Bryanna Lindberg ‘23
Staff Editor
On Thursday evening at the Park, students gathered for nOGI, an annual event where public interest students celebrate their moral superiority over pizza (shockingly, no vegan options were offered). As the most marginalized and oppressed members of the UVA Law community, public interest students have long envisioned the creation of their safe space, a place where “f*rm” is the real f-word, Kirkland is something you buy at Costco, and facial piercings outnumber paid internship positions. nOGI has become such a place, where students who chose not to participate in OGI can find the support they aren’t getting from the administration.
Everyone who attempted to enter the event was vibe-checked at the door. One woman who accidentally mentioned she was on the Virginia Law & Business Review was escorted from the Park in tears. She returned shortly after with a signed letter from Professor Frampton affirming that not only did she work at a public defender’s office this summer, she worked at *that* sexy Southern office, and was allowed to enter. Inside the Park, students could be seen greeting each other excitedly, nodding along as their friends and fellow soldiers in The Battle Against Injustice™ (except not actual soldiers because the military is carrying out a neo-liberal colonialist agenda) spoke eloquently about “holistic defense,” “trauma-informed lawyering,” and “f*rm all prosecutors,” while simultaneously complaining about how poor they are.
At one point, a lively discussion was had about student organization funding. When it was discovered that a particular student organization had received less funding than other organizations, a frenzy of future public defenders, legal aid attorneys, and that one brave guy who wants to be an Assistant U.S. Attorney but still shows up to PI events began gnashing their teeth and banging their metal water bottles on the picnic table. Cries of “funding transparency is justice!” and “Dean’s discretion my ass!” echoed across the Park. One group of students began planning a protest, but heated disagreement between the peaceful protestors and the anarchist faction almost threatened to derail the project. It was only after the Co-President of the Law and Public Service Program stood on a picnic bench and shouted, “Remember who the real enemy is: the administration!” that order was restored. A plan was formed, but the specifics of the plan were critiqued so thoroughly that the organizers were temporarily paralyzed with indecision. It was decided that using cardboard banners furthered destruction of the rainforest, but foam boards purchased from Walmart both increased the pace of global warming and lined the pockets of an evil corporation. Nailing placards to wooden sticks wasn’t inclusive of the over-six-foot community, but forcing the shorter demonstrators to hold signs above their heads equaled unpaid labor. One notably tall woman pointed out that public interest students are accustomed to performing unpaid labor—RIP PILA points—but she was overruled when the shorter demonstrators decided to unionize. After several hours of discussion and negotiation, it was decided that both the short and tall demonstrators would perform a sit-in at ScoCo. When the day arrived, however, only a dedicated few participants showed up because, as every good PI student knows, it’s way easier to talk about protesting than it is to actually protest.
Nothing bonds PI students like mutual outrage, and this year’s nOGI was no exception. Sitting together, toeing the line between protest and mob violence, PI students were reminded why they do it. Why do we piss off our BigLaw friends by telling them the laptop they bought with their summer associate salary is a physical manifestation of capitalist greed? Why do we choose to explain to Uncle Brett every Thanksgiving that we’re spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to make less money than the average electrician because immigrants are people, too? Why do we wake up in the morning and decide to carry a beige tote bag when backpacks with compartments are so much more organized? Because we care. We care so much that we passed up 3L job security, a summer in New York drinking cocktails and playing Topgolf on our firm’s dime, and the chance to flex our mid-August trip to Europe on Instagram. We care so much that sometimes, our caring looks like judging. And, well, that’s because we are judging. We watched your Instagram story; we know you went to Italy, okay? And yeah, we’re kind of bitter because we used up our PILA Grant in six weeks and had to go home to Ohio after our internship so our parents would feed us. But ultimately, we judge because we care. And if you’re lucky enough to be friends with a PI student, it means we care about you, too. But for the love of Bernie Sanders, if you bring up that pasta carbonara you ate on a balcony overlooking the Tuscan countryside one more time!
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bl2am@virginia.edu