Elizabeth Patten '25
Chief of Stolen Memories, Slaughter Stairs Remembrance Committee
As summer fades into a crisp fall, life on David A. Harrison III’s humble Law Grounds has started all over again for all but one – the Slaughter Stairs. In an act of untrammeled malevolence, the administration laid waste to the well-trodden staircase in May. Nothing remains but a lone and level wall. It is with profound sadness that we usher in this new architectural season for UVA Law.
Since time immemorial, the Slaughter Stairs have literally and figuratively elevated generations of weary law students. They allowed us to ascend the heights of the law school with ease–side by side, in the glorious open air. In the wake of their unreasonable slaughter, our rite of passage and our collegial ethos have been illegitimately burdened. We now fight for our lives within narrow, inconvenient stairwells. Returned to a state of nature, we both suffer and commit a parade of horribles with each new passing period. Our only form of solace is in the knowledge that Thomas Jefferson slumbers eternally in his grave, blissfully ignorant of the aesthetic and logistical tragedy that has besmirched his academical village.
We pray for relief from our perilous situation. However, our scholarly pursuit of the law has taught us that litigation is an imperfect arbiter of justice. We may not be able to restore what we’ve lost. But we can follow in the steps of the stairs and rise above this trial.
In such spirit, the Slaughter Stairs Remembrance Committee invites you to submit an original poem in tribute to the stairs. Poems should be submitted to Malia Takei ’25, the Committee’s Chief of Overflowing Tears, at nfm4de@virginia.edu. Please identify the subject line as “Slaughter Stairs Tribute.” Entries will not be accepted after 11:59 PM on October 23, 2024.
The winning poem will be announced on October 30, 2024, on the front page of the Law Weekly. The poem will be framed and hung in the stairs’ final resting place, the new conference room in the Student Affairs Suite. Student Affairs will also perform a ceremonial reading of the poem during a public vigil for the stairs later this semester. Details will be announced at a later date.
The administration has whitewashed the wreckage of our colossal loss behind the Slaughter Wall. But our community cannot allow the stairs to be so easily erased. Together, we must keep their memory alive—forever lifting us up, if only in our hearts.
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