Drew Calamaro ‘21

Satire Editor

I spoke with Dean Groves (UVA Law ’90) on Wednesday, September 16, about SEC-045.[1] SEC-045 dictates social distancing and safety rules students must agree to while living in Charlottesville. The conversation below is lightly edited, but I think that I stayed true to the points he was trying to make. Thank you to Dean Groves for his time!

Tell me about the process of drafting SEC-045. Who helped, and how did that come about?

When it was initially drafted, it was very limited in scope. And as we continued to learn from our own experiences and those of other schools’, we tried to figure out what to add, including the exceptions. One challenge with that was that the policy took longer than any of us anticipated to fully vet and get it where it needed to be. The original SEC-045 didn’t contemplate the public health and first amendment collision that was happening in our country, but the moment the policy was done, I sent it to students and said “here’s some things you can do, here’s where I need to be strict.”

We had our health people, the senior leadership at the university, student affairs—me, the police, the general counsel’s office, so there were a lot of cooks in the kitchen, but in a good way, and it took a lot of perspectives to get the policy crafted.

What took the longest—were there any big sticking points?

I think it was more trying to figure out the parameters of the exceptions. How do we define those sufficiently so that SEC-045 protects public health, but also generally enough so that a student can look at it and apply to their own circumstances? We also had to discuss whether we were going to have a process where students can request to get an exception, and how we were going to vet those.

What is one thing you would want to tell students at the Law School about SEC-045?

One important thing that I’ve noticed is that folks are really focused on the letter of policy without thinking through the spirit. For example, we’ve had reports on students in really small spaces but they said, “We didn’t have fifteen people.” People latch onto a number, and I say they should think about what we are trying to achieve here, and then use common sense to say, “Is what I’m doing going to achieve that?” And if it doesn’t, we need to tweak the behavior to make sure it does.

I get asked about car rides, for example, and I tell people: If you don’t live with the person, wear a mask in the car, keep the mask on in the car, then think about whether you want to use disinfecting wipes when the person gets out of the car. For example, my husband and I live together, so masks are probably unnecessary. But on the other hand, if I’m picking up a colleague, I need to be making sure we’re wearing masks in the car.

How many reports have you received, what types of things are catching your attention, and what is causing concern or giving you hope?

So that’s a great question, Drew, and it’s funny—the Washington Post asked me that, so you’re in good company.

Not surprising—those are my colleagues over there.

Your colleagues over there, yeah . . . But the Law Weekly is a much higher priority for me.

So, to answer the first question, I don’t know. And I’ll tell you why. We have two portals for reporting. We have JustReportIt,[2] and I get a notification whenever someone files a report on there for anything. I can see the report, but actually, it’s the associate dean on call who takes ownership of the report. They will look at it and say, “What is this report telling me? Should I escalate this to Dean Groves for him to review, or is this pretty routine, low level, or just not there?” Then, they figure out what to do.

Then, there is a second portal called the community portal where you don’t need to sign in through Netbadge. However, the challenge there is that you don’t have to identify yourself, so we often have no one to follow up with or ask questions. The report is then triaged by some folks in community relations, and then some of them are elevated to me or to the Dean’s Office, but we don’t see all of them. We could drill down and get the numbers, but the reality is that we really need to care about the ones with meat on the bone.

By that, I mean parties over fifteen people—what you might call a pre-pandemic party. The real alarm is when you start to get into some of those higher numbers. I think JMU had a 100-person party or something. Sometimes it may not have been a party—it could have been four roommates living together and playing loud music that someone reported as one. We might get a report that says there were students on the balcony and they get reported. Let’s say one of them was just a friend and didn’t live there. We might have a conversation, educate, and do the right thing.

But the reality is that we are looking for large social gatherings—that’s the kind of case where there would be swift action. There might be other things that could entail verbal counseling. Whether it’s graduate or undergraduate students, if there are a bunch of people in a confined space, like a super spreader event, that’s the fear. All you need is twenty law students in an apartment and a lot of people leave the party COVID-19 positive. We need to crack down on those things.

During enforcement, what considerations are in the back of your mind other than just safety?

You’re right, the public health piece is number one. But outside of that, first off, I want to be fair. I don’t want to make a judgment before I talk to the person and let them tell me what happened. I will say there have been situations that looked very bad, but after speaking to the people involved and getting the facts, they turned out to be nothing like what was reported. So you have to come to the table with zero preconceived notions.

I am also very aware of due process. I have the power to suspend someone immediately, and they have the right to appeal. I am very conscious of the fact that I have to defend any decision I make, and I need to make sure that I make each decision based on applying the facts to the policy and what is appropriate for the circumstances.

I am also aware that I am not a police officer. I am not a prosecutor. I am a Dean whose primary job is safety and education. Part of my job is to explain to people what they did wrong and why. But primarily, I am thinking of safety, how to stay consistent and fair here, how do I make sure I’m listening fully to the student before making any judgements or decisions, and how do I handle the case in a way that is consistent across cases like the ones that I am seeing.

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dac6jk@virginia.edu