Over the past day, the University has been forced to accept ownership of a hate crime. What follows is an assortment of thoughts -- varying in intensity -- roused in response to the assault on Student Council presidential candidate, Daisy Lundy.
Donald Houser, fourth-year College
"At first I thought it wasn't true. It's so ridiculous that someone would assault somebody for StudCo elections. I mean, it's important, but nothing's that important to hurt someone for."
Kiasha Billups, third-year College
"I was thinking to myself if this would have happened if she were a minority of a different group. People make everything a black-and-white issue, but it goes deeper than that -- she's a woman, she's black, she's Asian."
Chris Dunlap, second-year College
"I just didn't really know until this year that these things were an issue. These are the incidents that stand out, but I think there is so much that goes on without being noticed. Until the big stuff goes away, we can't deal with the daily prejudices. And that's the kind that's most damaging, because it's there everyday."
Shannon Carlton, third-year College
"I'm scared and worried because there's obviously a trend of racist acts here. And I don't know if it's going to stop or get worse. I'm embarrassed that such an incident would happen at our University -- a place of higher education."
Sylvia Santos, third-year College
"I wasn't mad about it. I'm just fed up now. Do you know much stuff has happened this one year? When you think about StudCo and politics, you don't expect this.
This person was waiting for her -- that's the scary part. This is going to put so many minorities in fear for any position we run for. It's hard enough for our organizations to exist and be successful. Now it's like we can't even run for something for the whole University? We have to stay in our own little groups? It's ridiculous."
Melanie Morrison, second-year College
"My main thing is I don't want this to be a problem of the black community. I think everyone at U.Va. should take ownership of this problem. At U.Va. a lot of things don't get solved because problems are just put on the groups it affects.
I don't want everyone to think of it as a black girl getting assaulted. I want them to see it as 'one of my fellow students got assaulted.' I want them to be able to put themselves in her place. And they can't do that if they just see her as black. I want everyone to stop denying that there is a problem and start working together towards a solution"
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