BLACK STUDENTS CONSIDERING UVA LAW- PLEASEEE DONT COME HERE- Save your $$$ and sanity (read below)
I have been debating for about a week or two now to write this post, but I feel at this point it would be an injustice not to. UVA Law is harmful to black students, and when confronted with those harms, it does not address them and sweep them under the rug. Keep reading for actual antedotes from this racist school. It's up to you if you come, but you can't say you were never warned.
Two black students in the class of 2023 dropped out in the middle of their degree because they simply could not stand the law school environment and living in Charlottesville. Understand that this was after one and two years of paying law school tuition, lost opportunity cost, and trying to to fit into a community that they just don't feel like they belong, because students were very exclusionary to them. The law school never directly addressed this, but when asked stated that these students had the right to leave the school. When we spoke to these students they said frankly they did not feel supported and that the environment was toxic, racist and damaging to their mental health. These are students that really tried to put themselves out there and make UVA Law work for them. They are now partially in debt for a degree they will never have because of this racist institution.
A Noose was found on grounds on the homer statue. The law school did not say anything immediately condemning this. 12 days after the hate crime, we got a weak email from the law school Dean saying that she condemned the hate crime and was willing to speak with students. 12 whole days after a noose was reported on university grounds but university police and we did not hear anything publicly from our dean. This was after several meetings with BLSA leadership meeting with her to explain why this is harmful for black students and how hearing her say anything will make them feel supported. Black students were left to shoulder the burden and lean only on each other for support. The Dean, to this day has still not put out any statement regarding the noose despite her self proclomation of being a black lives matter expert (check out her Bio on the school website). She leans on the fact that Jim Ryan (president of the university) put out a statement (very good, condemning the act literally the day after it happened) and that should cover her. She also states that when she puts out statements she wants them to be meaningful. If you can't put out a statement when a noose was found on your campus, when exactly will the right/meaningful time be to do so? But at least 3 other deans of schools within UVA put out statements condemning this hate crime and reaffirming black students' place in this community (including the Darden Dean putting out two) within a week of the hate crime happening.
Risa decided to come to the SBA meeting after being basically forced by BLSA to address it publicly, under the threat of a major protest. Risa does not like bad press. The meeting was pointless and we just got a bunch of sorry apologies. No action as usual. After this meeting, BLSA had to pick up the pieces and we were sitting in the office crying over everything. It was bad.
We also have a black dean of Diversity Equity and Inclusion, Mark Jefferson (fondly known as Risa's puppet). Although we all have university email he claims that he did not receive the email and was upset that BLSA did not initially reach out to him to speak about the noose. Even after black students were visibly upset he did not do anything to gather us together as group and at least talk. FInally he sent out an apology to BLSA for not being there for us after about a 3-week silence. Supposedly he was having lunch with people to speak with them, but black students as a whole were not addressed. We still are not sure what his actual job is because we have not seen any true action or change from him directly related to students currently at the law school since he got here. This is a sentiment shared by many affinity groups.
A White administrator threatened to call the cops on a black student because they were going to non-violently, protest a separate event.
Compared to white peers Black students incur significant debt to attend this school, and the school knows that many black students don't come from $$$$ yet they routinely give people aid of 10-15k a year. At 90k+ a year that barely puts a dent. Meanwhile, white students (with similar stats) are getting more aid and many of them come from backgrounds with money.
I'm posting this because as a black student I do not feel safe, supported, or accepted here. Black students constantly get passed over for opportunities here in favor of white students (clinics, study abroad, RA positions, etc.) Yes, I will have a good degree and job at the end of this but at what cost to my well-being and sanity? Seriously go to any other t-14 and you will 1000% have a better time than coming to this old racist town and racist school.
So to recap, without the hyperbole:
Someone put a noose on a statue on the undergrad campus (which is two miles away from the law school and separate from it), which the undergrad administration answered promptly and to your satisfaction
The law school admin didn't respond as quickly or well as you'd prefer, even though it didn't happen at the law school
Two black students happened to drop out
Two anecdotal assumptions with no data to back them (that white students get more scholarships and that they get more opportunities)
To me, it sounds like a list of random personal grievances that you're projecting racial explanations onto (plus an incident that is actually racist, but which the law school has basically nothing to do with and you somehow stretch their slow response to this incident on a different campus into them being super racist).
It's amazing to me that you felt the need to create a brand new reddit account solely for the purpose of blasting these complaints across the internet. I'm sure that will be very productive for the school and not just decrease Black enrollment in the future unnecessarily (at which point you'll come back on here to complain how few Black students are enrolling).
Spare us the copium. Maaaaayyybe those two students failed out. Maybe the noose on an ancient Greek man statue had nothing to do with black people. Maybe scholarships are based on GPA and LSAT score and don’t consider skin color. Maybe you are so focused on race that is all you see and is the answer to all your perceived problems.
noose in the south is either a lynching reference, or so strongly associated with lynching that it can be reasonably construed as such and the person who wants to communicate should choose a different item to make a point.
Serious question OP: what exactly would have made you happy Re: the Dean of DEI? You say he didn’t do enough because he saw that black students were upset and didn’t ‘gather you all up’ to talk….talk about what exactly? What exactly is he going to say that you haven’t already heard? Do you just want someone to listen to you be upset? What could he have done that would have been ‘enough’?
The vast majority of participants in that rally were not from Cville, and many were from out of the state entirely, something which UVA students from that time were well aware of. The reason the rally was held in Cville was because the super liberal city council was attempting to remove confederate statues and there ended up being violence because the super liberal UVA students went to counter-protest.
Saying that Charlottesville or UVA are racist because the rally occurred there is like saying that a synagogue is anti-semitic because someone came to do a hate crime against it. You're confusing the location with the participants.
No one at the rally was from Charlottesville. Cville is the most liberal area in va(only area to vote for Bernie, etc). Uva is a mostly liberal school, just like any other big research university. And maybe think before calling out a town and university you’ve never been to.
Greetings, I just want to say this: you are pursuing an awesome task by going to law school. I sense your fire for justice. I hope one day you can help correct the wrongs in our country. In the meantime, look for no outside validation of belonging or worth from neither the Dean nor anyone else. Yes, hold her and others accountable (for a hate crime as defined in Virginia) but remember always to strive to be whole with out seeking it externally from administrators or others. Try to carry on with the job you have come to do: to get your JD. And if that is truly not possible at UVA, for any reason at all, try transferring to another institution. However imho, try to carry on and live to tell about it.
i'm sorry. my heart goes out to you. the person who left the note "tick tock" is right in the way a broken clock is right twice a day because they're going to get what is coming to them soon enough.
