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Friday, Jan. 13, 2023
Confederate legacy groups’ effort to take the statue of Gen. Robert E. Lee from the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center continues. At a hearing earlier this week, a judge dismissed one of the charges brought by the groups that are suing Charlottesville — but the principal charges remain and will still go to trial.
Judge dismisses one count in Confederate statue lawsuit, but principal allegations remain
At its core, the Confederate groups’ goal with the lawsuit is to make Charlottesville take the statue back from the Heritage Center and give it to a different group — namely, one of them. The groups allege that it was illegal for City Council to give the statue to an organization that intends to destroy it. The Heritage Center’s plan is to melt the statue and remold the bronze into new artwork. The case will be decided by a judge in a one-day bench trial Feb. 1.
City receives just one local proposal for Confederate statue, and the organization wants to melt Lee down
The University of Virginia remains tight-lipped about why it was late to pay 60 to 120 graduate students this month. But it’s clear that this is not a one-time issue. Graduate students say that the university has repeatedly failed to pay them on time — and up until now has shown very little interest in addressing the issue.
“I’ve had it happen before that my entire department didn’t get paid on time,” said Laura Ornée, chair of the campus union and a Ph.D. candidate in UVA’s Corcoran Department of History. “It’s happened to individual friends of mine in the history department. We did a collective action for one person before, in the summer, where she didn’t get paid on time and she basically got the runaround from administrators, saying, ‘We can’t put it in the system now, you’ll have to wait until your next paycheck.'”
When pressed about why this is happening, UVA officials had no clear answer. Here’s what they did say.
UVA has repeatedly failed to pay its graduate students on time — and no one at the university can figure out why
A quick note from our whole team: On Tuesday, we told you about the results of our year-end fund drive. 7% of our subscribers have helped us raise over $250,000 — and more people pitched in this week!
Still want to help us reach $350,000? It’s not too late to give to our 2022 year-end campaign!
Your one-time gift in any amount or regular gift starting as little as $5 a month, is the kind of community support that makes our work possible.
Lastly, is there anything you’d like to ask our new Chief of Police? Michael Kochis officially takes the helm Monday. As a UVA alum, he participated in a brief Q&A with the university. We have requested to meet with him as well and we want to make sure all your questions are answered.
Charlottesville has a new police chief
If you have anything you’d like us to ask the chief, hit reply to this email and let us know!
It looks like a sunny weekend ahead. I hope you’re able to enjoy it,
Jessie Higgins, managing editor
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