Category: Education (higher ed)
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A Protege of Clarence Thomas at UVa. ?!
by Dick Hall-Sizemore After reading incessantly on this blog that the faculty of the University of Virginia is hopelessly progressive and woke and that students studying there will be indoctrinated in progressive ideas that are bad for the country, imagine my surprise upon learning that one of the leading originalist interpreters of the Constitution teaches…
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Opportunity or Faustian Bargain?
by Dick Hall-Sizemore (Author’s Note: The following article is unusually long, even by my standards. The subject is a federal policy document recently sent to the University of Virginia and eight other institutions of higher education. The document is ten pages long and contains numerous provisions which could have a significant impact on higher education…
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From the Classroom to the Culture War
by Kerry Dougherty Earlier this year “Morning Joe” host, Joe Scarborough, said his daughter, a student at the University of Virginia, is afraid to raise her hand in class. “If she says anything polticallly incorrect she knows she’ll immediately be cancelled,” he said. Great. It happens everywhere. Colleges and universities have become intolerant left-wing indoctrination…
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UVA’s FIRE Ranking Worse Than It Looks
Statement from The Jefferson Council: The truth is finally catching up with the myth. The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression’s (FIRE) just published its 2026 College Free Speech Rankings, reflecting FIRE’s new focus on the actual reality on the 257 college campuses surveyed rather than stated policy. While the Ryan administration often talked the…
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The Latest FIRE Free Speech Ranking
The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression have graded Virginia universities D grade overall in its 2026 College Free Speech Rankings. That was actually better than the national average of F. The University of Virginia was tops in the state with a 21st-place ranking out of 250 institutions, largely on the basis of its formally…
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My Soapbox: Dorm Rooms
by Dick Hall-Sizemore A common complaint, on Bacon’s Rebellion and generally, is about the high costs of colleges. I am usually sympathetic to such complaints. I see the projected costs of the higher ed institutions my grandkids are going to or are considering. But, then, I run across articles like this and this and I become very…
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Virginia’s Upper Body
Finding inspiration in all the wrong places by Gordon C. Morse Virginia Senate Democrats – the leadership, primarily – have taken a wrecking crew mentality to higher education and exposed themselves to condemnation for doing the very things they passionately denounce others for doing. In this instance, on Thursday afternoon, the majority Democrats serving on…
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Be Careful What You Wish For
by Dick Hall-Sizemore President Trump has directed the Secretary of Education to expand the reporting requirements of institutions of higher education in order to determine if any of those bodies are still using race as an admissions criterion. Accordingly, the Secretary has directed the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) to collect the following data…
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Miyares Excoriates “Utter Travesty” Against Women Swimmers
by Scott Dreyer At 10:30 a.m. on August 25, Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares held a press conference at the Salem library to reveal his office’s investigation into alleged abuse by Roanoke College officials against members of the 2023-24 women’s swim team. About twenty people attended the event, including five Roanoke County elected officials, some local media, and…
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Former Swim Team Captain Exposes Abusive, Vengeful Staff
by Scott Dreyer On August 25, Attorney General Jason Miyares held a press conference at the Salem library to share the findings of his office’s investigation into how Roanoke College treated members of its women’s swim team, a controversy that first erupted in the fall of 2023 and went on to make national headlines. Miyares…
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Maybe Ryan Should Have Toughed it Out
by Dick Hall-Sizemore The Trump administration has found that George Mason University (GMU) has violated federal law with its DEI policies. A spokesman for the Dept. of Education said, GMU “waged a university-wide campaign to implement unlawful DEI policies that intentionally discriminate on the basis of race.” The penalty? The president of the university, Gregory Washington, must…
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Selling JMU to Itself
Academic department puts million-dollar mark on football field by Joe Fitzgerald There either is or should be a rule that says if your organization is doing something that makes absolutely no sense to most of the people outside and many of the people inside, you should explain it better or do it differently. Specifically, if…
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A New President for The University
And oh so many to manage and lead. by Gordon C. Morse The University of Virginia, it announced on Monday, has an interim president. His name is Paul G. Mahoney and he’s been around for a while – living and working within the body of the beast – and that’s promising. He has friends; he…
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Hold the Presses! Gregory Washington Still Has a Job!
Against the backdrop of hysterical warnings that the George Mason University Board of Visitors might fire President Gregory Washington, GMU’s first Black president, at its meeting today, the Board gave him a raise. It wasn’t exactly a ringing endorsement — only 1.5 percent — but it was a raise. Apparently, that means he still has…
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Virginia Democrats Get Win in Fight Over Appointments
As reported by the Richmond Times-Dispatch, the Fairfax circuit court has sided with the Virginia Democratic Senate in its fight with Gov. Youngkin over some of his appointments to boards of visitors of institutions of higher education. The judge issued a preliminary injunction prohibiting recent appointees to the Board of Visitors at the University of…