Welcome to the first of four Mondays in this month of June, and another edition of Charlottesville Community Engagement. There are hundreds of you on the subscription list but today in particular I’d like to give special recognition to anyone of you named Janet, Jenny, or Joyce for it is apparently your national day. Now, on with the information that ends up in this installment.
Correction: This newsletter has been updated to reflect the correct spelling of Leslie Kendrick with the University of Virginia School of Law. I regret the error.
On today’s program:
There’s a new name in the works for Buford Middle School
A new petition is circulating against the city’s draft zoning code
The Karsh Institute of Democracy at the University of Virginia receives another $15 million in philanthropic funds
And the University of Virginia’s Board of Visitors learns more about what’s being done to promote civil discourse
First shout-out: JMRL’s Summer Reading Challenge
In today’s first subscriber-supported public service announcement, the Jefferson Madison Regional Library wants you and your family to read as much as you can this summer, and for encouragement and incentives, they’re holding another Summer Reading Challenge. Registration is open now on the Beanstack app for the summer long event which runs June 1 through August 31. Collect prizes for the best summer activity - reading!
The theme this year is “All Together Now” and there will be various kick-off parties at JMRL branches over the next few weeks. The one at the Central Library will be on Saturday June 10 from 10 a.m. to noon. There will be music, food, and fun! The Friends of the Library will pop up a mini-book sale and a Books on Bikes parade! Visit jmrl.org to learn more about the Summer Reading Challenge.
Superintendent Gurley seeks name change for Buford Middle School
The groundbreaking for the expansion and renovation of Buford Middle School is set for this Friday. But before shovels symbolically overturn dirt, Charlottesville City Schools want a new name to be in place before the project is completed by August 2025 and Superintendent Royal Gurley is suggesting Charlottesville Middle School.
“This recommendation follows the current trend to move away from school names that honor individuals,” said Superintendent Royal Gurley in a release send out this morning. “We are essentially building a new school serving grades 6 through 8. The recommended name is fitting since this middle school will become the place that welcomes all Charlottesville sixth-graders from their neighborhood elementary schools.”
The Charlottesville School Board discussed the issue last week and will take a vote at their meeting on June 27. Community input can be sent to schoolboard@charlottesvilleschools.org.
Buford is currently named for Florence Buford, the first principal at Clark Elementary who served in that role from 1931 to 1964.
Clark is now known as Summit Elementary School. Venable Elementary School is now Trailblazers. Work on two other elementary schools is currently on hold due to the recent redistricting. (read that story)
Construction work at the future Charlottesville Middle School will begin on June 12. A full set of visuals is available for you to review.
Group submits petition calling for changes to draft zoning ordinance
In late July, consultants working on a new zoning ordinance for Charlottesville will release a final draft in advance of public hearings and adoption. One group is hoping that the final version will not feature a high level of additional residential density.
“We have heard from some Councilmembers some trepidation about how far the draft goes, opening up the possibility that Council might change the draft to make it less extreme,” reads an email that went out from Citizens for Responsible Planning.
The group is hoping to gather more signatures for a petition created by an anonymous resident. The petition argues that the additional density called for in the plan is too risky for the city and does not come with additional investments in transportation.
Want to learn more before making up your mind? There will be an open house on the third module of the draft zoning code at CitySpace on June 14 from 4:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
Public comment on module 3 will be taken through June 18. (Leave your comment)
Nau gifts another $15M to Karsh as UVA hits $4.61B raised in Honor the Future campaign
Later this year, the Karsh Institute for Democracy at the University of Virginia will become the new home for various programs that are now part of the Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service.
Last week, the Karsh Institute received a second gift of $15 million from John Nau, bringing his total contribution to $30 million. That news was broken by President Jim Ryan at the Board of Visitors meeting last week.
“It is good proof of the power of this idea,” Ryan said. “It is an idea that I know a number of you on the Board are encouraging us to pursue and that is to find a way to pull together all of the efforts around democracy so that they would have one home.”
Martha and Bruce Karsh donated $50 million to begin work on the institute.
Ryan said Nau’s gift allowed UVA to cross the $4.6 billion goal it had hoped to reach this fiscal year in an overall $5 billion campaign called Honor the Future.
“We have been averaging $600 million a year in gifts and pledges over the last five years,” Ryan said. “We have two years left to go in the campaign and now we have about $400 million left before we hit the goal.”
There have been over 700 gifts of over $1 million since the campaign began according to Mark Luellen, UVA’s vice president for advancement.
Weldon Cooper programs that will soon be part of the Karsh Institute include the Virginia Institute of Government, the Sorensen Institute of Political Leadership, the Center for Survey Research, the Center for Economic and Policy Studies, and the Demographic Research Group. The latter provides the official population estimates and forecasts for the Commonwealth of Virginia.
Second shout-out: eBike Lending Library
In today’s second subscriber supported shout-out, one Patreon supports wants you to know that Charlottesville now has an eBike Lending Library! E-bikes are a great way to get around community but there are many brands and styles to choose from. Because many e-bikes are sold online, it can be a challenge to try an e-bike before buying one.
The Charlottesville E-bike Lending Library is a free, not-for-profit service working to expand access to e-bikes in the area. They have a small collection of e-bikes that we lend out to community members for up to a week, for free. You can experience your daily commute, go grocery shopping, or even bike your kids to school, and decide whether e-bikes are right for you. Check out this service at https://www.ebikelibrarycville.org!
UVa seeks to study potential effects of artificial intelligence on democracy
Last week, the Academic and Student Life Committee of the University of Virginia’s Board of Visitors got an update on research initiatives from the UVA Provost. One of them is a comprehensive look at how advanced digital technology might affect our system of government.
“Here the questions are obvious,” said Ian Baucom, UVA’s Executive Vice President and Provost. “How do we understand the ways in which digital technology can open up and transform and bring energy and capacity and vitality to our lives and yet at the same time we know that there are perils associated.”
Baucom said the work will look at how new technologies can affect the ability of a democracy to function as artificial intelligence has the ability to manipulate public opinion. There will also be a look at the effects of digital technology on young people.
“We all have a strong sense that there is some deep connection between the embeddedness of young people in a digital social media saturated world and the crisis of mental health,” Baucom said. “The problem is there’s not yet a clear and dispositive research that indicates what the nature of that relationship is, how you can intervene?”
For more information, visit the research topic on the UVA website.
UVA’s role in promoting civil discourse discussed
The Academic and Student Life Committee also continued a broad discussion about democracy in our society.
“We have had this ongoing series of conversations on our commitment to being an educational institution where we seek to educate for citizenship,” Baucom said. “And core to that is ensuring that our students and our faculty and our community are really committed to civil discourse across differences.”
Baucom introduced two different speakers to continue the conversation.
School of Law Professor Leslie Kendrick is serving as a special advisor to the Provost on free expression and free inquiry. She also wrote a statement adopted by the Board of Visitors in June 2021 and she told the committee that she wants it to be a living document.
“Free expression and free inquiry, advances the search for truth, fosters self-development, and undergirds democracy,” Kendrick said. “Theorists and practitioners have long-recognized the relationship between free speech and the democratic process including that the absence of one generally indicates the absence of the other.”
Kendrick said across the country, there have been many calls at colleges and universities for some speakers to be denied a platform. She said the law is straightforward.
“In the context of student events, student groups are generally not state actors which means they are to be treated by the government the same as any private individual would be,” Kendrick said. “This means that a public university cannot disinvite a speaker or cancel an event hosted by a student group for reasons having to do with the viewpoint of a speaker or the event. Likewise, a public university may not suppress or interfere with the speech of protestors or demonstrators because of their view point.”
The University of Virginia’s policies are available on their dedicated free speech website. Kendrick said all new and returning students have to acknowledge these policies before being allowed access to the student information system.
“Our biggest challenge and our biggest strength is that we draw students from all backgrounds and perspectives, many of whom have never encountered this much diversity of perspective of before,” Kendrick said.
Melody Barnes, the Executive Director of the Karsh Institute for Democracy, said a healthy democracy requires both robust and respectful dialog as well as a free exchange of ideas.
“This is an increasing problem in our society that partisan and political divide and the friction between ideological perspectives is on the rise and in fact if we look at a 2022 Pew Research Center survey, what we see is that Republicans and Democrats not only think less favorably of the opposing party, but they think less favorably of people in the opposing party,” Barnes said.
Barnes said the University of Virginia’s strategic plan for 2030 puts the issue front and center and that the Karsh Institute will play a large role in fostering civil discourse. They call the work Talking Across Difference, or TXD. A website lists several programs underway including a three-day symposium coming up in October. (view the website)
Reading material:
After Buckingham, more Virginia registrars find themselves on chopping block, Graham Moomaw, Virginia Mercury, June 5, 2023
End notes for #541
The last one did not have a podcast version, but this one does. I also was a bit more strident than usual in the end note. Things are more calm now and I’m hopeful that maybe this is the week a new routine will develop. My goal is to get as much information to you as possible.
For, I really enjoy writing each of these newsletters and podcasts and am glad to have hundreds of paid subscribers and always hopeful for more. If you opt to pay, the company Ting will match your initial payment.
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Thanks to Wraki for incidental music in the podcast, which you can’t hear unless you listen to it. Check out the work on BandCamp!
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