leiGh Bailey BeNviN lOZaDa, Kayla MOOre & CaT WhiTe The Cavalier Daily
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Ben Ueltschey reflects on tumultuous term as IFC president
While he entered his term with larger goals, some of Ueltschey’s progress stalled as he experienced the termination of three fraternities in quick succession
Ford McCracken | News Editor
When fourth-year College student Ben Ueltschey began his term as Inter-Fraternity Council President in January 2024 after serving a term as vice president for recruitment, he assumed the responsibility of handling the recruitment process, student safety and hazing cases when they occurred.
While the term prior saw zero hazing cases against fraternities, Ueltschey saw five different fraternities sanctioned for hazing last spring. Three of them had their Fraternal Organization Agreements terminated by the University, barring them from existing with University support for at least a few years, dependent on behavior.
After his term ended in January, Ueltschey sat down with The Cavalier Daily to discuss the major events of his presidency.
Ueltschey touted accomplishments such as the IFC’s Rugby Project, a partnership with the Women’s Center that certifies members of fraternities to give presentations about sexual respect to their chapters. He also said that a member
from every chapter in the IFC has been certified to use naloxone, which mitigates the effects of a drug overdose.
Ueltschey said he did not have as much time to work on these initiatives as he would have liked — likely because a slew of hazing incidents throughout the spring put him, the IFC and the University in the national spotlight.
The situation began in February, when a student was hospitalized after a hazing incident at Kappa Sigma fraternity. The University suspended Kappa Sigma’s FOA pending investigation and later terminated the fraternity. Ueltschey took an immediate step to suspend all new member activities and social events for three weeks, a step which was announced in a statement to the entire IFC.
Ueltschey said that decision was made out of respect for the student who was hospitalized, as well as to prevent any other incidents from occurring while the IFC processed the Kappa Sigma situation.
“It just felt like anything would
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be in very poor taste to have someone in our community be in that situation, and for people to continue to do parties,” Ueltschey said.
For a university which had not seen a chapter’s FOA terminated since 2022, the investigation into Kappa Sigma turned up the pressure on Ueltschey and the University. Ueltschey said he was not prepared for this type of media frenzy one month into his term.
“It was hard to do [my normal duties] all at once and also [face] the public backlash, having major media outlets reach out to me on email,” Ueltschey said. “I felt very unprepared for what I was getting into.”
Just one month after the end of the social and new member activity ban, three more fraternities had their FOAs suspended or terminated for hazing — Sigma Alpha Mu, Theta Chi and Pi Kappa Alpha. While Sigma Alpha Mu kept its FOA but faced restrictive sanctioning by the UJC, Theta Chi’s FOA was ultimately terminated in the summer. Pi Kappa Alpha’s was ter-
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minated immediately.
With those incidents, the total number of FOA terminations in a three year period rose to five — three during Ueltschey’s term. Pi Lambda Phi would be sanctioned for hazing over the summer as well, rounding out a total of eight IFC chapters found guilty of hazing in a three year period.
Asked if he believes these hazing events negatively affected decisions by individuals to participate in recruitment, Ueltschey was skeptical.
“I think [hazing] definitely contributed to a negative reputation. I don’t think that has drastically changed the opinion of people who are going to do recruitment,” Ueltschey said. “I think that that interest is already there regardless.”
However, for those who still choose to participate in recruitment, their process looks different than before, because of Ueltschey.
A program first created by Ueltschey when he was the IFC’s vice president for recruitment, the IFC utilized its recruitment counselor system for the second year as
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a way to guide potential new members through rush. The program matches each PNM to an IFC Recruitment Counselor, who guides them through the process with regular check-ins and the opportunity to ask questions or for advice.
Ueltschey said he has seen positive feedback about the process from RCs and PNMs alike.
“We’ve had a lot of interest again this year, which is really encouraging,” Ueltschey.” So, that means it did some good last year, and I think it’s a good resource continuing on.”
As IFC president, Ueltschey said the best advice he could give to his successor is to build trust with chapters, with their leadership, with the University administration and with alumni.
“[The IFC] needs to build trust … [and] keep the system healthy,” Ueltschey said. “We have to recognize that we’re going toward the same goal … to fix the issues that we may have now that could hinder us from growing and being safe.”
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Spaces on Grounds recognize Black history at U.Va.
The University community continues to reflect upon and engage with a history built on slavery over 200 years after Black Americans constructed Grounds
Lidia Zur Muhlen and Jackie Bond | Staff Writers
Black History Month is an important time for the community to reflect upon the University’s enduring legacy of enslaved labor and remember the many enslaved Black Americans who built and maintained Grounds from 1817 until the end of the Civil War in 1865. After the Civil War, many freed Black people continued to work on Grounds, and in the 20th century, Black students were finally allowed to enroll.
In 2013, University President Teresa A. Sullivan established the President’s Commission on Slavery and the University to explore the University’s historical relationship with slavery and advise the President on how to best commemorate enslaved laborers and Black leaders who are a significant part of the University’s history.
The University honors the lives of Black individuals in Charlottesville through various on-Grounds memorials for enslaved laborers, prominent Black leaders and their descendants. Documented below are a few memorials and structures that preserve the legacy of Black leaders and the history of enslaved laborers.
Memorial to Enslaved Laborers
The University opened the Memorial to Enslaved Laborers April 11, 2020 as part of the Commission’s mission to honor the life, labor and sacrifice of those who were enslaved at the University.
Nearly 4,000 Black men, women and children built, labored and lived at the University from 1817 to 1865. The University does not have a record of many of the enslaved laborers on Grounds and is still working to identify them while also tracking down their living relatives, according to Brendon Wolfe, former editor of the Encyclopedia of Virginia.
“[The University is] doing a reverse genealogy where they are researching the descendants of these people in order to identify living people who are related to Black enslaved laborers at the University,” Wolfe said.
The Memorial to Enslaved Laborers is a circular stone structure with running water and a timeline of the history of slavery at the University in the inner circle. The outer wall of this memorial is inscribed with “memory marks” — a series of dashes representing the laborers whose stories are unknown. These marks are set alongside a series of names, relationships and occupations of the Black laborers for whom the University has a record.
According to Assoc. Anthropology Prof. Gertrude Fraser, this memorial was inspired by the Vietnam Memorial in Washington and aspires to give visitors a sense of the many Black lives lived and lost at the University. Fraser said that the memorial provides an immersive location to reflect upon
the people whose lives were dedicated to building the grounds where the memorial stands.
“[Seeing this memorial] you can begin to imagine what it might have been like for them as whole people whose lives may not have been strictly shaped by slavery and by enslavement,” Fraser said.
Henry Martin plaque at the University Chapel
Today, Henry Martin is one of the most widely-known Black individuals associated with the early history of the University. Martin was born into slavery in 1826 — once freed, he worked as a Rotunda bell-ringer at the University every day from 1847 until his retirement in 1909.
Wolfe uncovered the story of Henry Martin while documenting the Civil War and writing a section on both slavery in Virginia and the history of the University. Wolfe noted that Martin remained a servant to white people at the University even after gaining his freedom, and highlighted that had Martin tried to challenge conventional racial stereotypes, he may have been treated more negatively by the University.
“His position at U.Va. was never one of total freedom,” Wolfe said. “If he’d chosen to assert himself in ways that were not approved by the white power structure, then he might have turned into another John Henry James, someone who was lynched just outside of Charlottesville in 1898.”
After a fire extensively damaged the Dome Room of the Rotunda in 1895, the bell was relocated to the University chapel. According to Chapel Renovations Project Manager James Zhemer, last year on Liberation and Freedom Day, Henry Martin’s grandson, Richard Hunt, ceremoniously rang the bell to commemorate Martin’s time at the University.
A plaque now honors Martin’s 62 years of service near the entrance of the University Chapel.
The Kitty Foster Memorial
The Foster site is a memorial dedicated to the freed Black woman, University worker and property owner, Catherine “Kitty” Foster. In 1833, Foster bought roughly two acres of land just south of the University from a white merchant. As a freed woman, Foster worked for the University washing clothes for students and faculty. She did all of this on her own property because the presence of free Black individuals was generally discouraged on Grounds.
When Foster died in 1863, she was buried in a cemetery on her property. Later in 1993 archeologists discovered this cemetery, and in 2011 the University dedicated a memorial to Foster’s years of service on this site. The Fos-
ter site also serves as a reminder of the commercial relationship between free Black Americans and the University community before, during and after the Civil War.
This memorial is only a piece of the original homestead, but still serves as a neighborhood cemetery and also includes some of the original cobblestone of Foster’s house as well as a ““shadow catcher” that outlines the shape of the original home.
Residence Halls and Academic Buildings
In 2015, the residence hall Gibbons House was named after William and Isabella Gibbons, an enslaved couple that worked for two different University professors in the mid-nineteenth century.
The couple managed to build a family while also learning to read and write during their enslavement. Once emancipated, Isabella became a teacher at the Freedman’s School — now known as the Jefferson School — and William became a minister and educator at First Church, the oldest Black church in Charlottesville.
Gibbons House is not the only University building named after a prominent Black leader. The School of Education’s Ridley Hall was renamed from Ruffner Hall in 2013 — originally dedicated to William H. Ruffner, superintendent of Virginia public schools and a proponent of recolonization. Walter Ridley was the first Black person to earn a doctoral degree from the University.
Fraser, who now teaches in Ridley Hall, said that she was at first skeptical of the University’s efforts to make amends for a history based on enslavement — questioning if it was “too little, too late.” However, Fraser said that she is now grateful for the investments made by the University to remember Black history.
“These commitments to recognizing the past are [sometimes] seen as almost criminal,” Fraser said. “I think the renaming of buildings is a deliberate and important action on the part of the University to recognize the commitments in the University that African Americans have made.”
Honoring Black history at the University
According to Fraser, learning about Black history and its enduring legacy should not be confined to February. Nevertheless, Black History Month does create intentional opportunities to reflect on Black history.
“It creates a moment, just like you and I are talking now,” Fraser said. “[It creates] a community [that] can engage with the ideas and the new information about African American contributions — all of us are so deeply obligated to them for our present.”
SIMRAN ARORA THE CAVALIER DAILY
This memorial is only a small piece of the original homestead, but still serves as a family and neighborhood cemetery
ELIZA CONNOLLY THE CAVALIER DAILY Students could hear Martin ring the Rotunda bells hourly, waking the students at dawn and marking the beginning and endings of class each day.
SOPHIE SMOOT-CANTY| THE CAVALIER DAILY
The outer wall of this memorial is inscribed with thousands of “memory marks” — a series of long dashes representing the laborers whose stories are unknown.
What to look out for as University student elections approach
Students can vote for representatives across student government organizations from March 3-5
Lauren Seeliger | Staff Writer
In this years’ spring elections, scheduled for March 3-5, University students will vote for a number of positions within student government and on four referenda. During this election process, organized by the University Board of Elections, students will vote for University Judiciary Committee, Honor Committee and Student Council representatives as well as for a Student Council president, vice president of administration and vice president of organizations among other positions. Following the general election, the Committee and UJC chairs will be chosen internally by elected representatives.
Students will also vote on four referenda, one sponsored by the University Guide Service, two sponsored by the UJC and one sponsored by Student Council. Candidate registration was open Feb. 4 to 11 and referendum proposals were due Feb. 14.
The Ballot — What to Look Out For Along with Student Council leadership and representatives, as well as Honor Committee and UJC representatives, students will also vote for Class Council presidents and vice presidents.
The Honor Committee is the only student government organization without a referendum on this year’s ballot. Laura Howard, Honor chair and fourth-year College student, said the Committee is still grappling with the multi-sanction system enacted in 2023. This system allows sanctions for an Honor offense to vary in punity, rather than an automatic two semester leave of absence, which was the original single-sanction system in place.
“We’re still in a transformative time for Honor,” Howard said. “We had the big multi-sanction Constitution in 2023 and the past two years have been about grappling with this, figuring out how [to] best represent the needs of the student body.”
Howard said she expects that candidates for Honor representative positions will have opinions regarding ways to fix some of the persistent problems, specifically with the multi-sanction system. She said one of these issues is the sanction gap — an issue when a suspension feels too severe but other sanctions are not severe enough.
Spring elections will allow University students to vote for 30 Honor representatives, and from there, newly elected representatives come together to vote for a chair and six vice chairs, who will take office the first Monday of April.
For Student Council, University students will be voting for class council officers, Student Council president, Student Council vice president of administration and Student Coun-
cil vice president of organizations. President, VPA and VPO candidates all require 100 signatures to be on the ballot, while class council and school representative candidates need 25. However, many class council races are uncontested or have no one running at all. Candidates must hit this signature count by Feb. 20.
Valentina Mendoza Gonzalez, Student Council president and fourthyear College student, wrote in an email to The Cavalier Daily that there are a multitude of issues she predicts candidates will address this year. These include University specific issues related to parking, housing and transportation, especially when considering how to deal with on-Grounds and off-Grounds housing availability and costs.
“At a local level, parking/housing/ transportation are very important for our student population, and the Student Council is trying to forecast some of the big changes in these areas by advocating for student concerns,” Mendoza Gonzalez wrote.
There are also issues on a national scale about which Student Council is able to advise University administration, including federal executive orders, that Mendoza Gonzalez said Student Council candidates will likely address in their campaigns.
“At a national level, federal orders change the landscape of higher education, and while administrators have to be ready to act in compliance, Student Council is uniquely positioned to ensure they are a bridge in these big University-wide decisions,” Mendoza Gonzalez wrote.
Regarding UJC, Harper Jones, UJC chair and fourth-year College student, said there are not many issues to look out for besides their two referenda. University students will also be voting for UJC representatives during this election, but executive positions will be voted on internally by elected representatives.
The Referenda
Four referenda have been proposed for this election — one to reinstate historical tours by the University Guide Service, one to add a student-athlete representative seat to the Student Council body, one to reapportion representative seats in the UJC and another to extend the UJC Statute of Limitations from 45 to 90 days. The Guide Service referendum requires 950 signatures to appear on the ballot, while the other three will be on the ballot regardless of signatures because they were internally passed within their respective student self-governance organizations earlier this semester.
The referendum sponsored by individual members of the Guide
Service — a student-led organization that works to give admissions tours to prospective students and historical tours of Grounds for the community — calls on the University to reinstate sanctioned “student-led and written historical tours of the University.” At the beginning of the fall semester, the Guide Service was suspended by the University, which had concerns regarding the quality and reliability of these tours.
Guide Service leadership, however, noted that while they received constructive criticism regarding admissions tours, they had not been aware of issues with historical tours prior to the suspension. In response to the continued suspension of their historical tours, the Guide Service began conducting historical tours independently of the University in January.
Jack Giese, Guide Service co-chair and fourth-year College student, said that the Guide Service chose to continue historical tours independently because the organization felt strongly about their mission to share the history of the University, even without support from University administration. Giese said the Guide Service has still remained connected with administration in the past few months and the proposal for the referendum came from a place of wanting administration to support the organization’s mission.
“We have always been willing to work with the administration to get back to giving tours on behalf of the University as long as there is a commitment to student-led historical tours [and] autonomy for students to have their own perspectives on that history,” Giese said.
The referendum condemns the University for its recent actions towards the Guide Service and calls for the University to reinstate sanctioned student-led historical tours. The referendum also calls for the University to increase publicization efforts and funding for the Guide Service, and to recognize the Guide Service as the primary provider of historical tours through written protection.
As of Feb. 17, this referendum has received over 1000 signatures and will officially appear on the ballot. Because this referendum is a nonbinding question — meaning the outcome is an advised opinion rather than an enforceable decision — it can pass with a majority vote from University students. Organizations co-sponsoring this referendum include the Asian Student Union, U.Va. Dissenters, the Minority Rights Coalition, the Queer Student Union, the Native American Student Union and Political Latinxs United for Movement & Action in Society.
Davis Taliaferro, Guide Service co-
chair and fourth-year College student, said the Guide Service is not sponsoring the referendum as an organization but that most guides are generally in support of the resolution. He said the decision to sponsor independently was due to connections with administration and the fact that the Guide Service is a Special Status Organization — organizations that act on behalf of the University, having students provide duties the University would otherwise provide themselves.
“We had concerns that there would be potential issues since SSOs, in some instances, act as agents of the University,” Taliaferro said. “We didn’t want technicalities getting in the way of us campaigning and raising support for this. We chose to sponsor as individuals so we could have full flexibility to promote this referendum.”
With two referenda on this year’s ballot, UJC has potential to see big changes next term. Their first referendum calls to expand their representative pool, adding three seats to the College and one to the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. Currently, the UJC has 29 representatives from across the 13 undergraduate and graduate schools of the University. Each school has two representatives, except for the College, which has five.
Jones said the desire to expand their pool is in part due to an increasing number of cases that have been seen by the UJC in the past few years and also to standardize the proportions of representatives based on school population. The referendum will allow UJC to review student populations of each school at the University every four years and readjust allocated seats as needed.
“In the past, our representation has not been super quantified by actual student populations,” Jones said. “The amendment we’re proposing puts in place mechanisms to conduct a census that considers the undergraduate and graduate populations of each school to ensure that representation is proportional.”
The second UJC referendum will extend the Statute of Limitations window from 45 days to 90 days. According to Jones, this window is the period from the date of the incident in which complaints can be raised, meaning students have 45 days to raise a concern. She said the idea to extend the window has been brought up within UJC for a few years, because students are not always aware of the trial procedures and complaints must be turned down when filed beyond that 45-day window.
On the ballot for Student Council is a referendum to add a student-athlete representative seat to the current general body. Passed unanimously by representatives Feb. 4, this referendum
states each school can reserve a representative seat for a student-athlete.
According to Mendoza Gonzalez, student-athletes deal with challenges not faced by the average student and therefore deserve a representative to advocate for them. This referendum requires a two-thirds majority to pass. All three of the UJC and Student Council referenda require two-thirds majority to pass, given at least 10 percent of the student body votes.
How to Vote
Voting will be done electronically, via online forms sent to students’ inboxes, which will direct students to BigPolls, UBE’s election platform. The form will be specific to each student, including only the elections in which they are eligible to vote — eligibility is determined by year and school. A ranked-choice voting system will be used for positions within student government, while referenda will be listed as a “yes” or “no” question.
Zach Lederer, UBE chair and fourth-year College student, said many of this year’s races are more contested than in years past, making it especially important to vote. For example, this year’s Student Council races for vice president for administration and vice president for organizations both have two candidates on the ballot, unlike last year when neither of these races were contested.
Prior student elections have faced issues with voter turnout and encouraging students to vote. Lederer said that last year had voter turnout of 34 percent of students casting a vote in at least one race. He said that while that percentage was higher than the year before, 34 percent is still relatively low, and there are disparities in turnout depending on what school students are in.
“There’s wide disparities, depending on school of enrollment.” Lederer said. “We see very high turnout in the law school and the College overall, but in some of the other schools, we don’t see as high [of] turnout. Hopefully we can see a higher turnout in some of these big races.”
Lederer encouraged students to vote in the upcoming elections and emphasized the impact that Student Council, Honor Committee and UJC have on student life.
“U.Va. is so unique in how much is delegated to students, so make your voices heard,” Lederer said. “There’s [also] great referenda on the ballot that will touch every single student at this University.”
As elections approach, The Cavalier Daily and UBE will moderate a Student Council presidential debate among all candidates March 2 at 6 p.m.
Divine Nine members uphold a legacy that spans generations
Students in Black Greek letter organizations inherit more than a century’s worth of rich history
Mia Tan | Features Writer
When third-year College student Gregory Perryman joined his fraternity last spring, he stood in front of the Rotunda, masked, dressed in black and gold, and prepared to make a lifelong commitment.
The ceremony, known as a probate, welcomed Perryman and four other initiates into the Iota Beta chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity, one of the six active Black Greek letter organizations on Grounds. Unlike the typical rush and pledge processes of Greek life, new members “cross,” or initiate, into Black fraternities and sororities through a formal presentation. They sing, step and stroll. They recite information about their organization. And, one by one, they unveil their faces to the public — which, for Perryman, included his family and friends packed onto the Rotunda steps.
“I still become overwhelmed with joy and emotion to this day when I look back at pictures or videos from my probate,” Perryman said. “It was really beautiful to see people coming together.”
That evening, Perryman officially joined the “Divine Nine,” a name that refers to the nine historically Black Greek letter organizations founded in the 20th century. While his probate was a defining moment in his college career, Perryman said his experience in the Divine Nine will not stay within the bounds of his undergraduate years. For him and many others, membership in the Divine Nine is an enduring commitment to the traditions and moral values of their organizations.
The Divine Nine — composed of five fraternities and four sororities — was established to provide a community for Black students who faced racial discrimination from social organizations. Today, the National Pan-Hellenic Council — the umbrella council that governs the Divine Nine — works with more than 250 alumni and undergraduate councils across the nation to promote unity and coordination among chapters. The NPHC represents eight Divine Nine chapters on Grounds, of which two sorority chapters and four fraternity chapters are currently active.
When students join the Divine Nine, they devote themselves to a life of scholarship, service and brotherhood or sisterhood, according to Jada Marsh, historian of the Theta Kappa chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority, president of the NPHC and fourthyear College student. While all Divine Nine chapters share these core pillars, each one focuses on giving back to its community through unique service projects. Some chapters focus on ex-
panding voter rights, while others aim to support families and increase access to education.
Graduate Education student Elijah Gaines said that he was drawn to the community service initiatives of the Eta Sigma chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi, which he joined as an undergraduate last year. He said their projects, from youth mentorship to community cleanups, reflect one of the chapter’s founding principles — to strive for “achievement in every field of human endeavor.”
“A lot of what we do is predicated on helping people around us and achieving at a high level,” Gaines said.
For students whose parents are also members of the Divine Nine, these values of service and achievement become a sort of family legacy. Fourthyear Batten student Kurali Grantham said his father crossed into the Eta Sigma chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi in the spring of 1987. Grantham followed in his father’s footsteps in the spring of 2022 when he joined the same chapter. He now serves as the chapter’s polemarch, or president.
Marsh, too, can trace her Greek lineage back to her own family tree. Her great aunt chartered the Alpha Beta chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha at Fort Valley State University in Georgia. She said that most of the women in her life are part of Delta Sigma Theta sorority, which inspired her to join one the four Divine Nine sororities herself.
“I was raised in it,” Marsh said. “It was just something I kind of naturally knew I would do.”
But students do not need a familial connection to feel at home in the Divine Nine, according to Kimberly Mugaisi, president of the Kappa Rho chapter of Delta Sigma Theta and fourth-year College student. At her probate last spring, Mugaisi became the first in her immediate family to join a Divine Nine organization.
“It was just a groundbreaking thing,” Mugaisi said. “It was very exciting, especially for me.”
When members join their chapters, they build on a foundation laid during key periods in the University’s history. Perryman noted that his organization, the Iota Beta chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha, was chartered on Grounds in 1974, less than a decade after the University became fully integrated.
“To engage in this space that was historically segregated … is really an amazing representation of the progress we’ve made at our University,” Perryman said.
Students also take inspiration from the Divine Nine’s storied list of
alumni, which includes Martin Luther King Jr., former Vice President Kamala Harris and Alicia Keys. Students may even run into Divine Nine members on Grounds — Kenyon Bonner, vice president and chief student affairs officer, and Hashim Davis, assistant dean and director of the Luther P. Jackson Black Cultural Center, are both members of Black Greek life.
Within the student body, strong ties exist between the NPHC and the three other Greek councils, according to Marsh. Joint programming, like Greek Unity Week in April, allows members across organizations to bond. In addition, some Divine Nine organizations have forged connections with other multicultural chapters. Perryman said that Iota Beta maintains a close relationship with Lambda Upsilon Lambda, a Latino fraternity on Grounds.
“It’s a very beautiful way that we unite, not just our organizations, but … Black and Latinx communities at U.Va.,” Perryman said. “I think that is crucial to overcoming the self-separation that occurs between different social circles.”
Marsh said one of her goals as the NPHC president is to make the Divine Nine’s presence better known within the greater University community. The NPHC is currently working to build on-Grounds NPHC plots, which are physical spaces marked by stone monuments dedicated to the Divine Nine organizations. The “Plots Project,” as it is called, would erect landmarks in the current green area behind the Office of African American Affairs. Marsh said the space would both honor the
legacy of the Divine Nine and serve as a space for students to participate in probates, bonding events and other gatherings.
“Even inactive organizations will be represented there,” Marsh said. “I’m looking forward to it being a space where we can all meet and have community.”
But the Plots Project has been years in the making, and progress at the University remains slow compared to other schools across the state. Several universities in Virginia have created spaces dedicated to the NPHC, such as Old Dominion University and James Madison University, which unveiled plots on their campuses in 2024 and 2022, respectively. Virginia Tech also opened an “NPHC House” in 2021.
According to Marsh, funding is the primary roadblock in the Plots Project. Black Greek organizations do not classify as Contracted Independent Organizations, so they rely on fundraising and donations, rather than University funds, to support their initiatives. And the Plots Project, with its estimated $1.2 million budget, asks a great deal from benefactors.
Marsh said the sluggish progress has stirred concern among chapter members. It represents a prevailing reality across the country where Divine Nine organizations lack the same visibility and sanctioned housing as mainstream Greek organizations.
“There are some … concerns that have been voiced since our chartering that we are still relaying over and over again — just the acknowledgement of us being here on Grounds,” Marsh said.
From funding to housing, some students simply hope to see more recognition from the University. According to Grantham, understanding the NPHC’s distinct history and goals can go a long way in supporting Divine Nine members. He expressed gratitude for current administrative support, while noting room for more acknowledgement of NPHC organizations.
“We have good people at the administrative level who are not just looking out for us but going out of their way to make sure we’re taken care of,” Grantham said. “But I think if it wasn’t so out of the way to look out for our NPHC communities … that would make us feel a little bit more recognized institutionally.”
Despite these concerns, members of the Divine Nine still carry on their mission to provide a safe space for Black students and preserve the legacy of their organizations. As members continue to volunteer in Charlottesville and put on student events, Marsh emphasized that their work is in service of all community members.
Whether participating in probates, undertaking service projects or sporting their colors, Marsh said Divine Nine members are not just taking pride in their organizations — they are welcoming the community to learn about their history and share their joy.
“The events and programs we put on are always for the public. Everything that we do is for our community as a whole, not just for Black students,” Marsh said. “We do it for U.Va.”
COURTESY FERESHTA ISLAMZADA VIA JADA MARSH
The Divine Nine was established on the basis of providing community for Black students who faced racial discrimination.
A LOOK INTO BLACK HISTORY MONTH
University organizations to host a series of events celebrating Black History Month
To celebrate Black History Month this February, the Office of African American Affairs and several Black student organizations have partnered to offer a series of 13 events throughout the month, which include musical and dance performances, group discussions and community outreach initiatives.
Each year, the University celebrates Black History Month, a national celebration of African Americans’ achievements and a recognition of their central role in United States history, established nationwide in 1976. Hashim Davis, assistant dean of the OAAA and director of the Luther Porter Jackson Black Cultural Center, created the programming calendar this year, partnering with various student groups and focusing on the theme of “Celebrating Resilience.”
“[Each year], I try to do a theme that’s going to be reflective of what I would want to examine for Black History,” Davis said. “This year is one for resilience, and our programming is going to reflect that.” CD Staff Writers
Reflecting on Black excellence within Virginia Athletics
Oct. 11, 1947 was a historic day. For the first time in history, a Black football player played below the Mason-Dixon line when Harvard visited Virginia. However, it would take another 17 years before the first Black athlete suited up for the Cavaliers.
That monumental moment arrived in 1964, when George King III became the first Black varsity athlete at the University as a member of the wrestling team and men’s lacrosse team.
Seven years later, Harrison Davis, Kent Merritt and John Rainey became the first Black players in the football program in 1971. That same year, Al Drummond became the first Black player in the men’s basketball program.
PODCAST: “Celebrating Resilience” — The Office of African American Affairs’ Black History Month celebration
This episode was recorded on Feb. 17, so some impending celebratory events mentioned in the podcast have already passed.
Hashim O. Davis, the assistant dean of the OAAA and director of the Luther Porter Jackson Black Cultural Center, discusses the relevance and importance of “Celebrating Resilience,” OAAA’s theme for this year’s Black History Month celebration.
Pearl Island Café is the gem of the Jefferson School
Pearl Island Café is a charming shop that offers delectable Caribbean dishes — which the cafe describes as a fusion of African, Amerindian, European, East Indian, Arab and Chinese cuisine, with influence from the indigenous population of the Caribbean as well. Not only does the Black-owned restaurant provide tasty bites in a sustainable manner, but they educate the patrons on what they’re eating and its history — one of my favorite aspects.
The café is situated directly in the center of the historic Jefferson School City Center which is a seven-minute drive or 20-minute walk from the Rotunda, right next to the Downtown Mall. Up until 1951, the Jefferson School was the only Black high school in Charlottesville, and the building now fulfills the mission of honoring and preserving the heritage of the local African American community.
Brianna Whitaker finds fulfillment and passion in theater as Spectrum’s Artistic Director
Many students may be unaware of the thriving theater scene at the University, whether through student-run productions or the Drama department. One small but mighty group in particular — Spectrum Theatre — is dedicated to the creation of engaging and challenging theatre for the University and Charlottesville community.
The student-run group became a part of the University theater scene in 2004 — pitching, creating and performing one or two works a semester, many of which are musicals. For second-year College student Brianna Whitaker, Spectrum Theatre has become part of her lifeblood.
Whitaker has been involved in theater since discovering a passion for the art form as early as kindergarten. Her sister and mother were both performers themselves, exposing Whitaker to the stage from a young age.
WILLIAMS:
Let us not hide history this
Black History Month
We are currently in the middle of Black History Month, a time celebrating the accomplishments Black Americans have made. Here on Grounds, organizations are hosting events to celebrate such history and beauty. Blackness being celebrated around Grounds is, in part, an attempt to combat the shameful past of this institution which has deep ties to racism, slavery and eugenics. In this way, it is impossible to turn a blind eye — even if the University sometimes does — to the damning history that is ingrained in these Grounds. With the rise of regressive policies like repealing affirmative action and the repression of student-led historical tours, we as students must ask ourselves if the University is doing enough to remain attentive to possible backsliding against progress made thus far. Black History Month is a time to celebrate accomplishments and barriers broken by African Americans. This month also serves as a space to reflect on the struggles and plight which have impacted the Black community writ large. Especially in the climate, taking this moment of reflection and celebration is greatly important. At this University specifically, Black History Month is a time to reflect on the contested history of Blackness on Grounds.
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EVALINA CARUCCIO | THE CAVALIER DAILY
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SAMUEL KAPLAN THE CAVALIER DAILY
MARIAM SESHAN THE CAVALIER DAILY
COURTESY HASHIM DAVIS
The Race Card Project invites students to reflect on race in just six words
Each Friday during Black History Month, the Luther P. Jackson Black Cultural Center invites students at the University to participate in a thought-provoking global initiative called the Race Card Project, in which individuals share their perception of race using only six words. This project began Feb. 14 and will continue until the end of the month.
Spearheaded at the University by the Office of African American Affairs, the Race Card Project offers a space for students to engage in a conversation about race in a creative, yet structured, manner. This year marks the second time OAAA has brought the program to the University. While it did not quite take off last year, they have already received 15 responses, and they anticipate more to come before the project wraps up at the end of the month.
Monticello hosts series of special events to remember Black history
Throughout the month of February, Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello has offered a series of events aiming to honor Black history. Events began Feb. 4 with a guest speaker and moderated discussion, and an upcoming event Feb. 21-22 will provide workshops and panels aimed to support attendees in tracking their own family histories.
Several events earlier in the month also incorporated Black history into year-round programming at Jefferson’s former plantation home, owned by the Thomas Jefferson Foundation — an organization dedicated to historical preservation and education. Dr. Andrew Davenport, vice president for research at Monticello, said that the organization aims to share Black history year round, although they hold additional events in February to celebrate Black History Month.
On Repeat: Black artists reshaping the future of music
Black artists have been marginalized from the mainstream for decades — despite being the originators of nearly all popular music genres. Industry gatekeeping and systemic barriers have historically sidelined their contributions, even as their innovations continue to define popular music.
The past year, however, saw a major shift. Hip-hop and R&B, currently two of the most popular genres in the United States, made up an estimated 25.3 percent of audio streaming sales, reaffirming that Black creativity remains the foundation of popular music. Beyoncé and Shaboozey topped the country charts, Kaytranada made waves in the electronic scene and Brittany Howard blurred the lines between rock and soul.
To celebrate Black History Month, this list highlights albums from some of the most compelling voices in their respective scenes today.
From the Archives: February 14, 1975
“Photographing A Culture”
By Dan Grogan
For Virginia’s first Black football player, time at U.Va. was challenging and formative
For Gary Ham, the first Black football player on the University’s varsity team and Class of 1973 alumnus, the key to being a Black student at a majority-white university was simple — resolve and resilience.
“Growing up, I’d run the whole gamut of racism and prejudice in my young life … It still hurts,” Ham said.
“You just developed a resolve to continue to stand, to accomplish, and I think that’s probably one of the great legacies of some of the great leaders in African-American communities faced with overwhelming challenges to even go forward. They did it.”
Before his time at the University, Ham grew up in a military family — his father was one of the few African American men in the Air Force.
by Dan Grogan
As part of Black Culture Week at the University, Pulitzer prize-nominated photographer Chester Higgins visited Grounds to give a lecture on his past and present work. He also discussed his plans to travel to the Sahel region of Africa for six weeks to take photos for his newest book.
From the Archives: February 17, 1984
“Vivian recalls King, speaks for Jackson”
By John Morris
In celebration of Black History Month, Reverend C.T. Vivian — Martin Luther King Jr.’s right-hand man during the 1960s Civil Rights Movement — came to the University to give a sermon at the Mt. Zion Baptist Church. He also gave a lecture in the Newcomb Hall Ballroom on Jesse Jackson’s campaign. Karen Chandler, Director of the Luther P. Jackson House, anticipated more than 300 from the student body and community would attend.
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COURTESY MARTIN FALBISONER VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
LEXIE GAGNON THE CAVALIER DAILY
Photos
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
Rita Dove on the resonance of unrecorded stories
Former U.S. Poet Laureate and Henry Hoyns Professor of Creative Writing reflects on her approach to writing and teaching
Sophie
Hay | Senior Writer
Rita Dove — celebrated poet and Henry Hoyns Professor of Creative Writing — has taught at the University since 1989, helping to shape new generations of writers at the undergraduate and graduate levels. Over the course of her dazzling career, she has found inspiration in stories of marginalized people often rendered invisible.
“As an African American woman, with that double marginalization, I grew up always knowing that I was going to be ignored … that sense of, I can see you, but you won’t see me, and I don’t understand that, but I’m gonna report on this,” Dove said.
This insight into marginalized perspectives imbues Dove’s writing and has led her to look beyond the stories in history books.
“You have on your neighborhood street all sorts of examples of heroism, bravery, even cowardice and evil … and then none of that, of course, gets into the history books,” Dove said.
Dove has told these stories through the medium of poetry for over 40 years to much acclaim. She received a Pulitzer Prize for her collection “Thomas and Beulah” in 1987, served as United
States Poet Laureate from 1993 to 1995 and earned The National Book Foundation’s Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters in 2023 — a lifetime achievement recognition. These are only a few of her countless accomplishments.
Dove grew up in Akron, Ohio and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in English from Miami University in 1973. She studied at the University of Tübingen in Germany as a Fulbright Fellow from 1974 to 1975 and received her Master of Fine Arts from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop at the University of Iowa in 1977.
She went on to teach creative writing at Arizona State University from 1981 to 1989, until she was recruited to teach at the University by former English prof. Charles Rowell — founder of Callaloo, a literary journal which publishes work by writers and artists of African descent. Dove said she felt apprehensive when Rowell first invited her to come to Virginia — she was wary of the South — but she had been published in Callaloo and respected Rowell, so she accepted his invitation. She said this first visit to the Universi-
ty upended her preconceptions.
“I fell in love with the minds that I found here, both with the students and with the professors,” Dove said. “Everyone kept saying, Virginia is not the South, Virginia is Virginia, it’s a different South. It is a very strange and conflicted South, and that I found exceedingly interesting … It has become my home.”
Dove said she found herself interrogating Virginia’s “conflicted South” in her poetry as she settled into her position at the University, but not necessarily in the ways readers anticipated.
“When I first came to Virginia, I think many people were expecting me to immediately begin writing about Thomas Jefferson,” Dove said. “Writing about Virginia, it takes a while for things to brew. I knew that I would, at some point it was going to happen, because I felt that Thomas Jefferson … was an emblem of a nation that was torn down the middle. It took a while.”
Dove referred to a “cameo” appearance by Jefferson in one of her books, but said she ultimately found an entry point to an exploration of Virginia not focused on the University’s founder.
Instead, she wrote about the story of Henry Martin, a formerly enslaved man who acted as the Rotunda bell ringer in the late 1800s.
“This is a person who’s known, but only by a few people, and he was in everybody’s life every single day at the University without anyone taking notice,” Dove said. “He really began to speak. He speaks in the poem, but he really began to speak. He wrote that poem. I’m really proud that I was able to do that.”
She presented her poem on Martin, “Bellringer,” at the University’s bicentennial celebration on the Lawn in Oct. 2017.
Creative openness helped Dove to find inspiration in Martin’s story, and it is these qualities that shape her approach to teaching. In her intimate, workshop-style writing courses, she said she encourages students to respond to daily experiences in their work and focus on producing cohesive collections.
“I’m really interested, both for the graduates and the undergraduates, that they keep writing, and that they do not necessarily write toward a pro-
ject … concentrating on that and shutting out everything else that’s happening in their lives,” Dove said. “Instead [I want them] to be able to admit into themselves all the little surprises in life, and write there too.”
On top of teaching, Dove is now working on a memoir, a number of individual poems and a poem to accompany Samuel Barber’s “Adagio for Strings” as part of a Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra program spotlighting African American artists and composers in 2026.
An emphasis on unrecorded stories continues to inform Dove’s creative practice and the content of her courses. She said she hopes her students recognize the value of people, places and things which may go unnoticed by others.
“I think that what’s important about retrieving these unsung voices … is that it reminds us how important every single thing is,” Dove said. “By opening the interior life of someone who you have stereotyped … hopefully you’ll be less likely to hate that person or to fear that thing, or to speak of divisions.”
CAT WHITE THE CAVALIER DAILY
Insights into marginalized perspectives imbues Dove’s writing and has led her to look beyond the stories in history books.
‘Anne
Spencer: I Am Here!’ celebrates the Virginia intellectual
The exhibition at Special Collections Library highlights Anne Spencer — writer, poet and Civil Rights activist
Manmayi Ghaisas | Staff Writer
The “Anne Spencer: I Am Here!” exhibition at the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library honors Harlem Renaissance poet and Civil Rights activist Anne Spencer. Located in the library’s Main Gallery, the exhibition opened Oct. 22 and will run through June 14.
Anne Spencer was born near Danville, Virginia, in 1882. She moved to Lynchburg as a child where she spent the rest of her life, eventually becoming a central figure in Lynchburg’s intellectual and political circles.
The exhibition showcases Spencer’s personal effects, including diaries, original poems and letters, to highlight her poetry and prose. Other parts of the exhibit, such as biography excerpts, explain her relationship to Lynchburg’s Civil Rights movement — she helped develop a constitution for the Lynchburg branch of the NAACP after becoming a member of the organization in 1912.
Exhibitions Coordinator Jacquelyn Kim, who helped curate the portion on Spencer’s Civil Rights involvement, explained why it was important that the exhibition presented the different aspects of Spencer’s life.
“She really was so multifaceted, and this exhibit is really trying to highlight all these different spheres of her life that were important to her and that she really worked to cultivate,” Kim said.
To display both Spencer’s literary and political work, the exhibition utilizes several freestanding displays. In the shape of a cube, each display imparts information about a specific part of Spencer’s life, such as her poetry, time as a school librarian, involvement in the Lynchburg chapter of the NAACP and fondness for her garden or home. Viewers can walk around all four sides of each cube and read the information as well as view placards, photographs and artifacts from various aspects of Spencer’s life.
Much of Spencer’s prominent work started from within her Lynchburg home. There, Spencer wrote poems on the walls and scraps of papers and avidly kept a garden, which inspired her poetry many times. Interestingly, she even wrote notes on a packet of seeds, which is on display at the exhibit.
Spencer’s home was a center for political conversation, something which the exhibition high -
lights. In a section called “Anne Spencer’s Social Network,” the 16 Civil Rights intellectuals who Spencer hosted in her Lynchburg home are discussed. Among the figures are W.E.B. Du Bois, Thurgood Marshall, Langston Hughes and James Weldon Johnson. During Johnson and Hughes’ visits, they noticed Spencer’s writing around her home and encouraged her to pursue poetry writing seriously. Over time, these figures brought ideas from the Harlem Renaissance to Lynchburg, and while Spencer was influenced by these ideas, she also developed a distinct writing style.
Alison Booth, English professor and the curator of the poetry section of the exhibit, spoke on the variability between Harlem Renaissance writers. Some were deeply concerned with capturing Black artistry after enslavement, and some, like Spencer, wrote about race in a less obvious way according to Booth.
“Spencer herself kept saying, ‘I’m a Black woman. I write who I am. I’m proud to be a Black woman.’ She’s not trying to camouflage herself in any way, but
she doesn’t think she has to write about race every time she puts pen to paper,” Booth said. “She’s writing about being a Black woman in all of her poems, without it being the topic.”
Booth labeled Spencer’s type of poetry as what she calls “sustainable poetry” — poetry that believes that the Earth’s natural components are like God and that the natural world is the center of the universe, not humanity.
This idea of sustainability is evident within the exhibit. In fact, the portion of the exhibit’s title “I Am Here!” is taken from Spencer’s poem “[Earth, I thank you]” in which she thanks the Earth for all its joys while also recognizing the trouble it gave her. The poem ends with the exhibit’s namesake — “I am here!”
“I think it’s a timeless declaring of human consciousness. So, ‘I am here’ is always true,” Booth said. “That’s what sustainable poetry does, it helps put a little … stake in the ground. Because [Spencer] says, ‘I’m going to get out of the Earth something that is being.’”
As Spencer was concerned with sustainability in her poetry, she also worked hard to form a sustainable community for Lynchburg’s Black residents, specifically through her work as a member of the NAACP. Exhibit-goers can see artifacts of Spencer’s activism, including a receipt for NAACP membership dues or written campaigns to hire Black teachers at Dunbar High School, where she was a librarian.
The exhibit supplements these artifacts with placards expanding on Spencer’s everyday activism. For example, a typescript of Spencer’s poem “Neighbors” is displayed — the placard explains it was written in response to backlash for refusing to ride segregated public transportation, choosing instead to hitch rides on grocery wagons.
Kim noted that Spencer’s coverage of a variety of political topics — from wars in foreign countries to Congressional bills — manifested in her poetry because of her keen eye for detail.
“She’s very clearly paying attention to what’s happening around her … and drawing con -
nections between radical struggles and people organizing for their rights,” Kim said. By putting such a wide breadth of information — from activism to poetry — on display, the “Anne Spencer: I Am Here!” explores the Black experience through the lens of a multifaceted woman who took pride in writing and serving her community.
The exhibition concludes a triptych of exhibitions on Black history in Central Virginia, following earlier ones on the Holsinger Picture Studio and the Harlem Renaissance. “Anne Spencer: I Am Here!” will be on display until June 14 in the Special Collections Library’s Main Gallery.
Ultimately, the exhibit serves as an act of remembrance which affirms the importance of reading and remembering Spencer’s work.
“We need to help sustain her poetry,” Booth said. “Her poetry is alive now, but only if we make it. We sustain the poets we read. It’s a reciprocity thing.”
ADAIRE BURNSED THE CAVALIER DAILY
The exhibition showcases Spencer’s personal effects, including diaries, original poems and letters, to highlight her poetry and prose.
ACROSS
1 La capitale d’Italia
5 Channel which airs “CSI: Miami”
10 Place for a peephole
14 Cricket field shape
15 Southeast Asian capital
16 Dance party
17 Hockey fake-out
18 Decorate
19 “It suits you to ____”
20 Athletes who surpass milestones, such as Barry Bonds in 2001
23 Victoria’s Secret purchase
24 Excessively
25 Word after “common” or “sixth”
26 The NFL’s Saquon Barkley, for one
31 Soothing succulents
32 Neighboring nation of 15-Across
33 Sandwich known by its initials
CROSSWORD
Answers are available on the digital version of this puzzle which is published at
37 Jay Gatsby’s love
39 Weak poker hand 40 “___ to Black Skin”–poem by Ashanti Anderson
41 Well-delivered insult
42 Luke and Leia’s mother 43 Role with the punches? 46 ___ nova 50 Frying liquid 51 Boring routine
52 Genre for Usher and SZA ... or when abbreviated, a hint to the circled letters of puzzle’s clues
57 ____ grievance (complain publicly)
58 In a state of conflict
59 “Easier ____ than done”
61 Skinny
62 Like 50-Across prior to refinement
63 Italian volcano
36 Presidential rejection encountered by the Civil Rights Act of 1866
64 Sound of a high-five
65 Perfects, as one’s skills
66 Lose fur
DOWN
1 NFL legend Woodson
2 Possible response to “Objection!” in a courtroom
3 Jot something down
4 Guinness who played Obi-Wan Kenobi
5 Pluto’s largest moon
6 Scolding words after finding a chewed shoe
7 Elitist
8 Unit of pressure
9 Six-second social media service
10 Target of the 2024 diss “Not Like Us”
11 Like some cereals
12 Some sportsbook bets on the total score
13 Actress Witherspoon recently spotted at U.Va.
21 Singer Redding who was a foundational inductee
of the Black Music & Entertainment Walk of Fame
22 Poses a question
23 B, in the NATO phonetic alphabet
27 Keanu’s role in “The Matrix”
28 Bit of shut eye?
29 Some small batteries
30 Flirtatiously shy
33 Result of poor oral hygiene
34 Long way to go?
35 Pick up the check
37 Two-factor authentication app for logging onto SIS
38 Jump shot’s path
39 Good buddy
41 Surfer’s bud
42 Funeral drape
44 Slangy greeting
45 Sunday school stack
46 Trumpets and trombones, but not saxophones
47 U.Va. dining room located above Crossroads, familiarly
48 Aleppo’s nation
53 Speed-of-sound ratio
49 Booker T. Washington was the first African American depicted on one of these, which cost 10 cents
55 Person, place, or thing
56 Takes advantage of
54 Miriam Makeba called this hairdo “no style at all, but just letting our hair be itself”
60 Stereotypical bad joke teller
CARTOON
Snow-Day Shootout
Guided Silence
Ada Malpani
SPORTS
Breaking down racial barriers: Meagan Best’s journey to stardom
Women’s squash has been propelled forward by her illustrious, yet perhaps unlikely, career
Peter Kratz | Senior Associate
The small island nation of Barbados — off the coast of Puerto Rico and Venezuela — is most commonly known for its stunning beaches and vibrant culture. But one thing it is definitely not recognized for is the sport of squash.
Graduate student Meagan Best of Virginia women’s squash is on track to change that perception with her dazzling play on the court — inspiring squash players everywhere.
Hailing from Barbados, Best has been playing squash since before she was born. Literally.
“I actually like to say I started squash in the womb, because my mom … started playing while she was pregnant with me,” Best said. “And then from the time I was born, able to walk, I would go to the courts and try swinging as a baby.”
After playing squash casually in her younger years, Best’s ascension to greatness began. At the junior level, she racked up 15 Barbados Junior National titles, catching the eyes of scouts. She would then leave her country to attend boarding school in Connecticut for the last two years of her high school education. But being so far away from where she grew up required some adjustment — after all, it was an entirely new social environment, climate and academic setting. Best relied on her parents as motivation to get through these difficult changes in her life.
“I always say, I do what I do here for them,” Best said. “I know I can see them living through me, because I’m basically living the dream that they wanted to do. And I do this for them. It’s always been for them.”
Despite challenges adjusting to a new culture, Best never faltered on the court, quickly becoming her country’s most dominant force in competition. At the 2019 U.S. Junior Open, she collected three bronze medals and one silver. Later at the 2019 Junior Pan American Championships, she earned a silver medal in the individual competition and a gold medal in the mixed doubles.
All this success on the national stage caught the attention of the Cavaliers’ Coach Mark Allen, who convinced her to join Virginia to continue her academic and athletic career.
But then the pandemic ar -
rived. COVID-19 prevented Best from competing in her first year at the University. Yet when the 2021-22 season rolled around, she showed why she deserved to be the leading star of one of college squash’s elite teams.
In just her first season, she earned a CSA First-Team All-American spot — the first Virginia player to receive the honor. She repeated that feat in her next two seasons, along with two conference player of the year awards.
Despite these collegiate accomplishments, Best’s greatest career highlights are her dominance while representing her country on the international circuit — including Barbados’ first medals at the 2023 Pan American Games.
Yet, breaking down perceptions of what a squash player looks and plays like is the true victory, according to Best.
“I think it was quite unprecedented that a Barbadian player was even in the final of the U.S. Open, so for me to be in the final
and then win it, especially as a colored athlete within the squash world,” Best said. “I think that held a lot of weight.”
Since before she was born, the odds were stacked against her to become a squash star. Squash has historically been known as a sport for old, white men and has been predominantly white in recent memory. The sport itself was even founded at the Harrow School — a prestigious boarding school in England. Additionally, squash players are more likely to be from a wealthy socio-economic background, not from an island nation with limited resources.
The systemic challenges faced by playing a sport like squash were evident, even when Best was young.
“It’s a very white sport, even in Barbados, so it was definitely hard,” Best said. “I was one of the kids that they would just kind of brush aside, and didn’t really want to hear from. [They] thought I was kind of annoying.”
In the face of these obstacles,
Best continued forward, relying on her skill on the court to do the talking. Whether she is competing for the Cavaliers or Barbados, her story is a truly inspiring one. It paves the way for people of all backgrounds to compete in the sport that they love, without feeling like they need to fit a certain mold — something that Best believes can be achieved with faith in oneself.
“It’s really about honing in on who you are as a person, if you just become confident and self-assured with who you are, you really won’t need to care about what others are saying about you,” Best said. “I think it’s very important that you build that foundation, and then you know nothing. You kind of feel unstoppable.”
Although squash may not be the most popular, accessible or understandable sport, what Best is doing, and what she has done, is extremely special. In her final season, a season in which Virginia has been solid, but not amazing — losing the MASC cham -
pionship, but setting themselves up for the future with great young talent — Best has been the brightest spot on the team. The Cavaliers still have some games to play, providing some chances to see Virginia’s finest in action.
Best, being a graduate student, has limited time left with the Cavaliers, creating an extra feeling of importance for her final matches. Despite her career coming to an end, she will be more than fine wherever she ends up, thanks to her strong mentality.
“You know, it’s just a new chapter,” Best said. “And just like how I’ve done everything else in my life, I’m gonna just be myself and try my best at whatever it is.”
MARIAM SESHAN THE CAVALIER DAILY
Paul Chang’s hole-in-one produced a curious response
Virginia men’s golf, for the first time since 2019, had a player make an ace
Michael Liebermann | Sports Editor
Paul Chang narrates his hole-inone over a phone call, and it’s all a bit of a puzzle. A milestone achieved, a curse broken, an immediate call to the parents? All things that happened. Forgetting two holes later about the feat? Also something that happened.
First there are the facts of the shot. It happened last week, Feb. 12, on the 16th hole at the Grand Reserve Golf Club in Puerto Rico, during the third and final round of Virginia’s season-opening Puerto Rico Classic. The flag waved 152 yards away, and the hole was playing downwind, “quite a bit,” Chang said. Chang played a knockdown pitching wedge, swinging the club shorter and flighting the shot lower. He had birdied the hole in the first round, with a pitching wedge from 169 yards, hitting it to 20 feet, then making the putt. He had parred the hole in the second round, misjudging the wind and ending up in the bunker with a nine iron, but then splashing the ball out of the sand and tapping in.
This go-around felt pretty similar. After his pre-shot routine, the same one that had never before
yielded a hole-in-one, Chang swung.
He had aimed 10 feet left of the hole. The wind pushed the little spinning orb toward immortality. Dunk. The ball hit the back of the cup and went straight in.
“It worked out perfectly as I imagined in my head,” Chang said.
Chang dropped his club, sort of jettisoned it to his left. If he had a caddy, he would have chest-bumped him. Alas. His only companions on the tee were his playing partners from Marquette and Tennessee, and a Marquette assistant coach. Everyone high-fived. Chang seemed happy, but in his own way.
“It wasn’t the reaction I was thinking he was gonna give us, for his first hole-in-one,” Marquette’s Johan Widal, one member of the threesome, said.
The shot snapped a five-year hole-in-one drought for the Virginia program — and a lifetime drought for the player. Chang had come close to an ace a couple times before. The ball, though, had never dropped.
“I didn’t know how to react,” Chang said. “I never thought I’d actually make a hole-in-one. I’ve never had one. It was kind of a curse.”
This is where, it seems odd to say, there comes something bordering on ambivalence. Chang downplays it, on the one hand.
“At the end of the day, it’s just an eagle,” Chang said. “On the scorecard, it’s an eagle. It’s no different from making an eagle on a par five.”
There’s that. Then there’s this.
“But obviously it’s cooler,” Chang said, continuing. “People say it’s cooler. It’s less probable than making an eagle on a par five. So I’ll definitely remember it.”
It will go up there alongside his shot from the fairway in the 2023 U.S. Amateur Round of 16. That shot, until last week, had been his only ever hole-out from any sort of distance, including in noncompetition rounds.
It also dunked, though after a bounce. It also came off the face of a pitching wedge. Chang did get to chest-bump his caddy that time.
This time, though, nobody else on his team witnessed the shot. Junior Ben James was closest, on the next tee, blocked from view by a bush.
But coaches, walking around this
slice of paradise, were watching the leaderboard. Players, too. Chang encountered James in a logjam on the second tee — the tournament used a shotgun format, with Chang’s and James’s groups starting on the seventh and eighth hole and then wrapping around — and received congratulations.
But that was later. When Chang reached the 18th hole, two holes after the ace, the news was still filtering around. Chang’s group waited forever on the tee. Then Chang missed his drive into the right rough, the ball’s landing spot offering a decent shot through some trees.
Walking over to his ball, Chang passed a coach from Marquette. The coach did the natural thing — running across someone not 30 minutes removed from a feat mostly only dream of, he offered congratulations. Cue instant confusion.
“I was like, ‘You mean, I have this gap in the trees so I could go for a green?’” Chang said. “I was so lost.”
Then came assistant coach Dustin Groves, running toward him down the hole, opening his arms,
“first ever!” And finally it hit Chang. “I finally realized he was talking about the hole-in-one,” Chang said.
Chang called his parents after the round. They were happy he finally made an ace but more happy that he finished well in the tournament.
Chang, a computer science major from China who walked onto the team last season as a junior, tied for sixth at 10-under, five strokes behind the champion. He posted the best score on a seventh-ranked Virginia team that struggled, finishing seventh out of 15 in a strong but not overwhelming field.
Chang, at least, feels great. He wishes a few putts lipped in instead of out. Otherwise, no complaints. His game has never felt better. His bank account, though, may take a hit.
“I’m sure this weekend, or maybe the next, I’ll buy some people some drinks,” Chang said, as is custom after a hole-in-one. He stowed the hole-in-one ball in his bag after the shot and, as of Friday’s practice, it was still there. He will frame it at some point, he says.
If, that is, he does not forget.
A turnaround is doable for football — Arizona State proved it
Virginia can learn from the Sun Devils, who turned a 3-9 season into a College Football Playoff berth in one season
Theo Moll | Staff Writer
Coach Tony Elliott and company entered Blacksburg’s Lane Stadium on a cold November night, the fate of Virginia’s season resting upon the three hours of football about to take place. Virginia, 5-6, arrived in the midst of a free fall after a blazing 4-1 start. But Elliott looked across the sideline at a Virginia Tech team with the same record, reduced to a freshman quarterback making his first career start. A Cavalier win seemed eminently feasible, and it would mean a return to postseason play, the program’s first bowl appearance since 2019. Instead, Virginia Tech took home its 19th win over Virginia in the last 20 football matchups. Coach Tony Elliott endured his third losing season in three years. Senior receiver Malachi Fields and senior safety Jonas Sanker played their final game in orange and blue. And fans were forced to look elsewhere for hope in an increasingly bleak fall for Virginia athletics.
But Virginia football is not beyond saving. If there’s one idea that’s been jammed down the throats of every college sports fan, it’s that the industry looks much different than it did even a few years ago. Just ask Tony Bennett.
One consequence of this increasing volatility? For better or worse, it has never been easier for college football programs to turn around so quickly.
Of this year’s AP Poll’s final Top 25 teams, eight did not have winning records last season. Virginia, then, has multiple blueprints for the type of turnaround it so desperately needs.
While all eight schools make for interesting comparisons, only one fits the bill of a returning head coach with a new starting quarterback — and it’s the most successful team with the most dramatic turnaround.
Arizona State ended its 2023 campaign in even worse fashion than Virginia concluded 2024. Home fans watched as the team was pummeled by Arizona, losing 59-23 en route to a 3-9 season. Even worse, true freshman starting quarterback and former top50 recruit Jaden Rashada transferred out, along with three other four-stars. With just one year under his belt leading the program, Coach Kenny Dillingham was tasked with filling out a severely depleted roster while navigating a conference move from the Pac-12 to the Big 12. Elliott has to face some of the
same challenges this offseason. The departures of Sanker and Fields, along with multiple offensive and defensive linemen, left glaring holes that needed filling. In Sanker, Fields and graduate student Brian Stevens, the Cavaliers lost three captains and All-ACC selections. Sophomore quarterback Anthony Colandrea transferred out, and graduate student Tony Muskett exhausted his eligibility. Just like Dillingham, Elliott had work to do in the portal.
The Sun Devils rose to the challenge. Arizona State brought in a transfer class of 30 players, the fourthmost of all FBS teams, ranked 30th nationally and fourth in the Big 12 by 247Sports. Dillingham brought in the adequate numbers to reinforce a depleted roster, and most importantly, he found the Sun Devils a quarterback. Sam Leavitt started at Michigan State but redshirted before transferring. Then it was on to Tempe, Ariz., where Leavitt was awarded the starting job in August.
The Cavaliers, too, have shown aggressiveness in the portal. Elliott’s 19 commits already constitute the largest transfer class in his tenure at Virgin-
ia, and this is coming even before the onset of the spring portal window. The Cavalier class is valued relatively highly, ranked 23rd in FBS and fourth in the ACC.
One major priority in the portal this offseason was the offensive line. The Cavaliers surrendered the fourth-most sacks in FBS in 2024, and Elliott responded by bringing in four key blockers, headlined by graduate student Monroe Mills, the fourthhighest-ranked offensive tackle in the portal. Also in the transfer class is the man Mills will likely protect in 2025 — fellow graduate student Chandler Morris. Maybe a veteran signal-caller is exactly what the Cavaliers need, especially after the failed Colandrea experiment of a young, sometimes-erratic quarterback leading the charge. There’s no better example of the unpredictability that accompanies a largely new roster than Arizona State. The Big 12 preseason poll projected the Sun Devils to finish dead last. Aside from a measly three votes in week four, they wouldn’t sniff the AP Poll until week eight — when Arizona State found itself third in the “others receiving votes” category. But the team
in Tempe became difficult to ignore, as the Sun Devils took down No. 16 Utah, No. 16 Kansas State and No. 14 BYU. The regular season culminated in a 49-7 rout of Arizona, a 78-point swing from the same game just one year prior.
Arizona State’s 10-2 regular season earned it a spot in the Big 12 Championship, and its 26-point victory there meant a bye into round two of the CFP. But outrage over a possible, uncalled targeting penalty in the loss against Texas masked the crux of Arizona State’s season.
It’s easy to lose the unfathomability of the Sun Devils’ season in that controversial, tight final loss. But the fact of the matter is that Arizona State and Dillingham pulled off one of the most improbable turnarounds in college football history.
Elliott’s situation is not an enviable one. Success in the portal does not guarantee success on the field, and every football season comes with a slew of unpredictabilities. But Arizona State proved that such a turnaround is possible. Dillingham took a losing team to the College Football Playoff. Can Tony Elliott do the same?
OPINION
LEAD EDITORIALS
Elect Honor representatives committed to transparency
Editor’s Note: The Cavalier Daily Editorial Board interviewed nine candidates for the position of Honor Committee representative. Each interview lasted approximately 15 minutes, and all candidates were asked the same baseline questions. The endorsements below are based solely on the content of these interviews.
This year, The Cavalier Daily Editorial Board endorses three candidates for the Honor Committee as College of Arts & Sciences representatives — third-year Seamus Oliver and second-years Henry Grieco and Jack Wallace. Over the past year, the Honor Committee has experienced challenges including a protracted processing timeline of 79 days and has struggled with the proportionality of sanctioning. These candidates displayed a commitment to actively ameliorating these challenges. Moreover, they demonstrated a wholly restorative and inclusive vision for the Committee, one focused on transparency, faculty engagement and student accessibility. In short, we are confident that these candidates’ multidimensional
The Editorial Board endorses three candidates running for Honor Committee representative
approach to stakeholders will boost community buy-in writ large. Oliver, the current Vice Chair for Investigations, has established himself as an astute policymaker and steward of the Community of Trust. His focus on faculty outreach, as well as his desire to have difficult conversations with organizations historically antagonized by the Committee, represent the exact steps the Committee must take to restore its community buy-in. Furthermore, he shared with us a plan to reform the Investigations process and implement multiple by-laws that could lessen the pressure upon Honor and community members while also decreasing the Committee’s mounting case processing time. Oliver’s thoughtful proposals — and his willingness to share them — embody the transparency that student self-governance thrives upon. While changing the process around the Committee is difficult, it is also necessary, and Oliver demonstrated the institutional knowledge that will make these changes relevant and lasting.
Grieco currently serves as a Senior Counsel and has exercised his belief in the restorative power of Honor through his work on the Sanctioning Working Group. This group works to remedy the sanctioning gap — the substantial split between severe measures such as suspension and methods like a Restorative Ethics Seminar. Grieco’s efforts to find solutions are indicative of his desire to increase student buy-in to Honor by developing restorative measures proportional to a variety of infractions. Grieco also recognized the importance of faculty as another stakeholder with which the Committee must engage, one whose participation in the Honor process is simultaneously critical to cases and inhibited by case processing time. Additionally, Grieco acknowledged the failings of the Honor Committee in years past, specifically as it relates to soliciting the trust of minority groups on Grounds. Grieco is a candidate who has reflected on the limitations of the past system to understand how to
improve its presentation to stakeholders going forward.
Wallace is also an active member of the Sanctions Working Group, as well as the Data and Research Subcommittee. In the former group, Wallace exhibited an acute awareness of the sanctioning gap and demonstrated his commitment to proportionality by acknowledging how the increase in the severity of an infraction all too often leads to a less specific sanction for the student. Thus, he advocated for more tailored responses to Honor violations irrespective of severity. Wallace also understood that a humanization of the Committee was necessary to ensure buy-in from the community. He recognized the need to further meet with members of the community and better educate them as to the Honor process to clarify the Committee as a body for, rather than against, its stakeholders. Empowering the Committee’s relation to its community, Wallace displays intentional thinking that will protect the multi-sanction system in coming years.
Last year, the previous Editorial Board feared that, following the advent of multi-sanction, Honor had become complacent, uncreative and ahistorical. Oliver, Grieco and Wallace have assuaged these concerns in a fundamentally sound way. Each candidate has looked to the past to gain a comprehensive understanding of the Honor system and has also exhibited forward-thinking solutions to the Committee’s present challenges. In doing so, these candidates have developed strategic pathways for turning a once-exclusionary body into a platform accessible to all stakeholders. For these reasons, we believe that these three candidates will promote a restorative and transparent Honor Committee.
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.
Elect Student Council representatives that advocate for students
The Editorial Board endorses four candidates running for Student Council representative
Editor’s Note: The Cavalier Daily Editorial Board interviewed seven candidates for the position of Student Council representative. Each interview lasted approximately 15 minutes, and all candidates were asked the same baseline questions. The endorsements below are based solely on the content of these interviews.
Travis is one of the current representatives of the Student Council.
A passionate defender of necessary student services like the transit system, equitable access has been the
This year, The Cavalier Daily Editorial Board is endorsing four candidates running for Student Council College of Arts and Sciences representative — secondyear College students Brian Ng, Ian Travis and Jackson Sleadd and third-year College student Imane Akhanous. During their time on Student Council, each candidate has made significant impacts on student life by spearheading initiatives for financial sustainability and accessibility. Furthermore, they passionately established their focus on the protection of student resources through bargaining with administration. We are confident in the candidates’ abilities to take on adversity in an increasingly tense environment for student selfgovernance, leveraging collective action to deliver practical results in the University community. Ng has served as a Student Council representative since his first semester on Grounds. In his capacity, his leadership has been characterized by fierce advocacy on the behalf of students. Ng’s wide range of passions, from lobbying for student safety to improving dining, prove that he will be a sincerely thoughtful representative of student interests at all levels. Additionally, his vast organizational knowledge of Student Council is especially relevant because it establishes a historicized framework for tangible student initiatives. Crucially, Ng has thought ahead as to the current relationship between student self-governance and Board of Visitors, determining key areas for growth in the bargaining power and collective action of students. The Student Council would be lucky to retain such a vibrant leader as Ng as it enters a new term and seeks to uphold student interests.
cornerstone of Travis’s platform. Consistently, Travis prioritized a vision of Student Council that makes its services accessible and easily understood by community members. He aspires to promote larger changes to the Council’s structure that will consolidate committees, fostering a culture of collaboration in order to address key institutional challenges. This progressive approach prioritizes internal changes to improve efficiency and further inspire improvement to the Student Council’s available resources. Travis’s readiness to balance accessible resources with common-sense reorganization promises lasting, student-centered change on Grounds.
Sleadd’s current experience as a College representative, as well as his goals for this upcoming term, present a prepared and enthusiastic candidate. His dedication to making internal improvements to Student Council’s efficiency and ensuring an external response to student needs demonstrates an effective approach to Student Council. By implementing committees tailored to specific topics such as nutrition or housing, Sleadd has thought intentional-
ly about building out the Student Council internally to be a more effective bargaining organization. Furthermore, Sleadd thoroughly emphasizes the importance of practical, student-centered initiatives in his role. With his enthusiasm to pass resolutions catered to specific solutions for student needs, he believes the Student Council can improve its influence while refining its internal structure. We are confident in Sleadd’s leadership to strengthen the Student Council’s productivity.
Akhanous has served on the Student Council since her first year with experience as a representative and Chair of Community Concerns respectively. Motivated by the gap between student needs and the work that Student Council provides, she hopes to prioritize tangible gains for students. Akhanous especially emphasizes her goals to create a more equitable University through housing, dining and student accessibility. Akhanous’s willingness to leverage student voices through collective action is emblematic of her overarching desire to bargain for students as comprehensively as possible, and in doing so, maximize the efficacy
of the Student Council. With her advocacy skills and clear commitment to student needs, the Editorial Board is confident in Akhanous’s leadership.
We write these endorsements in a period of significant political polarization on Grounds, where a degree of mistrust characterizes the relationship between administrators and students. Categorically, these candidates represent the qualities necessary to protect Student Council from administrative overreach and to bargain for student interests. While they acknowledge the threat to self-governance, these candidates promise to use their agency to fight it. The Editorial Board is confident that Ng, Travis, Sleadd and Akhanous will continue to work for practical improvements to student life on Grounds through collective action.
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
Choose UJC representatives who believe in internal reform
Editor’s Note: The Editorial Board interviewed 12 candidates for University Judiciary Committee representative. The endorsements below are based solely on the content of these interviews.
This year, The Cavalier Daily Editorial Board endorses four candidates running for University Judiciary Committee representative — third-year College student Allison McVey, first-year College student Rose Maggio, second-year College student Zach Davidson and third-year Batten student Ella Abney. All of these candidates presented innovative suggestions to strengthen UJC’s internal processes. At this moment, this focus on internal, institutional reform is essential — UJC has taken on more complex cases, and their case processing time has soared as a result. Through holistic perspectives on safety and strategies for internal review, each candidate exhibited values which will improve upon UJC’s reputation.
McVey is currently serving as the Vice Chair for Sanctions and has been a representative for the College for the past two years.
The Editorial Board endorses four candidates running for University Judiciary Committee representative
Her time in UJC has given her a knowledgeable perspective on the inner workings of the organization, specifically as such workings relate to transparency. For example, her goal of promoting transparency such as in appeals processes will prove useful for fostering student buy-in. In addition to this, McVey discussed safety in a nuanced manner, cognizant of the threat of hazing and UJC’s role in adjudicating this safety violation. By correcting internal resolution processes, she believes UJC not only has the power to curb hazing, but also to address criticism of UJC from people who may doubt the efficacy of student self-governance.
McVey’s understanding of UJC’s internal processes will improve UJC as an institution and will foster external buy-in.
Maggio is presently on the First Year Judiciary Committee, where her experience with firstyear students has cultivated an admirable focus on promoting student safety. Instead of simply focusing on the adjudication of hazing, Maggio suggested that a ballooned processing time can be
addressed with a robust, internal analysis of whether UJC’s policies and sanctions have a tangible impact on hazing culture. Through this review, she hopes that UJC can become more transparent. Additionally, Maggio recognized that ongoing threats to student speech and self-governance constitute a threat to student safety. As such, she believes that UJC must take a more active role in the maintenance of both. We applaud her holistic understanding of student safety and believe that this perspective will prove invaluable to UJC.
Davidson currently serves as a counselor for UJC, and in his time, he has been committed to learning and understanding UJC’s processes. In discussing case processing time, Davidson emphasized the need to correct inefficiencies in the committee’s internal organization. He proposed changes to the committee’s meeting design and group structure that are both promising and realistic. With such changes, Davidson aims to increase UJC’s capacity to process cases while reducing its case processing time.
Davidson also recognized UJC’s difficulty in recruiting low-income and first-generation representation among its members. In this way, Davidson’s internal focus was supplemented by his value for representative leadership. Davidson’s vision for internal efficiency and representation will work to promote a committee that is truly representative of the student body.
Abney is currently a UJC Representative for Batten. Like Davidson, she hopes to further improve the representative nature of UJC positions by recruiting more low-income students. Abney also articulated a practical way to promote it — financial assistance which makes UJC more accessible to students. Serving as the chair of UJC’s Endowment Committee, Abney is positioned to make this position a reality. Moreover, Abney’s understanding of UJC’s finances includes a desire to achieve financial independence for the committee. Such a goal is admirable, considering that the financial independence of UJC would protect it from threats to the existence
HUMOR
of student self-governance. With a comprehensive sense of UJC’s financial realities, we are confident that Abney will be an excellent advocate for the sustainability of UJC.
All four of these candidates articulated practical ideas to better promote the internal sustainability of UJC. They advocated for policies which advance the organization’s internal processes in the hopes of fulfilling their duty to the student body. Moreover, each candidate paired a realistic interpretation of threats to student self-governance with tangible initiatives to strengthen the UJC. We have no doubt that each candidate is capable of achieving their stated goals, and students can be confident that each endorsed candidate will conscientiously represent the student body’s values in UJC.
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.
U.Va. announces new course offerings embracing AI for Fall 2025
Editor’s note: This article is a humor column.
Following feedback from students’ course evaluations, the University announced Wednesday that it will be offering three new classes for Fall 2025 — “History of CavMan,” “Clemons 2 Bathrooms: A Cultural Exploration” and “Misinformation Studies.” In a rapidly-changing world of artificial intelligence, these courses aim to better reflect the student experience by minimizing effort while focusing on topics relevant to life at the University. Each class will count as a “wild card” general education course for any of the four firstyear Engagements categories.
After noticing a lack of engagement and a strange prevalence of unnecessarily complicated words in essay submissions during Fall 2024, professors realized that there were mysterious forces at play. Artificial intelligence has infiltrated every aspect of students’ lives, and many professors who only recently figured out how to press buttons on Zoom were at a loss with how they could adapt. 34 administrative meetings later,
faculty members came to the consensus that further investigation was needed. Dr. Allie Gorithm, Director of Undergraduate Academics and computer science professor, was sent to the depths of the Rotunda’s basement, where a dust-covered computer stores thousands of course evaluations.
“The faculty played nose-goes and I was busy drinking my venti white mocha, quad shot, with 22 pumps of caramel,” Dr. Gorithm said. “So I was chosen to retrieve fifty of last semester’s course evals. It was … scary. I could almost hear students’ angry screams echoing, echoing, echoing…”
Analysis of student feedback dating from the release of ChatGPT in November 2022 was used to curate the three new academic courses. The most frequent complaint regarding history courses was that they contained “too many long readings with PDFs we can’t copy and paste into ChatGPT to summarize.”
Dr. Warren Peace, professor of modern world history, wasn’t surprised at the findings, which he views as consistent with broader
trends.
“I’m used to students occasionally skipping readings, but nothing like this,” Peace said. “Last week, I assigned 20 pages. Students began pounding their fists on the tiny lecture hall desks, demanding I give them a recording they could listen to at two-times speed while watching TikToks of dachshund puppies.”
In response, Dr. Peace is teaching a new course that reimagines history — “HIST 1110: History of CavMan.”
Ignoring CavMan’s true historical record, students will use AI to fabricate a compelling yet inaccurate version of his past — from his alleged role in co-founding the University to battles with Hokie spies.
To ease concerns about workload, students will not be expected to read through the AI responses, and because CavMan himself doesn’t speak, the class will be a discussion-free environment.
Another grievance found in the evaluations was shared across departments in the College of Arts and Sciences, centering on the amount of research required to write papers.
An anonymous student wrote, “having to find three credible sources instead of getting Chat to do it for me is worse than having to do a thousand Duo Pushes in a row.”
Dr. Biblee O. Graffe, professor of anthropology, commented on this criticism.
“I guess AI can package all the information for your essay into a neat paragraph,” Graffe said. “Even if it lacks real evidence, or tells you to eat rocks.”
Recognizing the growing role of AI in research, the University has introduced two new courses that integrate AI inquiry — “ANTH 2000: Clemons 2 Bathrooms — A Cultural Exploration” and “MDST 2202: Misinformation Studies”.
In ANTH 2000, instead of traditional research, students must use ChatGPT to create sweeping generalizations about the restroom culture and social hierarchies in Clemons 2. They will submit a transcript of their AI conversations as their only assignment. However, similar to HIST 1110, students will not be required to discuss or engage with their findings.
MDST 2202 will involve students asking AI imaginary prompts, like “write a letter from the Jefferson Society endorsing a University squirrel for president” or “write a report detailing how Chick-fil-A milkshakes cure frat flu.” Then, students will be required to print out hundreds of copies of these responses — paying for the printing costs themselves — and post them around Grounds.
“Our hope is that by actively engaging in misinformation instead of studying it, students will gain a better experience,” Graffe said.
University administrators expressed optimism about the offerings, noting interest levels were promising.
“Students have been remarkably engaged — many have even emailed expressing their excitement,” Dr. Gorithm said. “All the emails sound suspiciously similar, but we’ll take it.”
NIKITHA PRABHU is a humor columnist for The Cavalier Daily. She can be reached at humor@cavalierdaily.com
