Police in Charlottesville continue their search for a suspect in the rape of a young woman on the UVA campus early Saturday morning. She was pulled from a sidewalk by a man wielding a knife. It was an unhappy reminder of a problem that has plagued universities nationwide.
To address the risk of sexual assault and the prevalence of binge drinking, administrators tried something new this year – hoping to protect incoming freshmen.
The Wertland Street block party is an off-campus tradition – a place where alcohol flows freely and underage drinking has proven a problem, so this year university president Teresa Sullivan wrote a letter asking parents of freshmen to discourage their kids from attending – and UVA planned a party of its own.
It provided free tickets to a concert by the hip hop artist J.Cole, hired a deejay to play outside the Aquatics and Fitness Center where food trucks served free funnel cakes, snow cones, cotton candy and pizza.
Inside, there were giant blow up toys for bouncing, a virtual graffiti wall and mini-golf.
“This is so much fun. It brings you back to before you had to deal with all the issues like applying to college, high school. It brings you back to your childhood." said one freshman. Others praised "free pizza’s" as a " great attraction. They got music – pretty much everything you look for at a party. Knowing that I had something to do with my fellow first years the first night that we were here was definitely beneficial. I got to meet a ton of people just like waiting in line to get into places. The Space Walk and the free food. I love it! The free funnel cakes are number one. That’s for sure. There’s no reason to go to the block party. We went to the J. Cole concert and went bouncey house jumping and playing games and stuff. I’m a long way from home – about 6 or 7 hours – and after about an hour or two at UVA, I haven’t missed it. I’m very glad to be here.”
Some were also swayed by what their elders had to say.
“My mom didn’t talk to me specifically about the block party," said one freshman, "but I had a talk with her about being safe and good choices and the kind of person I wanted to be here. I said I was going to Wertland, and she said, ‘Okay, I don’t want you to, but if you do make sure you’re safe about it.’ She gave me the talk about it. I got that speech from ten different people: ‘Don’t drink and stay in groups.’ Stay away from the boys. Our resident advisor has stressed to us, along with multiple upperclassmen, to always have a buddy, stay in a group. Just as long as you’re not alone. We watch each other – make sure we’re all good.”
Meanwhile, those who ventured over to Wertland Street said they were disappointed.
“Especially for first years, if you don’t know anybody what’s the point really? Yeah, what’s the appeal? This right here is better than what they had at the block party, because at the block party it tends to get crowded, and people are throwing beer bottles everywhere. You have to stay off the streets, because there’s a lot of police officers out. Yes, they did a good job of keeping it at a lower level than previous years. My friends are texting me. They’re like: ‘It’s really bad!’”
Even so, an estimated 4,000 people attended the block party – down from 6,000 last year according to police who made two arrests and wrote 19 tickets for underage possession of alcohol, drinking from an open container, littering and public urination.
Thanks to Shimara Jordan, Khadijah Watson, Lamaria Glass, Jarhonda Roberts, Austin Mysinger, Dhaval Patel, Hao Tian, Minjea Kim, Geo Lee, Alvin Barnes, Salman Guliwala, Advit Kulkar and Charlie Preston for sharing the party with us.