor@cavalierdaily.com
Ecosystem ecologists at the University have established an increase of heat waves in rivers and streams across the United States, especially with warmer winter conditions. These heat waves have the potential to im pact the water quality of the Rivanna River, creating a ripple effect that affects Charlottesville residents.
These usually rare heat waves, which are primarily a result of global warming, have drastically become more common in major cities — including Norfolk and Richmond — across the United States, negatively affecting wa ter quality by depleting oxygen and leading to mass mortality of freshwater organisms.
The research team, which in cluded graduate student Spencer Tassone, Environmental Scienc es Prof. Michael Pace and col leagues — both at the University and at research centers around the country — analyzed 26 years of publicly available tempera ture datasets. Tassone will give a seminar based on their findings Thursday in room 108 of Clark Hall at 3:30 p.m.
“We looked at long term tem perature data from streams and rivers around the United States,” Pace said. “These data are main tained by the U.S. Geological Survey, which monitors rivers and streams in the U.S. nation ally.”
A temperature increase in a river is defined to be a heat wave when a normal-range temper ature threshold is exceeded for five or more days. Under this cri terion, the team found that the proportion of time for which a given U.S. river is experiencing a heat wave has increased sig nificantly over the past 26 years. The average number of heat wave
days has more than doubled from an average of 11 heat wave days in a year in 1996 to an average of about 25 heat wave days in 2021.
These heat waves differ from a gradual increase in water tem peratures, which are also occur ring around the globe under cli mate change conditions. Instead of allowing organisms to grad ually relocate to different loca tions, heat waves happen almost instantly, not allowing organisms much time to relocate and adapt, which can force them to experi ence temperatures they cannot tolerate.
“Organisms live within a ther mal range, where they can live their day-to-day lives up to a cer tain temperature,” Tassone said.
Once the temperature of a freshwater organism’s surround ings exceeds the temperature range of its internal organs, they become stressed and will often die.
“Extreme river temperatures can lead to mass mortality or contribute to mass mortality events of [freshwater organisms] like salmon,” Tassone said.
As freshwater organisms dis appear from local streams and rivers, Charlottesville residents may be impacted by the increas ing of riverine heat waves in the future.
“In the long run ... we’re go ing to see more heat waves in our rivers and streams locally,” Pace said. “As climate change pro ceeds, we can expect these events to become more frequent.”
Riverine heat waves also can cause harmful algal blooms — rapid growths of algae and oth er similar organisms that divert the flow of the river and lead to dead zones, or areas with such low oxygen levels that freshwater organisms cannot survive.
“There are some species of al gae that perform better at high er temperatures, and many of those are known to produce or be capable of producing harmful blooms,” Tassone said.
In the future, algal blooms may pose a risk to recreation al activities — like fishing or swimming — along the river for Charlottesville locals, due to the damaged water quality brought by the dead freshwater organisms and nutrient pollution of dead zones.
However, according to Tas sone, the connection between heat waves and harmful algal blooms is an active area of re search in which more must be discovered to formally make the assertion that heat waves corre late significantly to harmful algal
blooms.
First-year College student Sean McDevitt is part of the Sus tainability Student Council and expressed concerns as riverine heat waves have the potential to become more frequent and affect the activities of students.
“I think there will definitely be a shock factor to the extent that heat waves can affect the [shores] in Charlottesville, and because of that, [I hope] there’ll be a lot of positive support,” McDevitt said.
There are some steps that Charlottesville residents and governmental agencies can take to prevent an increase in riverine heat waves within Charlottes ville’s Rivanna river.
“Maintaining riparian vege tation along the sides of streams
and rivers, which provides shad ing … tends to reduce these ex tremes,” Pace said.
The researchers also suggested improved stormwater manage ment and expanded water tem perature monitoring as addition al preventative measures.
Without the aid of govern ment agencies and the communi ty, riverine heat waves will only continue to become more fre quent.
“Because we all live in Char lottesville, we want to create a safe community and in order to do so, we have to preserve the en vironment,” McDevitt said.
In Vol. 133, Issue 7 of The Cavalier Daily, the article “Reevaluat ing power: The Fralin’s fresh take” misrepresented Romero’s “First American Girl” series as portraying Native American women in stereotypical attire. The series actually portrays these women in traditional attire and regalia, and the article has been updated online to reflect this. This article has been corrected to more ac curately represent the exhibit’s title, the titles of exhibit organiz ers, the origins of quotes initially attributed to the exhibition, and the name of the gallery in which the exhibit is located. It has also been corrected to more accurately reflect the contents of Tokie Rome-Taylor’s series and their intended message.
On a foggy Monday morning, the members of The Lint Collec tors sat down with The Cavalier Daily in bassist and fourth-year College student John Leo Luecke’s cozy apartment to reflect on their live performances, their chemistry as a band and their style of playing.
Along with Luecke, the band consists of independent Char lottesville artists Kimball Roberts and Evan Sposato, keyboardist and guitarist respectively, as well as drummer Zachary Bowen, also of Charlottesville band souwa cweam.
When asked about their name, band members were excited to ex plain that they dubbed themselves The Lint Collectors because they like to stay in the musical pocket. This refers to being in the “pocket” of a musical jam, following the tem po and groove of the instruments with which one is performing.
Though The Lint Collectors are apt at performing their array of original songs, which are available on their Soundcloud, the behind the scenes work can be challeng
ing. As the main songwriter for the band, Sposato opened up about the difficulties he experiences as a musician writing lyrics and how he overcomes them.
“The lyrics for me are the hard est thing to write because I always find myself writing about the same topics,” Sposato said. “I’ve been try ing to start with an idea separate from a feeling and then bring in a feeling later.”
Though Sposato writes the bulk of the lyrics, Roberts and Bowen have also proven their skill in writ ing jams on multiple occasions. Of ten, Sposato will frame the song with chords and lyrics, and the rest of the band will build on it — Spo sato compared the process to mak ing use of different ingredients to bake a pie.
“Playing in the band, it’s like all of our tastes [are] combining to form that song,” Lluecke said. “Evan gave the skeleton to it, but it’s still pulling from each of our various influences.”
The members of The Lint
Collectors enjoy a considerable amount of freedom when perform ing their original songs — their way of playing a piece often varies from show to show.
“What you’ve got to understand with our original songs though — they’re just more like rough ideas of things, and then everytime we play them it’s different,” Roberts said.
Live performances by The Lint Collectors are often very dynamic, as the chemistry between the musi cians is palpable and they flit seam lessly from original songs to covers. The members even have established hand signals that they will use dur ing a show to signal a specific song or melody they want to play.
“Whenever we do play live, be cause we’re such an improvisation al group, there tend to be certain members within the band that’ll push changing to a new song or push changing to a new tempo,” Sposato said. “Zach’s a big tempo changer and John has been step ping up and pushing a lot of songs which has been huge.”
The Lint Collectors also per form covers at their shows. These include “Camel Walk” by Phish, “Use Me” by Bill Withers and mul tiple popular Stevie Wonder songs. Bowen in particular really enjoys performing Phish’s song “David Bowie.”
“It’s really long and it’s got a lot of different composed parts to it — it’s really interesting and hard to play,” Bowen said. “People who know the song, if they hear it played at a bar or something, they’re like ‘what in the hell?’ That’s kind of fun to see sometimes.”
When discussing their live performances, the band members stressed the importance of an en gaged audience. They find the most joy in performing when the people present have truly come to listen to their music and their choice of songs.
Though The Lint Collectors has only been an active band for a couple of months, its members are long-time players in the Char lottesville music scene. The band
members maintain that they feel very supported within the music community, particularly by Char lottesville band souwa cweam — whose members sometimes join them on stage.
As they look to the future, the members of The Lint Collectors look to perform in larger Char lottesville venues, as well to do a re gional tour of college towns. They also plan to release their music on platforms such as Apple Music and Spotify as soon as they can get their hands on the necessary equipment. Right now, the members of The Lint Collectors can be seen jam ming at Rapture Restaurant every other Tuesday, and they often per form at WXTJ and indieheads house shows. More information can be found on the band’s Insta gram.
This charismatic quartet prom ises to find the musical pocket an ywhere, and they hope fans of their performances will continue to be there to witness it.
The chaos and the happiness of the holiday season are upon us. The holidays bring with them airport se curity lines, crowded highways and crazy cousins — or parents — but also reunion, good food and a brief rest for all. Whether driving across Charlottesville or flying across the country, going home can be a com plicated experience. Here are three books to read this winter break about what it means to be home.
“The Secret History” by Donna Tartt
“The snow in the mountains was melting and Bunny had been dead for several weeks before we came to understand the gravity of our situa tion,” author Donna Tartt writes in the opening line of her first novel.
Published in 1992, “The Secret History” was written by Tartt while she was a student at Bennington College. The story takes place at a small fictional College in Vermont. The main character Richard Papen comes from a working-class family in Plano, California but finds him self out of place amongst his wealthy New England classmates. His father works at a gas station, and his moth er at a call center. When his friend asks him how his father made his
“filthy lucre”, he simply replies, “oil.”
Papen falls in with an eclectic cohort of six classics majors who take all their classes under an el derly professor named Julian Mor row. The group is obsessed with the Greek language and philosophy. Pa pen soon becomes more and more at home in the group, and the modern world begins to seem odder to him than the classical. As the students question modern conceptions of morality, sexuality and violence, their mysterious weekend excur sions grow darker and darker.
Despite the darkness and mys tery, “The Secret History” maintains a central current of camaraderie among the students as they explore their new home and make it their own. Their experience of finding a new sense of home in a foreign place will offer comfort to any students staying at the University over break, or a welcome tie to University life for any students missing their new home as they return to their fami lies.
“Mister Pip” by Lyod Jones
As the Island of Bougainville in Papua New Guinea erupts into civil war, fourteen-year-old Matilda and her staunchly Christian mother are
left to fend for themselves. While the white residents evacuate to Australia, one foreigner, Mr. Watts, remains. The odd man is married to a native of the island and lives as a hermit. As the schoolteachers have also fled, Mr. Watts decides to clean up the one-room schoolhouse, which lies in disrepair. Whether out of a sense of altruism or a desire for order in his chaotic environment, Watts starts holding classes where he reads to the children from a copy of “Great Expectations” by Charles Dickens.
Despite the difficulty of the lan guage, the children begin to relate to the story of an orphan grow ing up impoverished in Victorian England. They grow closer to their teacher and soon start to bring their parents to class to hear the story of “Mr. Pip.” The narrator, Matilda, be comes especially close to Mr. Watts but is pulled between his education and her skeptical Christian mother. As the violence of the civil war esca lates, the tension between their vil lage and the outside world becomes increasingly precarious.
The novel was written in 2006 by Lyod Jones — a native of New Zealand — and was adapted into a feature film in 2012. Both novel
and film demonstrate how impor tant old and new relationships are in maintaining a sense of home, no matter the circumstances — an im portant reminder for students to re connect with hometown friends and family over break.
“Whereabouts” by Jhumpa Lahiri Jhumpa Lahiri’s 2021 novel “Whereabouts” questions why home doesn’t always feel like home. The unnamed narrator is an author and literature professor who is a native of Italy and remains there unmar ried in her middle age. Each chapter is named after a place in the narra tor’s highly routine life — “On the Street,” “In the Office,” “By the Sea” and so on. Although the narrator is distinctly Italian and lives around family and friends, she spends much of her time in solitude. Rather than comfort and fulfillment, her home leaves her dissatisfied.
Lahiri is an American author and daughter of Indian immigrants. Her former works, including her Pulitzer Prize-winning collection of short stories, “The Interpreter of Maladies,” have centered around the Indian and Indian American experience. Immigration, arranged marriage, parenthood and cultural
transmission across generations are recurring themes.
“Whereabouts” departs from the Indian immigration narrative but retains the core theme of place as it relates to identity. While Lahi ri’s former characters face daunt ing change and work ceaselessly to make a place for themselves in their new countries, this character deals with exactly the opposite problems. She struggles with a feeling of stag nancy and first-world ennui in the unnamed city where she has lived her entire life. Lahiri’s writing is sparse and almost surreal. The exact details of the time and place remain hazy.
Lahiri wrote the book first in Italian, with the title “Dove me Trovo,” which translates to “Where I Find Myself.” She translated the book into English herself, which is important given the book’s mini malist and sometimes ambiguous style — the very language of the text is an act of cultural transformation.
From the snowy Vermont coun tryside to the piazzas of Italy and the remote isles of Papua New Guinea, these stories capture what it means both to go home and to find a sense of home in a foreign place.
Four electrifying tunes to fuel the venture home for the holidays
Tanner Rowe | Staff WriterWith the fall semester almost in the rearview, students will soon be headed off-Grounds, some trave ling hundreds of miles to visit their families for the holidays. Interstate scenery can be monotonous and dull, but luckily, long drives are the ideal setting for new music discov ery.
Here is a 15-minute energy shot of sonic caffeine, bottled up into a road trip playlist to snap a fatigued driver out of highway hypnosis.
“Dance” by Jay Safari
It’s all in the name. Jay Safari’s “Dance” is impossible not to groove to, promising to loosen the student body’s stiffened joints after weeks of sedentary studying.
Released as a single in Febru ary, the track strays from Safari’s former melodic rap sound, pulling from the 2000s hip-pop era and Pharell-esque production. Serv ing as a pivot in artistic direction, the track was included on Safari’s
sophomore album “Bad Decisions,” an R&B record released this No vember. The song has earned nearly four million Spotify streams since its release, helping to raise the 20-year-old talent to new audienc es.
On the hook, Safari lures lis teners to the dance floor, singing, “Yeah, the club about to close / If you wanna get down, we can get down / While we’re running out of time.” The sensual lyrics exude a carefree, lighthearted vibe, joined by syncopated funky guitar and punchy drums.
If the itch to dance like no body’s watching must be scratched, keep in mind that car windows are indeed transparent.
“At All” by KAYTRANADA
Grammy-winning DJ and producer KAYTRANADA is no stranger to flipping old-school disco hits into club bangers, bor rowing from a formula spawned by
house music pioneers born decades previous.
Just as DJs in Chicago’s under ground dance club scene did in the late 70s, KAYTRANADA speeds up sample loops of old-school disco hits, adding modernized electronic drums to revitalize a classic sound.
“At All” pulls from a lively sample of a song titled “I Know You, I Live You (Reprise)” by Chaka Khan, re nowned 70s R&B and disco singer.
Nodding to its origins in dis co, the track features an infectious four-on-the-floor drum rhythm. The bass is atmospheric, its cur rent oscillating in time with a ris ing synth arpeggio and entrancing sample loops.
Make sure the window defog gers are on, as this track is sure to heat up the atmosphere on your drive home.
“Melancholy” by Human Tetris Human Tetris — a four-piece al ternative band from Moscow, Rus
sia — released “Melancholy” in 2018 as the fourth track off their second studio album, “Memorabilia.”
From the outset, “Melancholy” defies the thematic connotations of its title. The track opens with an upbeat, kick-snare drum pattern, building for eight bars before div ing under a dreamlike, whimsical guitar lick.
In the spirit of “Hey Ya!” by Outkast, the song’s euphor ic soundscape overshadows its gloomy lyricism, beginning with the lines “Endless days / Lonely nights.” Lead vocalist Arvid Krik er’s deep, droning voice adds to the track’s eccentricity.
The instrumental is frenetic and intoxicating, its momentum driven by a fast-paced whirlwind of eighth note hi-hat cymbals accenting the off-beats. The breakneck track could easily serve as the soundtrack to an indie race car scene, poten tially inducing a case of lead foot just by listening.
If a song were to ignite the sec ond wave of the dancing plague of 1518 — in which hundreds of French townspeople are fabled to have danced themselves to death after grooving uncontrollably for months without rest — the global hit “50//50” would be the provoca teur.
Tokyo-based future funk pro ducer Vantage samples the 1982 disco hit “The Big Guns” by Heat wave, playing with the original song’s structure and raising the tempo. Vantage infuses “50//50” with elements of EDM, from elec tronic drums to tension-building bridges and beat switches.
Partially due to its traction as a viral TikTok sound, the feel-good song has amassed over 44 million streams on Spotify since its release. This track makes for a great rest stop dance break, as its boogie-in ducing flavor cannot be contained by a seat belt.
