Articles released by Cecilia Carreras and Whitney Ralston sparked campus outcry earlier this year around the University’s mishandling of sexual assault reports. Students rallied around the alleged victims and began petitioning to establish a sexual assault response and prevention center on campus as well as revising the sexual assault reporting process. To express their disapproval UR students coordinated one of the school’s largest “Take Back the Night” gatherings, covered the university with posters and chalk messages during family weekend and organized a demonstration at a football game. Similar outrage was expressed on UVa’s campus in 2014 when a Rolling Stones article detailed an alleged gang rape of a freshman girl by several fraternity brothers. In response, students erupted into immediate protests, most notably the “slut walk”. VCU has also struggled with sexual assault allegations on their campus, but student reactions have been much different. During the first week of their 2016 fall semester, three sexual assaults were reported to VCU police. While students expressed their fear and personal safety issues, their disappointment was not directed towards the school, and there were no large protests or demonstrations.
After the election of Donald Trump, university communities across the state of Virginia mobilized to express their anger at the results of the election. While on the campus of VCU, there were protests featuring prepared signs and a large number of students gathering around Monroe Park, the reaction at UR was somewhat more silent. Though there was a protest, it featured a small portion of faculty and students walking outside Boatwright, without the same critical mass or presence of the community at VCU. To some extent, this does not seem to reflect the actual opinion of the students at UR. Though a poll would probably support the statement that most of UR was upset by the results of the November election, the impetus to protest manifested itself, if at all, in joining protests in other parts of the city. One reason to explain this difference may be that students at UR tend to live in dorms far from their home states. By contrast, students at VCU tend to lease apartments in the city where they reside even if school is not in session. Students at VCU may feel more engaged in localized action because they are more invested in the locality where they attend school. This is further supported by the size of the UVA protests. While not as large as those at VCU, they still drew a larger crowd than those at UR. This could be explained by the fact that UVA students are integrated with Charlottesville in a similar manner to the way VCU students are integrated with the city of Richmond. UR, because it is isolated, has fewer students that protest and if they do, they tend to join other protests in the city. This observation could be summed up by stating that students that are more integrated with the locality in which they attend school are more likely to protest than those at an isolated campus far from where most students permanently reside. UR students tend to let issues fade, while students more permanently invested in their academic locality tend to protest more.
I agree with you that the lack of political activism from UR students can be explained in part by our tendency to live on campus, which is pretty isolated from the city of Richmond. The “Richmond bubble” many of us live in keeps us unaware of what occurs locally. I think it also has to do with the size of our student body compared to VCU and UVA. VCU and UVA have about 24,000 and 16,000 undergrads, respectively. Students there are more likely to find others who care about the same issues. While at UR it is also possible to find other students who care about the same issues there are not as many who are willing to do something active about it. Erin mentioned the annual Take Back the Night event which has recently garnered more student attendance. In the past that has been one of the more attended events and it is a big event on campuses nationwide. Sexual assault is also an issue that affects a large portion of college students. I think UR students show up to Take Back the Night in larger numbers because most students either have or know someone who has been a victim of sexual assault.
What I have noticed recently is that college students are worried about policy changes that have already occurred or may occur under the Trump administration. People are worried about the future of women’s reproductive rights, immigrant rights, lbgtq rights, healthcare, the environment. The protest you wrote about that happened last semester outside of the library was actually a march. It was the “I Support” march for students and faculty to show what issues they cared about. In an email I received about the march Professor Ladelle McWhoreter wrote that the purpose of the march was “to educate the campus community about what is at stake and to give everybody information on how they can get involved in issues that concern them.” It was a small demonstration but people left their “I Support” signs on the lawn for a couple of days afterwards for anyone walking by to read what a small fraction of students and faculty at UR care about. Now that the election has passed and Trump has started to make of the changes he promised during his campaign we have seen more people get involved in protests. The Women’s March on Washington probably drew a larger crowd of UR students than the “I Support” march. In the past couple of days large crowds of people have gathered at airports across the nation to protest the immigration ban. I have seen one social media post from a UR student protesting at an aiport. After the women’s march I saw posts from many more students I know who went. There are UR students who feel strongly about the immigration ban and have not gone to an airport to protest yet they travelled to DC for the march. This does not necessarily mean they don’t care as much about the immigration ban. College students don’t have the ability to travel at any given moment for a protest. What I have seen more and more of my peers doing is being active through social media. Part of that is sharing posts or videos about the issues they care about. More importantly I have seen more posts from students with information about how to contact senators to voice their concerns for certain issues. I have also seen friends share information that was meant for green card holders affected by the ban and got stuck at an airport. A UR alum who deeply cares about immigrant rights and works for an organization that helps immigrants encouraged her friends to get involved in organizations that help people instead of just voicing their frustrations on a social media platform. Additionally I have noticed more student organizations have been created to bring students together such as the Queer and Trans Advocacy Coalition (QTAC) , Multicultural Student Solidarity Network (MSSN), and the Planned Parenthood Generation Action. So while VCU students and UVA students have confronted their issues more physically through protests, a small group of UR students has found other ways to act on the issues they care about.
With certain groups on campus, that racial inequities have been an issue discussed on campus. At the height of the Black Lives Matter popularity, we did host a demonstration outside the dining hall. Since that peak last year, cries against racial injustice have been a little more mute. There have been no demonstrations on campus, at least to my knowledge, and the focus has shifted more toward sexual assault awareness, an issue that is more intimately felt on our campus. Though there are still feelings of racial tension on campus, the recency of the movement against sexual assault, as well as the fact that there are more woman/ sexual assault victims than African American’s, has caused the Black Lives Matter movement to fall out of the consciousness of many students. Speaking for myself, as a white member of this campus, many of the racial issues on campus are not readily apparent to me because they are not directly felt by me. I have a feeling this is the case for many non-African Americans that are on campus. This has contributed to the decreased relevance of the movement. All of this taken together, we see that Black Lives matter is no longer the “vogue” movement on campus. The fact that we have not had a majorly publicized incident of injustice against a member of the black community on campus has not helped the Black Lives Matter traction on campus. UVA’s campus has had a more intimate brush with racial inequality than the University of Richmond’s campus has. Last year Martese Johnson, a 20 year old black male, was beaten up be police officers while trying to get into a bar. He was beaten to a point where he was bleeding out of injuries on his head while police were apprehending him. This was an instance of racial inequality and racial violence at home for UVA students. More recently a professor compared BLM to the KKK and was asked to take leave as a result. We also have instances of more than one UVA student believing the old slavery trope “black people don’t feel pain” . We see a pattern of racial inequalities around UVA. This is likely why, even though the height of the BLM movement has passed, we still see protests against racial inequalities. The injustices occurring are egregious enough and noticeable enough, where the common sensibilities of the students are offended. That is why they continue to protest.
Kelly Quinn
Articles released by Cecilia Carreras and Whitney Ralston sparked campus outcry earlier this year around the University’s mishandling of sexual assault reports. Students rallied around the alleged victims and began petitioning to establish a sexual assault response and prevention center on campus as well as revising the sexual assault reporting process. To express their disapproval UR students coordinated one of the school’s largest “Take Back the Night” gatherings, covered the university with posters and chalk messages during family weekend and organized a demonstration at a football game. Similar outrage was expressed on UVa’s campus in 2014 when a Rolling Stones article detailed an alleged gang rape of a freshman girl by several fraternity brothers. In response, students erupted into immediate protests, most notably the “slut walk”. VCU has also struggled with sexual assault allegations on their campus, but student reactions have been much different. During the first week of their 2016 fall semester, three sexual assaults were reported to VCU police. While students expressed their fear and personal safety issues, their disappointment was not directed towards the school, and there were no large protests or demonstrations.
Harry Hoke
After the election of Donald Trump, university communities across the state of Virginia mobilized to express their anger at the results of the election. While on the campus of VCU, there were protests featuring prepared signs and a large number of students gathering around Monroe Park, the reaction at UR was somewhat more silent. Though there was a protest, it featured a small portion of faculty and students walking outside Boatwright, without the same critical mass or presence of the community at VCU. To some extent, this does not seem to reflect the actual opinion of the students at UR. Though a poll would probably support the statement that most of UR was upset by the results of the November election, the impetus to protest manifested itself, if at all, in joining protests in other parts of the city. One reason to explain this difference may be that students at UR tend to live in dorms far from their home states. By contrast, students at VCU tend to lease apartments in the city where they reside even if school is not in session. Students at VCU may feel more engaged in localized action because they are more invested in the locality where they attend school. This is further supported by the size of the UVA protests. While not as large as those at VCU, they still drew a larger crowd than those at UR. This could be explained by the fact that UVA students are integrated with Charlottesville in a similar manner to the way VCU students are integrated with the city of Richmond. UR, because it is isolated, has fewer students that protest and if they do, they tend to join other protests in the city. This observation could be summed up by stating that students that are more integrated with the locality in which they attend school are more likely to protest than those at an isolated campus far from where most students permanently reside. UR students tend to let issues fade, while students more permanently invested in their academic locality tend to protest more.
Adriana Toledo
I agree with you that the lack of political activism from UR students can be explained in part by our tendency to live on campus, which is pretty isolated from the city of Richmond. The “Richmond bubble” many of us live in keeps us unaware of what occurs locally. I think it also has to do with the size of our student body compared to VCU and UVA. VCU and UVA have about 24,000 and 16,000 undergrads, respectively. Students there are more likely to find others who care about the same issues. While at UR it is also possible to find other students who care about the same issues there are not as many who are willing to do something active about it. Erin mentioned the annual Take Back the Night event which has recently garnered more student attendance. In the past that has been one of the more attended events and it is a big event on campuses nationwide. Sexual assault is also an issue that affects a large portion of college students. I think UR students show up to Take Back the Night in larger numbers because most students either have or know someone who has been a victim of sexual assault.
What I have noticed recently is that college students are worried about policy changes that have already occurred or may occur under the Trump administration. People are worried about the future of women’s reproductive rights, immigrant rights, lbgtq rights, healthcare, the environment. The protest you wrote about that happened last semester outside of the library was actually a march. It was the “I Support” march for students and faculty to show what issues they cared about. In an email I received about the march Professor Ladelle McWhoreter wrote that the purpose of the march was “to educate the campus community about what is at stake and to give everybody information on how they can get involved in issues that concern them.” It was a small demonstration but people left their “I Support” signs on the lawn for a couple of days afterwards for anyone walking by to read what a small fraction of students and faculty at UR care about. Now that the election has passed and Trump has started to make of the changes he promised during his campaign we have seen more people get involved in protests. The Women’s March on Washington probably drew a larger crowd of UR students than the “I Support” march. In the past couple of days large crowds of people have gathered at airports across the nation to protest the immigration ban. I have seen one social media post from a UR student protesting at an aiport. After the women’s march I saw posts from many more students I know who went. There are UR students who feel strongly about the immigration ban and have not gone to an airport to protest yet they travelled to DC for the march. This does not necessarily mean they don’t care as much about the immigration ban. College students don’t have the ability to travel at any given moment for a protest. What I have seen more and more of my peers doing is being active through social media. Part of that is sharing posts or videos about the issues they care about. More importantly I have seen more posts from students with information about how to contact senators to voice their concerns for certain issues. I have also seen friends share information that was meant for green card holders affected by the ban and got stuck at an airport. A UR alum who deeply cares about immigrant rights and works for an organization that helps immigrants encouraged her friends to get involved in organizations that help people instead of just voicing their frustrations on a social media platform. Additionally I have noticed more student organizations have been created to bring students together such as the Queer and Trans Advocacy Coalition (QTAC) , Multicultural Student Solidarity Network (MSSN), and the Planned Parenthood Generation Action. So while VCU students and UVA students have confronted their issues more physically through protests, a small group of UR students has found other ways to act on the issues they care about.
Samuel Blakley
With certain groups on campus, that racial inequities have been an issue discussed on campus. At the height of the Black Lives Matter popularity, we did host a demonstration outside the dining hall. Since that peak last year, cries against racial injustice have been a little more mute. There have been no demonstrations on campus, at least to my knowledge, and the focus has shifted more toward sexual assault awareness, an issue that is more intimately felt on our campus. Though there are still feelings of racial tension on campus, the recency of the movement against sexual assault, as well as the fact that there are more woman/ sexual assault victims than African American’s, has caused the Black Lives Matter movement to fall out of the consciousness of many students. Speaking for myself, as a white member of this campus, many of the racial issues on campus are not readily apparent to me because they are not directly felt by me. I have a feeling this is the case for many non-African Americans that are on campus. This has contributed to the decreased relevance of the movement. All of this taken together, we see that Black Lives matter is no longer the “vogue” movement on campus. The fact that we have not had a majorly publicized incident of injustice against a member of the black community on campus has not helped the Black Lives Matter traction on campus. UVA’s campus has had a more intimate brush with racial inequality than the University of Richmond’s campus has. Last year Martese Johnson, a 20 year old black male, was beaten up be police officers while trying to get into a bar. He was beaten to a point where he was bleeding out of injuries on his head while police were apprehending him. This was an instance of racial inequality and racial violence at home for UVA students. More recently a professor compared BLM to the KKK and was asked to take leave as a result. We also have instances of more than one UVA student believing the old slavery trope “black people don’t feel pain” . We see a pattern of racial inequalities around UVA. This is likely why, even though the height of the BLM movement has passed, we still see protests against racial inequalities. The injustices occurring are egregious enough and noticeable enough, where the common sensibilities of the students are offended. That is why they continue to protest.