Category: Education (higher ed)
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Is Everybody on Vacation?
It’s been 21 days and counting since Jim Ryan resigned as president of the University of Virginia, and the Board of Visitors hasn’t announced a search committee to look for a successor. Indeed, it’s still soliciting “input” on who should serve as interim president. Meanwhile, UVA has vacancies in other top positions: the provost (the…
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Bacon Bits: All Is Not Well
License-plate readers discriminate. Some readers might think that automated license-plate readers are a good thing: They help law-enforcement authorities capture lawbreakers. But if your priority is protecting illegal immigrants, that’s a big negative. License-plate readers, you see, were used to track down four people who escaped from an ICE detention center in Farmville. According to…
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Kibbe Resigns, Expanding UVA Leadership Vacuum
The Jefferson Council calls for Board of Visitors to take action. Melina Kibbe, dean of the University of Virginia Medical School, has been offered a job at the University of Texas Health Center at Houston, and will be officially named president after a 21-day waiting period, reports the Daily Progress. “I look forward to building…
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A Cry of Inchoate Fear
by James A. Bacon Mark Edmundson, an English professor at the University of Virginia, ran a column Saturday in the Wall Street Journal about threats to academic freedom. He leads with an anecdote about teaching John Milton’s epic poem “Paradise Lost” with his students. “Milton can help you think about almost any consequential human subject.…
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Wailing, Ashes, and Gnashing of Teeth
by James A. Bacon The University of Virginia Faculty Senate today passed a resolution expressing “no confidence” in the Board of Visitors for failing to “protect the university and its president from outside interference” and for “not consulting with the faculty Senate in a time of crisis.” The faculty called for a full accounting of…
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Reinventing UVA: Intellectual Diversity
by James A. Bacon Two days ago, I made the case that the University of Virginia has a shot at becoming the most desirable university in the country to learn, teach and pursue knowledge. To do that, the Board of Visitors must recruit a president and a provost committed to building a faculty nationally renowned…
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Too Early to Construct Narratives
by James A. Bacon In a statement to the University of Virginia faculty senate, Acting President J.J. Davis confirmed yesterday that the university had obtained outside counsel to assist in negotiations with the Department of Justice regarding “many areas of the inquiry” relating to the dismantling of racial preferences and DEI. “Through counsel, UVA is…
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Righteousness Repeated
Virginia leads the way. by Gordon C. Morse George Kennan, one of the titans of 20th century American diplomacy, appeared in April, 1951 at the University of Chicago to present a series of lectures. He was there to explain, more or less, the first half of the 20th century. “In the fabric of human events,” Kennan said,…
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What Next?
The potential now exists to make UVA the most exciting university in the country to learn, teach and pursue knowledge. by James A. Bacon The departure of President Jim Ryan and Provost Ian Baucom suddenly leaves reformers in the driver’s seat at the University of Virginia. Now what? We know what we didn’t like —…
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Turning Point?
Federal overreach, state silence, and the resignation of Jim Ryan by David J. Toscano “…Or we will bleed you white.” It sounds like a mob threat from a B-movie. But it captures the essence of what Trump’s Department of Justice told University of Virginia officials: remove President Jim Ryan — or face financial ruin. Jim…
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Trapped in an Ideological Bubble
by James A. Bacon Michael Paul Williams, the Richmond Times-Dispatch columnist who won a Pulitzer Prize for his post-George Floyd commentary, is trapped in an ideological bubble and can’t break out. When opining on the departure of Jim Ryan from the University of Virginia presidency in his most recent column, he displays a bare-bones familiarity…
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And in Other Higher-Ed News….
The Richmond Times-Dispatch contrasts how Virginia Commonwealth University dismantled Diversity, Equity & Inclusion with relatively modest controversy — and provides a sharp contrast with the University of Virginia. Here’s how Eric Kolenich summarizes VCU’s response: When state and federal officials told Virginia Commonwealth University to scrub DEI from every corner of campus, the university’s administrators went…
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The Back Story of Ryan’s Resignation Is Complicated
by James A. Bacon The U.S. Department of Justice sent seven letters to University of Virginia officials seeking confirmation that the University had ended racial preferences and Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) in the lead-up to President Jim Ryan’s resignation, according to documents released to the Washington Post and Cavalier Daily under the Freedom of…
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Bacon Bits: A UVA Roundup
A hearty round of self-congratulations. Scott Gerber, the law professor who was canceled by Ohio Northern University but vindicated in a recent legal settlement, is still cranking out op-eds. (We have republished a couple here on Bacon’s Rebellion.) In the Washington Times today, he offers some acute observations about the University of Virginia Board of…
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How to Craft a Happy Ending from the Ryan Saga
by Paul Goldman “[For] me, the promise of America is equal opportunity for every individual.” This is a core belief for axed University of Virginia President Jim Ryan. Read his best-known book. Most sensible Virginia Democrats would agree. Most sensible Virginia Republicans too. Ironically, the quote itself actually didn’t come from Ryan. Or any Virginia Democrat…