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THE CAVALIER DAILY Vol. 130, Issue 15 Thursday, December 5, 2019 KHUYEN DINH & EMMA KLEIN | THE CAVALIER DAILY ADVERTISEMENT 2 | www.cavalierdaily.com The Cavalier Daily NEWS This week in-brief CD News Staff U.Va. partners with Wil- Student Council’s Air- liam & Mary to reach car- Bus runs at full capacity bon neutrality by 2030 During winter break this year, Student Coun- cil will continue to run a discounted shuttle ser- The University’s Office of Sustainability has re- vice from Grounds to the Dulles and Richmond leased a statement in conjunction with the College airports. The AirBus program is in its second year of William & Mary outlining a joint effort to have of operation since being reinstated. An earlier ver- zero net greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. sion of the service was in operation several years These two institutions plan to share information ago. and resources to achieve carbon neutrality. They in- Since its return, the AirBus service has run tend to collaborate on internal engagement oppor- EMMA KLEIN | THE CAVALIER DAILY U.Va. met carbon reduction goals six years early. shuttles to both Dulles International Airport in COURTESY WIKIMEDIA COMMONS tunities as well as outreach initiatives in the greater Washington, D.C. and the Richmond Internation- $15 AirBus shuttle service helped students travel. Virginia area and within other higher education al Airport to help students get home for breaks. institutions. Additionally, they lowered the prices of the shut- Although now choosing to work collaboratively with William & Mary, the University has tle from $20 to $15 to be more competitive with other bussing services between Charlottes- been working to reduce its carbon footprint for nearly the last decade. This renewed commit- ville and D.C. or Richmond. ment to be a climate-conscious university follows an independent plan enacted in 2011, when the For Thanksgiving break this year, all 55 seats to Dulles were filled, and only 7 spots -re Board of Visitors approved a plan committed to reducing the University’s 2009 carbon emission mained on the bus to Richmond on Friday. For winter break, the December 18th shuttle to levels by 25 percent by 2025. The University’s Committee on Sustainability announced at a Board Dulles reached maximum capacity within a couple weeks of going on sale, and a second bus meeting in September that this goal is set to be reached by the end of this year, six years ahead was added. of schedule. Funding for the AirBus program is procured from the Student Activity Fee money. This In anticipation of this achievement, the University is striving to decrease its greenhouse gas year, the Student Council requested around $8,000, but they plan to return $6,000 to the emissions further through this joint commitment with the College of William & Mary. SAF pool since many students are registered to use the shuttle service this year. 11.17 11.27 12.03 12.05 University com- Changes introduced mission to deter- to Lighting of the mine future of Lawn George Rogers The Lighting of the Lawn Clark statue Committee, made up from students in all the Class Councils, has decided upon The future of a monument depict- several changes to be made in order to ing Revolutionary War general George make the Lighting of the Lawn a more Rogers Clark as the “Conqueror of the accessible and inclusive experience for Northwest” is currently being discussed COURTESY WIKIMEDIDA COMMONS all students. Removal or recontextualization discussed for statue on Grounds. The University will be host- by the University’s Commission on the RICHARD DIZON | THE CAVALIER DAILY University in the Age of Segregation. ing the 18th annual Lighting of the The Committee looks to the event more inclusive and sustainable. In November, the George Rogers Lawn Dec. 5, a highlight of the school Clark statue, which depicts the general on horseback confronting a group of Native Americans, year that was created in the wake of the was found vandalized. The University has the power to make decisions regarding the statue be- Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. Lighting of the cause it is located on University grounds. Lawn has long been an opportunity to bring together both the Charlottesville and University Deputy University Spokesperson Wes Hester declined to give an official University statement communities, with over 15,000 attendees each year celebrating the holiday event. on the monument and said that the Commission on the University in the Age of Segregation This year, the Committee has brought about changes to ensure that the 2019 event has been tasked with considering the matter and making recommendations. This commission, is “the brightest one yet.” New LED string lights will illuminate the Lawn, Pavilions and the which includes faculty, staff, students and members of the Charlottesville and greater Albemarle Rotunda, and the Committee has made sustainability a main priority in this year’s event. communities, was created in February 2018 by former University President Teresa Sullivan in the This year, electricity for the light show will be supplied entirely by solar power to aftermath of the violent white nationalist rallies in Charlottesville. reduce resources. This change follows the success of last year, which saw the introduction of “Although the commission … is not in a position to represent the University’s policy here, I do some solar power. LOTL will also be a zero-waste event, with composting stations provided by think there’s a general consensus by the commission that the George Rogers Clark monument is the University’s office of sustainability. one that should … top any list for removal or recontextualization,” said Kirt von Daacke, an assis- tant dean of History and co-chair of the Commission on the University in the Age of Segregation. NEWS Thursday, December 5, 2019 | 3 Prof. Jalane Schmidt reflects on scholarship, activism After dismissal of a defamation lawsuit, Schmidt questions the relationship between public engagement and traditional scholarship at the University Ali Sullivan | Senior Associate Editor A month after the dismissal of a morials and Public Spaces — a task Right rally of August 2017, Schmidt politician and banker William Tayloe ty member, meaning that University defamation lawsuit brought against force dedicated to recommending has continued to interweave her Murphy, Sr., which were established counsel could not represent her. This her in late May, Assoc. Prof. Jalane future action for the statues of Rob- scholarship and activism, leading through an anonymous $1 million do- decision came down June 3 — just Schmidt has begun to question the ert E. Lee and Thomas J. “Stonewall” walking tours of local Confederate nation. Tayloe Murphy was a member four days after the plaintiff served relationship between public engage- Jackson. monuments and attending hearings of the Gray Commission, which led Schmidt with his complaint. ment and traditional scholarship at After the report’s Dec. 2016 re- of the Monument Fund v. Charlottesville the Massive Resistance effort against In response to this decision, Eng- the University. lease, City Council voted to relocate lawsuit. desegregation after the 1954 Brown v. lish prof. Herbert Tucker and Law Schmidt, who doubles as a local the Lee statue in Feb. 2017. The Lawsuit Board of Education ruling. prof. Anne Coughlin sent letters activist, was sued alongside C-VILLE “It was by then that I started to During these proceedings, Appointed by Virginia Governor to the University to voice their con- Weekly News Editor Lisa Provence feel like a scholar activist,” Schmidt Schmidt noticed two members of Thomas B. Stanley in 1954, the Gray cerns. University President Jim Ryan and C-VILLE Holdings, LLC for her said. “After months of the BRC the League of the South — a South- Commission released its final report and Provost Elizabeth Magill wrote comments in a March 6 C-VILLE meetings, I had so many more con- ern white nationalist organization — Dec. 1955, which recommended that back Sept. 17 to explain the DRM’s Weekly article titled, “The plaintiffs: tacts in the community by then, and who were also members of the Sons laws be amended so as to not require ruling. Who’s who in the fight to keep Con- it seemed natural to join with these of Confederate Veterans, an organi- children to attend integrated schools, “In this case, it was our view the federate monuments.” The article, friends ... not only in City Council zation of which many plaintiffs were that state government provide tu- [sic] Professor Schmidt’s statements written by Provence, profiles the 13 for that decisive vote, but then after members. ition grants to children attending were within her employment as a plaintiffs in the Monument Fund v. that, in the parks and streets and When Provence published these private, all-white schools to avoid professor,” the letter reads. “In dis- Charlottesville case. cussions with DRM, we expressed the The plaintiff, Edward Dickinson view that Professor Schmidt’s state- Tayloe II, alleged his profile conveyed ments were consistent with her role defamatory implications. as a professor and therefore within “There's just this catalogue of en- the scope of her employment.” tanglements that this family has that Although University policy states has been harmful to black peoples’ that “academic faculty have the free lives, so I said this family's been roil- speech right to address in any forum ing black peoples’ lives for centuries, any matter that is of social, political, and then given all this, this is what economic, or other interest to the this plaintiff is pursuing,” Schmidt larger community,” the DRM ruled said. that the University could neither de- The suit, filed in May, was dis- fend nor pay any judgement if one missed by Judge Claude Worrell in were to result from the suit.