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Bacon Meme of the Week
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Keep Politics Out of University Investment Decisions
by James A. Bacon
I didn’t see this one coming, but I’m delighted to hear of it: Secretary of Education Aimee Guidera and Secretary of Finance Stephen Cummings have written the presidents of Virginia’s public universities asking them to verify that their endowment investments are not influenced by political considerations.
Aimee Guidera The state wants to ensure higher education institutions โinvest in a manner that prioritizes risk-adjusted investment returns independent of social, political or ideological interests,โ wrote Guidera and Cummings, according to Cardinal News, which obtained a copy of the letter.
The query follows a conversation between Gov. Glenn Youngkin and the state Council of Presidents in March that was prompted by calls of pro-Palestinian groups on college campuses to divest university assets tied to Israel, according to the letter.
Stephen Cummings I’ve followed this issue closely for the Jefferson Council as it has played out at the University of Virginia, and I refer Guidera, Cummings and Bacon’s Rebellion readers to this article: “Board Shows No Interest in Israel Divestment.”
President Jim Ryan and the Board of Visitors have ignored a resolution passed by the student body to divest companies doing business in Israel from UVA’s endowment.
However, UVA’s investment arm, UVIMCO, does have an ESG (environmental, social, governance) policy, and it maintains an Advisory Committee on Investor Responsibility. UVIMCO’s primary ESG focus has been mitigating systemic risks of climate change.
Does that count?
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Stopping Sticky-Fingered Shoppers
by Kerry Dougherty
This is not a column about bras. Itโs about one more sign of the fall of civilization.
It starts with a bra, though. A simple, white, inexpensive sports bra.
I was in desperate need of a new one and Iโm never going to splurge $68 at Lululemon for a swatch of Spandex to contain my modest endowments.
My undies come from less exclusive retail shops.
Which is how I found myself in the athletic wear department of one of these Virginia Beach stores yesterday where I found just what I needed for $16. I paid at the self-checkout and bagged my purchases.
As I went through the exit with several other shoppers, I heard that tell-tale ding, ding, ding, but figured it couldnโt be me because I had no high-ticket items in my bag.
Once home, however, I found a red plastic security tag firmly attached to my new bra. There is no way to remove these things with teeth or tools, so I headed back to the store with my receipt.
As the customer service clerk was removing the tag, I told her that Iโd heard the alarm as I went through the door, but no one stopped me.
โWe donโt,โ she replied.
Continue reading.
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No. 1 CNBC Ranking? Eh. Beats a Poke in the Eye With a Sharp Stick
by James A. Bacon
by James A. Bacon
Virginia ranks No. 1 in CNBC’s just-released Top States for Business 2024 ranking — a marketing coup for the Old Dominion and Governor Glenn Youngkin. After ranking No. 2 last year, Virginia squeaked past 2023’s leader, North Carolina, by a narrow margin.
The favorable publicity should put Virginia on the radar screen of more businesses as they pursue site-location plans in the year ahead. Ideally, the recognition will lead to more corporate investment and job creation. Whether it propels Virginia into the ranks of top-performing state economies, however, is problematic.
In 2023, when Virginia ranked No. 2 as CNBC’s Top State for Business, the Old Dominion actually underperformed the national economy — achieving only 2.4% growth in Gross Domestic Product compared to 2.5% growth nationally, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data.
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The “Black Jobs” Narrative is False, Harmful
By Derrick Max
Derrick Max While most of the post-debate news coverage is still rightly focused on the mental acuity (or lack thereof) of President Biden, the use of the term โBlack jobsโ by former President Trump in the context of low-income, unskilled jobs that will be impacted by our open southern border, bothers me almost as much.ย This type of false categorization leads to policies and beliefs that do great harm to the African American community.
Sadly, there is a bipartisan failure to understand or appreciate Black economic vitality.ย Blacks, in the current false narrative, are poor and in need of both protection and assistance.ย From Trumpโs inartful claim that low-skill jobs are โBlack jobs,โ or Democrat contentions that African Americans donโt have or canโt get IDs to prove citizenship to vote, or most recently, Governor Hochel saying that black kids in the Bronx โdonโt know what a computer isโย โ the picture painted of Black Americans is one of hopelessness and despair. (more…)
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A Diversity Director for Every Department
John McLaren by James A. Bacon
John McLaren is a full professor in the Economics Department of the University of Virginia. He has written dozens of papers and journal articles in his specialty fields of globalization and international trade, and has given keynote speeches in conferences around the world.
He also serves as the departmental Director of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion.
McLaren came to the attention of the Jefferson Council when his name turned up in an email chain involving Keisha John, associate dean of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion for the College of Arts & Sciences. John had written him and other departmental DEI directors to provide feedback on a survey the College was developing to measure the extent of “belonging” experienced by Arts & Sciences students, faculty and staff. (See “UVA Arts & Sciences to Conduct Climate Survey.”)
By itself, the request was not especially onerous. John asked McLaren to “take a few minutes” to complete a brief online survey rating the importance of key themes to be considered in the survey. She also urged him to “share broadly” with others in his department. Their responses would guide higher-up DEI officials as they developed the questionnaire for distribution in the fall. But acting as the econ department’s point man on the survey was only a small part of what his DEI responsibilities include.
Why does that interest the Jefferson Council? Because of the ongoing debate about the size and scope of the DEI administration at UVA.
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UVA Arts & Sciences to Conduct “Belonging” Survey
by James A. Bacon
The College of Arts & Sciences at the University of Virginia is undertaking a campus climate survey to gauge the extent to which students, faculty and staff in the college’s many departments feel a sense of “belonging.”
The priority at the moment is choosing among 16 themes to be explored in the questionnaire, with detailed questions to be developed in the next phase. The goal is to have the questionnaire ready by this fall.
In emails obtained by The Jefferson Council, Keisha John, associate dean of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion for the College of Arts & Sciences, noted that many departments had conducted their own climate surveys. She was working with the University DEI division and the Center for Survey Research to “ensure consistency and validity of survey instruments.”
“Departments,” she wrote in the email, “will have this as an additional tool as they strive to ensure all constituents — students, staff and faculty — are flourishing.”
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Rambling: A Reminder of the Beginnings of Religious Freedom
by Dick Hall-Sizemore
This is one of the most attractive church buildings I have seen. It is Mathews Baptist Church, located on Rt. 198 in Mathews County at the intersection with the road leading to Gwynnโs Island.
The sign above the door says the church was organized in 1776.
In the years leading up to 1776, one had to have courage and dedication to be a Baptist in Virginia.ย The colonyโs laws required ministers to be licensed and meetinghouses to be registered. The itinerant Baptist ministers refused to comply. In turn, they were fined and imprisoned.ย They would often preach to their followers through the bars of their cell windows. Laymen were also fined, and sometimes imprisoned, for attending โillegalโ Baptist services.ย Whippings and beatings were common.ย Crowds disrupted Baptist worship services and harassed congregation members.
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Hurricanes and Climate Hysteria
By Derrick Max
The first hurricane of 2024, Hurricane Beryl, is now in the books.ย Beryl reminded us that hurricanes are a powerful force of nature โ a force that clearly causes much fear and anxiety.ย The stronger and more destructive the hurricane, the deeper it becomes ingrained in our collective consciousness.ย Katrina, Andrew, Sandy, Harvey โ hurricane names that will forever be associated with destruction and death.
Sadly, as with most destructive weather events, these events quickly become fodder for climate extremists to tie our fear of these events to โclimate changeโ or more specifically, โman-made climate change.โย Beryl is no exception, โIs Hurricane Beryl the sign of another dangerous storm season?ย Climate change is fueling the frequency and intensity of stormsโ cried the headline in The Week. (more…)
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Down the Memory Hole
by James A. Bacon
“How do you squeeze the essence of Wahoowa into 90 seconds?” So asks an article in UVA Today. Here’s what UVA’s video producers came up with:
What’s missing from the video?
There are 50 scenes, including shots of the Rotunda and the Lawn, but no mention of their designer. Apparently, the scribe of the Declaration of Independence, the man who ended the trans-Atlantic slave trade, the third president of the United States, the founder of the University of Virginia no longer appeals to the incoming generation of students.
Or could the problem be that Thomas Jefferson no longer appeals to the current generation of University leaders? Many at UVA believe TJ is more appropriately remembered as a slave-holding rapist.
How times have changed. The following video comes from ten years ago:
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Will Dominion Now Have Three Offshore Windfarms?
By Steve Haner
The Kitty Hawk North windfarm off the coast of North Carolina, stalled because of its need to bring transmission cables ashore under Virginiaโs Sandbridge Beach neighborhood, now has a new owner, a new name and a new lease on life.ย It is hard to imagine Dominion Energy Virginia would buy it without some plan to overcome the current local objections in Virginia Beach.
Also, Dominion Energy ratepayers will soon have another reason to sweat out future Atlantic hurricanes.ย We must all now forget the media frenzy of the last few weeks about how Hurricane Beryl was such a record breaker at Category 5 and thus a harbinger of future climate doom.
Within hours of the public announcement Monday that Dominion Energy Virginia would pay Avangrid $160 million to take over its lease and permits off the Outer Banks, Dominion officials hosted a meeting with some of the Sandbridge Beach residents who have been the roadblock.ย The quick engagement was greatly appreciated, said Joe Bourne, a leader of the Protect Sandbridge Beach Coalition, but the group’s basic objections to bringing the cables there have not changed.ย This is “early days,” he said. (more…)
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Youngkin Seeks Phone-Free Classrooms
by James A. Bacon
Governor Glenn Youngkin has issued an executive order ordering the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) to draft guidance for public school divisions to restrict the use of cell phones in schools.
Executive Order 33 directs VDOE to develop guidelines that balance cell phone restrictions with parents’ desires to contact children in emergencies. VDOE will issue draft guidelines by August 15, solicit feedback, and publish final guidelines September 15. The hope is for local school boards to adopt them effective January 25, 2025.
A statewide cell-phone initiative is long overdue. I’ve been beating the drums since publishing, “At This School, the Cell Phones Rule,” more than two years ago. Several Virginia school districts — Hopewell, Charlottesville, Virginia Beach, Fredericksburg — as well as individual schools have already acted. In his book published earlier this year, “The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness,” social psychologist Jonathan Haidt gave impetus to a growing national movement by tying cell phone use to the alarming increase in mental illness among teenagers. One of Haidt’s top recommendations for reversing the trend is banning cell phones in schools.
In 2023 Florida restricted students from using cell phones in class; Indiana and Ohio followed soon after with similar measures. Oklahoma, Vermont and Connecticut have introduced legislation. Approaches vary from blocking phone use in classrooms only to prohibiting access at any time during school hours.
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A Playpen for Social-Justice Activists
by James A. Bacon
Jim Ryan’s vision for the University of Virginia is to build an institution that is both “great and good,” an institution that strives for excellence while also advancing the common welfare. There are many paths to achieving the common good — entrepreneurship, economic development, effective government, strong families, vibrant civic life, for instance — but UVA’s president has settled on something else. He defines a good community as one that strives for social justice.
In 2020 the UVA Board of Visitors adopted most of the recommendations of the Ryan-appointed Racial Equity Task Force, which called for spending $700 million to $950 million to rectify the University’s historical racial injustices. The University has since ramped up its Diversity, Equity & Inclusion bureaucracy and poured millions of dollars into the hiring of far-left faculty who embrace Critical Theory and the intersection-oppression paradigm.
But Ryan has greater aspirations for UVA than merely to be an incubator of social-justice theory. He wants to export that thought into the world at large, starting with UVA’s home communities of Charlottesville and Albemarle County. To advance that aim, he created the Equity Center.
What does the Equity Center do? A core goal, in its own words, is to bring about “racial and socioeconomic equality.” A review of the Center’s website suggests that its 19 employees (one position is vacant at the moment) engage in a lot partnering, collaborating, coordinating, liaising, and awareness creation. But what have they actually accomplished? Has the Center done anything tangible to close the racial equity gap or is it just a playpen for social activists and community organizers?
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Democratic Dumpster Fires
by Kerry Dougherty
Words matter.
And hereโs one handy litmus test – if any are needed – to unmask news outlets that are in the bag for the left.
Itโs the use of the verb โpounceโ to describe conservatives reacting to any Democrat act.
Hereโs an example from our local newspaper:
Buckle up, I’m going to pounce!
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Senator Warner vs the Congressional Black Caucus
by Paul Goldman
After the stories about Senator Mark Warner trying to be the John Hancock of the revolution against President Joe Biden hit the national news wires, a leading member of the Congressional Black Caucus called me on my cell phone.
“Is this Warner the guy who the Virginia Democratic Party claims ran Doug Wilderโs campaigns?โ he asked. โHow could a guy who ran Doug Wilder campaign be so brain dead about Black politics?โ
Then he asked,ย โPaul, areย you sure you told the truth about Warner in your book Remaking Virginia Politics?โ
ย I did what I could to defend Mark whom I consider a friend of many years. But it was of course clear to me he had made a terrible blunder in thinking he could be the face of any coup against President Joe Biden. And, yes, the attempt by Warner, the nationโs media and the Hollywood elites to drive Joe Biden off the Democratic ticket is the first presidential nomination coup in American history.
Even Republicans back in the Watergate scandal days treated President Richard Nixon better than Democratic lawmakers are treating Joe Biden. Mr. Bidenโs detractors in one breath praise him for his policies, and then in the next publicly humiliate him by saying he lacks the mental and physical ability to run a presidential campaign much less serve in the Oval Office four more years. So, yes, the CBC member has a legitimate question: what the hell was Mark Warner thinking and why did he think it?
