This opinion does not reflect that of The Rotunda or Longwood University
As snow began to fall on Monday, Longwood officials made the announcement classes would be cancelled before 3 p.m. Around 11 p.m., a group of Longwood students lit a couch afire on Buffalo St., something undergrads have been known to do on nights proceeding snow days or school cancellations. According to the Longwood Police Department, no arrests were made though they did respond to calls involving the fire and were on the scene. No one was injured and students put out the fire within the hour.
Hampden-Sydney College, a school that rarely ever closes, shut down as well but there were no reports of burning property.
Longwood students have a history of burning couches in the middle of the areas most infamous college street, a statement that might seem eerie or peculiar to collect. Well, it’s true. The most recent case being February of 2012 where at least one student was charged with felony arson. "You can't say with one side of your mouth, ‘We're student leaders and we're doing this and we're positives to the community,' and then destroy it with one night's activities," said Longwood Chief of Police Robert Beach in a Rotunda article from 2012.
Two years preceding that incident, there was another couch set on fire.
It makes one wonder if that title will be faintly conjoined with Longwood's meritoriously earned accomplishments.
"Oh you got a degree from Longwood? I heard they burn couches and tarnish property there," someone might say. Or "Oh Longwood had a breakthrough in research? Isn't that the school that students torch furniture in the street?"
It isn’t farfetched.
My friend from VCU called me on Monday, the night of the couch burning and admitted he wouldn't be surprised if Longwood students burned another couch; when they did, he snickered and said, "Surprise," in a sarcastic tone. He followed with a more bona fide one, "Just like Longwood."
There is a part of me that says this is something perhaps too engrained in the scheme passed down from class to class.
Many people on social media reacted negatively to the news of yet another torched couch on Buffalo. "This isn't a tradition, this is an embarrassment," some said.
The majority of people affiliated with the school could agree there is an embarrassment factor involved, but from my point of view, I'm not quite sure this isn't an inflamed Longwood tradition, one that cannot be evaded, or one students even want to.
Some may ask, “What’s the big deal if no one was hurt?” Some might suggest that it isn’t that big of a dilemma. But I can’t bar myself from detecting “that big” as a phrase often used to denounce something huge.
“It’s students burning their personal property,” one person said.
It could still be considered arson, but other than that, in any action involving a potentially fatal icy environment that brings public safety response away from those who truly need it is unsatisfactory of students at this university.
Over the past few years it has been a ketchup stain on the university's exquisite white tuxedo shirt, unable to be washed anew by any dry cleaning service.
It is about the complexion as a university, and this has continued to be a scar on Longwood’s face.
It is our job as students to change the culture of couch burning, no one else can. Though I’m not positive we have the capability or actuation to about-face its current rife direction.
