by James A. Bacon

I knew this was coming — I just didn’t expect it so soon. In what is sure to spark a growing movement, 18 student groups at the University of Virginia have sent a letter to members of the General Assembly to block the confirmation of Board of Visitors nominee Ken Cuccinelli, according to CBS 19 News.

The former Republican Attorney General has yet to attend his first board meeting or publicly utter a single word relating to his board role, but he has already been targeted by the same crowd that nearly axed Bert Ellis (whom Cuccinelli replaced) in his confirmation. Ellis survived the legislative gauntlet in 2023 but was fired this spring by Governor Glenn Youngkin for being too blunt in expressing his opinions.

The students have no recollection of Cuccinelli’s term as AG — some were wearing diapers when he was elected in 2009 — but others at UVA have long memories. Cuccinelli tried unsuccessfully to extract emails from then-professor Michael Mann, the global warmist inventor of the much-disputed hockey stick graph showing an exponential increase in temperatures in recent years, in an investigation into Mann’s possible misuse of state research funds. UVA fought him tooth and nail — which comes as no surprise to anyone who has tried to pry emails out of UVA.

Cuccinelli likely has not forgotten his ordeal with bureaucratic intransigence at UVA either. Neither do I expect he’s under any illusions that the Democrat-dominated legislature will confirm his nomination.

Delegate Katrine Callsen, D-Albemarle, has already indicated that she will not vote to confirm his nomination.  “I do not know how my colleagues feel, but that will be a conversation to be had when we convene next,” she said.

I’m betting that Cuccinelli, knowing he has nothing to lose from holding back, will speak forthrightly at board meetings notable for their reticence and circumlocution. I’m hopeful that he’ll be the one to say out loud what others are thinking but too cautious to say.

And in other UVA news…

America First Legal (AFL) has released the results of its “preliminary investigation” into UVA’s “discriminatory” diversity, equity & Inclusion (DEI) practices in a letter to the U.S. Department of Justice. The letter supports the Office of Civil Rights’ letter putting UVA on notice for failing to comply with federal civil rights laws and resolutions enacted by the Board of Visitors to dismantle the University’s DEI programs and end racial preferences.

“Rather than certifying compliance with DOJ’s directives, UVA announced the creation of a working group — not to bring the University into compliance with federal law — but to ‘promote open inquiry, constructive conversation across differences, and development of a civic mindset,’ stated a press release issued last week. “The resolution failed to identify which parts of its $1 billion DEI initiative had been rescinded and provided no evidence that any discriminatory programs had been dismantled.”

AFL was founded by Stephen Miller, a former senior advisor to President Donald Trump.

AFL identified the following alleged transgressions at UVA:

• UVA has rebranded its DEI programs using euphemisms like “Inclusive Excellence,” “Advocacy and Opportunity,” “Community Engagement,” “Strategic Wellness and Opportunity,” “Inclusion and Belonging,” and “Viewpoint Diversity,” while continuing to apply race-, sex-, and other identity-based preferences in violation of federal law.
• The Darden School of Business renamed its “Diversity and Inclusion” page to “Inclusive Excellence,” but it still offers scholarships that restrict eligibility based on race, sex, and sexual orientation, supported by a $125 million endowment for “diverse” candidates.
• Darden also partners with outside organizations to offer scholarships that favor students based on impermissible characteristics, such as the Reaching Out MBA Fellowship, which awards $20,000 to LGBTQ+ applicants for promoting LGBTQ+ equality.
• Through its “Discover Medicine” pipeline program, UVA actively recruits students based on race and ethnicity, bypassing equal opportunity standards to engineer a racially preferred applicant pool for its School of Medicine.
• UVA’s School of Medicine offers scholarships that explicitly discriminate based on sex and sexual orientation. For example, the Peter Page Scholarship awards a $10,000 “merit scholarship” exclusively restricted to “highly motivated gay male students.”
• UVA Health rebranded its DEI division as “Community Engagement and Health Outcomes,” but continues to promote race-conscious models, LGBTQ+ initiatives, and DEI-based training.
• University staff with former DEI roles were quietly reassigned to newly named roles, such as “Global Recruiting,” “Community Engagement,” and “Equity and Inclusive Excellence,” while retaining virtually identical responsibilities.
• The UVA School of Medicine requires all students, faculty, and residents to endorse DEI principles and participate in programming that prioritizes race, sex, and other identity-based classifications over merit. Its “Diversity Consortium” enforces DEI compliance across clinical training, admissions, and research.
• Departments such as Family Medicine and Radiology continue to embed DEI ideology into medical education and operate scholarships explicitly limited to applicants based on race, sex, or other protected characteristics.
• UVA-Wise, the University’s public liberal arts college, rebranded its “Office for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion” as the “Office for Advocacy and Opportunity,” and continues to operate under the Inclusive Excellence model — advancing policies that redistribute “resources, opportunities, and responsibilities” based on race and sex.