The University and Community Action for Racial Equality organization has challenged the University of Virginia to do more to recognize and mark and “address its past of racial disharmony,” The Daily Progress newspaper in Charlottesville, Va., has reported.
“This report mentions much good that this university has done … but it also documents concerns,” UCARE official Frank Dukes told The Daily Progress. Dukes is a founder of UCARE and the director of Institute of Environmental Negotiation at UVA.
Citing the term “plantation” as how some local Charlottesville residents refer to the university, the report accuses UVa of “arrogance and isolation.”
“This term, in common use locally, represents the sense that community members are welcomed only as the lowest-paid workers and not wanted on grounds either as students or as visitors,” according to the report.
UCARE supporter Walter F. Heinecke wants the university to undertake measures to improve the quality of life for staff; boosting the proportion of African-American students enrolled and devoting more resources to retention of African-American faculty, The Daily Progress reported.
“More broadly, we really hope the university takes a leadership role,” UCARE member Sarah Malpass told The Daily Progress.
