Love’s legacy: Sullivan urges vigilance, voices at UVA
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For the September 24 Day of Dialogue, the Rotunda columns become a public art project called “Lines of Darkness and Light,” a meditation on the death of Yeardley Love.PHOTO BY LISA PROVENCE
Almost five months after the University of Virginia reeled from the brutal murder of one of its own, an air of mourning still pervades the Lawn. Columns of the Rotunda are clad in black veils on one end, and on the other, a preponderance of black-clad students, faculty, and staff stream into Old Cabell Hall for the start of the university’s Day of Dialogue: Toward a Caring Community.
The day is a continuance of a discussion that started May 3, said UVA President Teresa Sullivan. That was when the death of fourth-year Yeardley Love, a beautiful lacrosse star, rocked the university community and became a national story. Her former boyfriend, George Huguely, another lacrosse player, is charged with her murder.
“In a real sense, we are picking up from where we left off last May,” said Sullivan. “Those of us who weren’t in Charlottesville last May experienced Yeardley’s death from a distance, and even at a distance, it was heartbreaking.”
The September 24 Day of Dialogue was initiated by a student group called Let’s Get Grounded, and 1,500 registered to take part in discussions throughout the day that were closed to the media.
Sullivan noted that there were seven deaths of UVA students during the 2009-10 year— including a spelunker and an earthquake victim, as well as another murder victim: Virginia Tech student Morgan Harrington, who disappeared from a Metallica concert.
“For some of these deaths, we’re left to wonder whether we might have done something differently…. whether we could have intervened,” said Sullivan.
“We’ve seen horrible events here in Charlottesville,” said Sullivan. “We acknowledge that violence and abuse are international issues.”
UVA President Teresa Sullivan wants to “channel the energies of grief into a stronger, more caring community.”PHOTO BY LISA PROVENCE
She said she’s been offered differing opinions on proper response— ranging from not talking about the deaths at all to a suggestion that students should be armed on Grounds, a proposal that brought hearty applause from at least one member of the Old Cabell Hall audience.
Art, poetry, music, and dance are part of the day’s process, the most visible of which are the black-veiled columns on the Rotunda designed by UVA art and architecture professor Sanda Illiescu. Installed about a week ago, the veils would come down around 5pm to symbolically close the day’s events.
“Note the progression from first person singular to plural,” said Sullivan, as she framed the day’s key questions: Am I my brother’s/sister’s keeper, and are we a caring community?
“We live in a broken world, and we’re not going to fix it in six hours,” acknowledged Sullivan.
During the press conference following the opening session, WVTF’s Sandy Hausman asked Sullivan whether the event was “preaching to the converted.”
Sullivan pointed back to the student-initiated Let’s Get Grounded, with its goal of teaching people to recognize when something’s wrong in the community, and when to act.
“Very few things happen in complete secrecy in the university,” said Sullivan. “When do you have a responsibility to speak up?”
The new UVA president remained on her message.
“We’re not going to get rid of “anger, hatred, drug abuse and all the rest of the things that might be root causes,” she said, “but what we can do is at least be a little more responsive when we know it’s going on.”
I urge the University of Virginia to remind students of the importance of basic security precautions. Locking apartment doors is a basic way to look out for yourselves and your housemates but is often neglected by college students.
Students: LOCK your doors!
I might add that it’s important to report things when they happen. Even if you don’t get an arrest that prevents him from attacking someone else for awhile, then the cops will at least have that much more to go on for his next victim. Just look at how the Harrington case played out, the last victim’s report was the only thing that gives us an idea of who he is.
“Very few things happen in complete secrecy in the university,” said Sullivan. “When do you have a responsibility to speak up?”
NEW QUESTION: And when a student does speak up, what are you going to do??? THAT’S the real question that students want answered.
READTHEHOOK: Press her to answer that!
@JerseyK: When a woman reports an assault, the man’s DNA is not collected and no case is started to “track” his behavior. In a perfect world, the links would align, but in our current system, they do not.
Gail, while locking doors may prevent stranger danger, it doesn’t do much for acquaintance violence.
@MzFitz; and using the term “acquaintance violence” makes the crime appear less of a crime because the parties involved knew of each other. Call is what it is: violence. You don’t have to qualify it by using the term “acquaintance”.
@mama mia! I know! I hate it when people call me and my wife “kissing cousins”!
@Morris: Dumb remarks like yours are why there is never any productive dialogue. May your wife meet a UVA undergrad in a bar and be raped and sodomized. No one will care.
@Tinkerbell
This is the question that i am very interested in. How do you strike the correct balance? If someone gets a drunk and disorderly should they be monitored? What about someone who gets drunk and tells someone off in person or over the phone? Maybe if there is a drastic change in grades they should get counseling? How do you know which people are the ones who will snap without becoming a police state? Another important question that is always relevant, is where does the money come from for the additional surveillance and counseling?
@mama mia,
I don’t think anyone would say violence between people who know each other is any different they between strangers. I think using the term acquaintance is actually an important modifier. Most people think crime is always between strangers, where the opposite is actually true. It is sad, but people always need to be on guard.
@Logan: If a woman is raped by a stranger, everyone gasps. if a woman is raped by someone she knew, the police/public/media call it a he said-she said and the questions begin (was it consensual, was there remorse the morning after). No, there is no reason to add the modifier “acquaintance” to the term violence. If a student goes to a professor for help at his office and he rapes her, it will be labeled acquaintance rape. Is it really acquaintance rape? No, it’s rape. And, the fact that you say people always need to be on guard, you are actually saying “women”. Women do not need to be stressed in every situation all day long.
@Logan: I think you are looking for an easy answer. I was referring to students who have been reported for assault, have been arrested in the community, have had several sexual encounters that fir the definition of rape. When a woman goes to the UVA Med Center for the morning after pill, she is asked if the sex was consensual. if she respond no, what does the desk nurse do? Nothing. When a student goes to the Dean of Students and reports a rape, what does the Dean do? Nothing. If a student is arrested for Obstruction of justice, what does the school do? Nothing. Go down the road to VA Tech — if a student there is arrested for Obstruction of Justice, they are hauled into a judiciary board and monitored. Not at UVA.
@mama mia: It sounds like you have a different personal story then me. Personally, I think violence is violence and should be treated the same whether the victim knew their attacker or not. To me it is an awareness problem, and adding acquaintance helps increase awareness of this type of violence. Again, I think it is unfortunate, but to say that only women need to be vigilant is not true. Everyone should be aware of what is going on around them at all times.
@Tinkerbelle: To be honest, i am not all that familiar with the inner workings at UVA. I am sure that you can find cases where people did the wrong thing, but is/was it a systemic institutional problem or is/was it a bad decision at the time. If they really don’t treat these things seriously that is a major problem and if it is indeed an institutional problem then that needs to change. If that is the case, I can only hope a change at the top will correct these kind of things.
As I stated above, we are all the creation of our experiences. I severed on a university judicial board where a rape victim recanted only after 3 weeks and a full and mostly public police investigation. I truly feel sorry for her and don’t think she was being vindictive. That said, the student who was accused really went through the ringer of police interviews and public damnation for those 3 weeks. By the way his name was leaked.
Does that mean we should not believe a rape victim, certainly not! But we also need to act with a level head and continue innocent until proven guilty and above all keep things private until we know the facts.
Yes, violence is violence, but without the modifiers you have people who continue to tout the use of deadbolts are the only way to stay safe as Gail did. Because the perpetrators of these types of violence have different motivations, it’s important to identify these accordingly for awareness and prevention.
It’s too bad that some folks see certain types of violence as less of a problem. Losing the identifiers isn’t going to make it go away.
@Logan; I see, you are part of the “most men are accused when they are really innocent.” Hmmmm… perhaps she did not recant, perhaps she was pressured to drop it because he had more money than she? because the police did not investigate the case properly so the Commonwealth had nothing to go on for criminal prosecution. Contact the woman now — see how the trauma she endured has affected her years later. If she made it up she won’t show signs of PTSD.
There’s another story for the Hook — have the followed up on any of the ‘big” rape cases to see where the women are and how they have coped with what happened to them? And what if we find that 5-10 years out these women are still afraid, suffer from anxiety, panic attacks, and so forth? Are they just data for a chart or are there lessons to be learned. The new UVA President should give that some thought.
You have already played Judge and jury — the original question was, what does UVA do with the information about violence once they receive it? Since you were part of a judicial board you already know and have experienced the answer: nothing!
Geez, mama mia! sounds like that mother of the student who was raped. What was her name? She also objected to terms such as “domestic violence” for the same idiosyncratic reasons and posted heated responses whenever anyone reasonably disagreed.
May your wife meet a UVA undergrad in a bar and be raped and sodomized. No one will care.
****
Well, that’s constructive dialogue.
Tinkerbelle, interesting website you have connected with your first post. Visited the site and the site connected with the alleged. Strange that all the faces on the site were MEN!! Go figure.