Category: Education (higher ed)
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Dhillon Defends DOJ Pressure on UVA
by James A. Bacon The Department of Justice (DOJ) tried for three months to get answers to questions about the University of Virginia’s Diversity, Equity & Inclusion program but never received a substantive answer, Harmeet Dhillon, assistant attorney general for the Civil Rights division told CNN news anchor Jake Tapper. “They didn’t respond at all?”…
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And Then They Came for the Intellectuals II
Conservatives will rue the day when they permit the federal government to coerce the resignation of any university president, especially one at a state university that answers to its legislature, governor, and citizens. by David Toscano Observers of higher education had been predicting that University of Virginia President Jim Ryan might be ousted by U.Va.’s…
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Binnie Peay, Then Jim Ryan
by Gordon C. Morse Jim Ryan resigned as president of the University of Virginia today and there goes a man of integrity who followed his own lights and acted upon his own beliefs. But then the political winds shifted, outside forces cranked up the pressure and it finally got to be too much. Wait, this…
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Sabato for UVA President. The Board Should Resign.
by Paul Goldman When I served on the State Council of Higher Education, academic freedom was a core educational value. Apparently no longer. We learned today the University of Virginia Board of Visitors caved in into President Trump. They him force out UVA President Ryan because the federal government bureaucrats didn’t like what UVA was…
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Ryan Resigns
by James A. Bacon Under pressure from the Department of Justice, University of Virginia President Jim Ryan has submitted his resignation to resolve a DOJ investigation into the University’s Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, reports the New York Times. The Board has accepted Ryan’s resignation. In a letter to Rector Robert Hardie, Ryan said that he…
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Do Conservatives Really Want This Precedent?
by Dick Hall-Sizemore The New York Times is reporting that the Trump administration has demanded that the University of Virginia fire President Jim Ryan as the condition for “resolving” the federal government’s investigation into the school’s DEI efforts. President Trump has declared DEI illegal. No courts have done so. As much as they dislike Ryan,…
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Wahoo Know-Nothings
by James A. Bacon There is a new player in the struggle for the soul of the University of Virginia: Wahoos4UVA, which describes itself as a group of “proud alumni, students, parents, faculty, staff, and friends” of the University. Its stated mission is to defend UVA from an “orchestrated campaign of misinformation and political pressure.” Who…
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UVA’s Administration Is Stonewalling on Viewpoint Diversity
by Scott Gerber The University of Virginia (UVA) is currently under investigation by the federal government because its administration is attempting to maintain its illegal “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI) regime in secret after the Board of Visitors voted in March to dismantle it. The administration is also stonewalling the Board’s April resolution, which called for more…
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VMI Board Makes Own Calls Without Direction From the Governor, says Gottwald
On June 10 Teddy Gottwald, president of the Virginia Military Institute Board of Visitors, wrote a letter to House Majority Leader Scott Surovell, D-Fairfax, in response to Surovell’s statement justifying the Privileges & Elections Committee vote to block four of Governor Glenn Youngkin’s nominees to the VMI Board. The letter is somewhat old news at…
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In Struggle for Autonomy, UVA Board Eyes Role of Board Secretary
by James A. Bacon The process for selecting the Board of Visitors secretary at the University of Virginia might seem arcane to outsiders, but it consumed the attention of board members briefly Friday before everyone agreed to table discussion until the regularly scheduled meeting in September. According to the Board manual, the secretary preserves documents,…
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University Board Politics Got Even Nastier Yesterday
by James A. Bacon Blaming the toxic politics in Washington, D.C., the state Senate Privileges & Elections Subcommittee just made Virginia politics more toxic by voting down eight university Board of Visitors members nominated by Governor Glenn Youngkin in an 8-to-4 party line vote. “What we see in our political climate today, especially coming out…
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UVA Improperly Preserved Bodycam Video Used to Embarrass Board Member
by James A. Bacon University of Virginia officials violated the University’s own document-retention policies when it preserved bodycam videos of a University Police Department (UPD) encounter with Board of Visitors member Bert Ellis in March 2023. The videos were posted online in a Washington Post article critical of the activist board member this March, two…
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And Then They Came for the Intellectuals
by David J. Toscano “Our colleges [have] become dominated by Marxist Maniacs and lunatics.” — Donald J. Trump, July 17, 2023 “We need to … aggressively attack the universities in this country; the professors are the enemy.” — J.D. Vance, November 2, 2021 Under President Donald Trump, the federal government has mounted the most aggressive…
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Canceling Cuccinelli
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,…
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DEI for Conservatives?
by James A. Bacon Defenders of the higher-ed status quo don’t dispute the imbalance of partisan and ideological views in college faculties, a reality that is so well documented that there is no sense in pretending otherwise. Rather, they’ve adopted a rhetorical gambit to put their critics on the defensive — painting them as hypocritical…