Students are returning to the University of Virginia in Charlottesville this week. The progressive college-town was struck by violence when hundreds marched on campus, carrying torches and chanting Nazi slogans. That’s left some students and families concerned.
Unpacking a mini fridge and bottled Gatorades, Regina Ahiable is helping her younger brother move in for his first year at the University of Virginia. She says one of the ways they prepared, was by talking about last week’s white supremacist rally.
“It just made you, you know, raise some eyebrows about like safety concerns around the area. But you can’t not come to school because of that,” says Ahiable with a shrug.
Across campus, Sylvia Booth agrees not coming to school isn’t an option. So she’s here, unloading her daughter’s things. But last weekend’s rally also convinced her to come prepared, by developing an emergency action plan for her daughter.
“She’s going to call her godmother in Richmond, and then she’ll get here so she can grab her. And we’ll meet her at her house,” Booth describes. “But I want someone to get to her quicker than I could get to her.”
And after videos went viral of hundreds marching through the University’s campus, carrying torches and chanting Nazi slogans, Booth was shaken.
“But I’m trying to be proactive and not reactive, because I really felt like it should have been some more security in place,” Booth says. “Especially on Friday night, when I saw what happened on campus. That should have never happened.”
In a public letter, UVA president Teresa Sullivan said safety is the school’s biggest priority. She’s created a task force to review the policies that allowed white nationalists to march on campus without requesting a permit.
The school has also hired an outside firm to review their security procedures and suggest improvements.
Sullivan urged students to cancel off-campus parties that tend to dominate the social scene during the first week. The letter, and advice, was reassuring to Paul Sita. He passed the message along to his freshman daughter.
“And we told her to avoid (off-campus parties), like the school president had asked, and to participate in the on-campus activities,” Sita says. “And we gave her the overall stay safe speech when going to college, there’s nothing different from last week.”
But at the university’s rotunda, an iconic white dome designed by Thomas Jefferson, there is something different. Virginia’s flag stands at half mast, and white roses have been left on the ground.
Sitting on a bench nearby, Junior Anna Bostwick says Charlottesville still feels like home.
“I mean everyone is just really heartbroken and sad and scared to go back, but I’m hoping that this kind of fuels more student activism and I think a lot of my friends and I are excited to be back here to be more active politically,” Bostwick says. “We have a nationwide platform now, and we should use that for good.”
Bostwick hopes every freshman starting at the University of Virginia this week will find the same safe and welcoming home she’s found.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
