Bacon's Rebellion

  • Turning Point?

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    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 Ryan’s departure marks a significant moment — not only for UVA and higher education, but for public institutions across the country. It is exceedingly rare for the federal government to exert such direct influence on the leadership of a state university. Public colleges and universities, along with the officials who oversee them, should take note.

    Under the Trump administration, the Department of Justice has increasingly used pressure tactics to influence the direction of higher education. Some private universities, including Columbia and Penn, quickly yielded. Harvard has fought back, but no one is sure whether their resistance will succeed, and at what cost. Virginia became the next institution to feel the heat. The implications are serious—and extend well beyond Virginia. And many important questions remain about how this unfolded.

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  • Trapped in an Ideological Bubble

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    James A. Bacon

    Trapped in a bubble. Image credit: Bing Image Creator

    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 with the events leading up to Ryan’s resignation but zero understanding — and by zero understanding, I mean none whatsoever — about what motivates those seeking to bring about change at UVA.

    Briefly stated, William’s argument is that “MAGA Inc.” wants to “roll back the clock.” He writes: “Whether the intent is to turn UVa into the secular Hillsdale College of the South or to launch the sort of right-wing makeover administered to New College of Florida remains an open question.”

    No, it’s not an open question. Let me settle that right now. The Jefferson Council, the alumni organization which played a prominent role in Ryan’s ouster, does not want to remake UVA as a Southern Hillsdale or a secular Liberty University. Nor do we, nor anyone else on our side of the controversy, want to turn Mr. Jefferson’s University into bastion of right-wing thinking. We want to create the most exhilarating university in America to learn, teach and pursue knowledge, and to do that, we do believe UVA needs a sufficient number of conservatives, moderates, classical liberals and free thinkers to contest the orthodoxy maintained by campus leftists.

    I see not one iota of evidence that Williams has made any effort to acquaint himself with our thinking or with the reasons that the Department of Justice, Governor Glenn Youngkin, Attorney General Jason Miyares, or the Board of Visitors have done the things they have done. Williams interprets everything through a rigidly ideological lens that attributes incomprehensively malign motives to the people he dislikes.

    (more…)

  • Jeanine’s Memes

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    James A. Bacon

    Compiled by The Bull Elephant

    Compiled by The Bull Elephant

  • Bacon Meme of the Week

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    James A. Bacon

  • And in Other Higher-Ed News….

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    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.

    Michael Rao

    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 straight to work. They dissolved the university’s central office for diversity, equity and inclusion and started reviewing the work of DEI employees. They even hired a consultant to check their work.

    After the university previously eliminated 13 DEI positions, ended diversity statements, and revised some scholarship requirements, the VCU board voted after contentious discussion to eliminate the office of Inclusive Excellence altogether.

    Why is UVA in turmoil while VCU is not? A contributing factor is that VCU President Michael Rao acted proactively to comply with federal directives. VCU gave the Department of Justice no grounds to intervene, and the resulting polarization inherent with any Trump administration action was avoided.

    Meanwhile, GMU is begging for trouble. Ian Kingsbury with the Educational Freedom Institute chronicles the track record of GMU President Gregory Washington in City Journal.

    (more…)

  • Avoiding Transparency

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    James A. Bacon

    by Jon Baliles

    Foggy lens. Image credit: Bing Image Creator

    Richmond Mayor Danny Avula ran on a platform to clean up City Hall and be a transparent mayor, but so far he has done little to differentiate his administration from that of his predecessor, who wrote the book on how to master obfuscation and ignoring the public’s right to know. Avula could easily have announced demonstrated a new attitude and instituted a new policy towards transparency that would have matched his lofty rhetoric from the campaign trail that would bring a new day and let the sun shine down on City Hall.

    He had the perfect chance to take a huge first step and demonstrate the need for sunscreen by settling and ending an ongoing lawsuit filed last year by the city’s former Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) officer who was fired by Mayor Stoney in January 2024 after about six months on the job. That drama occurred just as the meals tax fiasco was heating up and the media was making numerous inquiries about the mess that is the city’s Finance Department. Leading up to that drama, other local reporters and government watchdogs have also had their FOIA requests ignored and had to take legal action against the city just to even get a reply. Then, Connie Clay was fired as the city’s FOIA officer and claims she was canned by the higher ups over information the city was providing (or not providing) under FOIA law. After her firing, she filed a $250,000 wrongful termination lawsuit.

    The city has stood firm in denying wrongdoing and say Clay’s allegations are without merit. The city delayed answering its own motion for dismissal for months and has dragged out the process. Two months ago, the judge overseeing the case had to order a play date meeting in May to work out the disagreements between the two sides to resolve document issues about what is confidential and what is not.

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  • Celebrate the 4th!

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    James A. Bacon

    George Washington and the Marquis de Lafayette at the Battle of Yorktown. Image credit: Chat GPT

    While we’re celebrating the 4th of July, acknowledging the signing of the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia, Pa., let us not forget Virginia’s role in the war for independence.

    Self-loathing Americans — and there are plenty of them; the percentage of Americans who are “proud” to be American” has hit a new low — criticize the United States for having failed to transform itself instantaneously from a world mired in feudalism, monarchy and coerced servitude into a polity, unknown previously in all of human history, that embodied 21st-century American values and institutions (which they don’t think are so great either).

    But count me among those who are proud of our history. For all of our mistakes, we have changed the world for the better. And I take pride in the contributions that early Virginians — George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Patrick Henry, George Mason, and many more — made toward the formation of the country. They articulated ideals that served as the lodestar for social and political change over 250 years and, in the process, inspired millions across the globe.

    God knows, America isn’t perfect. The challenge to create a more perfect union is a never-ending work in progress. Occasionally, I despair that we’ll lose what previous generations sacrificed to bequeath to us. But there’s nowhere I’d rather live. — JAB

  • The Fourth of July,1776

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    by

    Dick Hall-Sizemore

  • Virginia Republicans in Congress Caved In

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    by

    Dick Hall-Sizemore

    Image credit: Wikipedia

    by Dick Hall-Sizemore

    The national debt is $36.2 trillion.

    Morgan Griffith (Ninth District), Ben Cline (Sixth District), and John McGuire (Fifth District), Republican members of Congress from Virginia have expressed great concern about the national debt. McGuire has called it “the biggest threat to the U.S.”  Several years ago, Griffith lamented the “skyrocketing national debt.” Two years ago, Cline decried President Biden and the Democrats for the “increase [in] our national debt to unsustainable levels– over $31.6 TRILLION.”

    Griffith and Cline have not liked raising the debt limit, either. (McGuire has not been in office long enough to face a vote to raise the debt limit before now.) Griffith felt that raising the national debt limit “should be a great concern of every American.” Two years ago, Cline informed his constituents that he “has voted against raising the debt ceiling a number of times.” He explained, “Families here in Harrisonburg know that you can’t just keep raising the limit on your credit card and keep on spending beyond your means. Eventually, you have to change your spending habits to be able to pay the bills.”

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  • The Back Story of Ryan’s Resignation Is Complicated

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    James A. Bacon

    Jim Ryan interacted with supporters on the Lawn on the day he announced his resignation. Photo credit: New York Times

    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 Information Act.

    The first letter, sent April 11, asked for admissions data to ensure that the University was complying with last year’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling prohibiting the use of race in university admissions. An April 28 letter addressed complaints that the university administration had failed to comply with a March 7 order by the Board of Visitors to dismantle DEI.

    The letters showed how DOJ asked for increasingly comprehensive information and revealed the growing frustration of Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon and her deputy Greg Brown at the lack of response. They warned that a failure by the university to take “immediate corrective action” could lead to punitive steps, including possible termination of federal funding.

    “Time is running short, and the Department’s patience is wearing thin,” stated the final letter, dated June 17.

    Ryan resigned June 27.

    (more…)

  • GMU Begins Orientation with a Land Acknowledgement

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    by

    James A. Bacon

    by Liberty Unyielding staff

    This is NOT what GMU means when it refers to Turtle Island. Image credit: Chat GPT

    This fall, a Virginia couple are sending their daughter to George Mason University, Virginia’s largest public university, which has over 40,000 students. On June 30, they and their daughter attended mandatory student orientation from 9:30 am to 5:45 pm. GMU’s sports teams are called “the Patriots.”

    The first presentation in the orientation, the “Patriot Welcome,” began with a “land acknowledgment” saying that GMU was on the land of one of Virginia’s Native American tribes. In the video containing the land acknowledgment, America was referred to as “Turtle Island.”

    “Turtle Island” was not the word used for America by Virginia’s Native American tribes. And the U.S. is not an island, but rather, includes much of the North American continent. The Powhatan tribes in Virginia’s Tidewater region called their territory Tsenacomoco, not Turtle Island. The Lenapi Indians who once lived on the island of Manhattan did use the word “Turtle Island” for the continent, but George Mason University is not located in New York, or anywhere near it. Today, Turtle Island seems to be a term mainly used by anti-American radicals, some of whom say their “goal is to dismantle the settler project that is the United States.”

    (more…)

  • Bacon Bits: A UVA Roundup

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    James A. Bacon

    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 Visitors. He questions Governor Glenn Youngkin’s expression of “complete confidence” in a board that for three months tolerated President Jim Ryan’s foot dragging in dismantling Diversity, Equity & Inclusion and stonewalling the Department of Justice investigation into racial preferences and DEI.

    What does UVA’s board do? Seemingly little more than congratulating one another for what the members claim is their own terrific work. Indeed, at the June meeting, the board delivered no fewer than six standing ovations, all of which were in recognition of so-called jobs well done. For example, Mr. Hardie and Vice Rector Carlos Brown received separate standing ovations at the request of each other, with Mr. Brown going so far as to call Mr. Hardie “the hardest working rector in higher education.”

    Ouch! One can argue that the mutual back-slapping was all in the spirit of collegiality. No need for hard feelings! After all, every board member did give generously of his or her time. But the camaraderie did seem pro forma and a bit forced for a bitterly divided board.

    An outstanding job? On June 30, outgoing Rector Robert Hardie and incoming Rector Rachel Sheridan issued a joint statement praising the just-resigned President Ryan for his “outstanding record” as president. Stated the communique published in UVA Today:

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  • Pay Virginia’s Leaders Top Pay for Top Results

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    by

    James A. Bacon

    by Kenrick Brown

    The Governor of Virginia earns $175,000, which is less than the President of UVA, who made $912,200 in 2024. In an age afflicted by crises, chaos, and widespread disorder, this mismatch is not just embarrassing — it’s potentially compromising and destabilizing.

    This stark pay disparity underscores a far deeper issue: top-ranking Virginia public officials are grossly under-compensated given the gravity of their work. Notably, senior public sector officials bear greater moral responsibility than the vast majority of their C-suite private sector counterparts. This truth is especially profound as Virginia is home to a wide array of defense, Intelligence Community, and national security facilities and infrastructure. The General Assembly’s refusal to act reflects a terrible moral failing and a direct threat to effective governance. Low compensation weakens ethical standards and erodes governing competence across the Commonwealth. Consider this: it’s easier to bribe an official making $175K than one making $1.75M — or $17.5M.

    Not since January 14, 2006 — nearly two decades ago — has gubernatorial compensation been raised. 

    (more…)

  • How to Craft a Happy Ending from the Ryan Saga

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    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 or Republican either. Rather it comes from the key Trump Administration lawyer who helped force the UVA President to resign. 

    In justifying Ryan’s ouster, U.S. Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillion said the following: 

    “[The] federal government got pretty aggressive in going in and saying, no, sorry, after Brown v. Board of Education you have to allow equal opportunity for all people in the United States... To me, the promise of America is equal opportunity for every individual.”” 

    I find her reference to the Brown case most fascinating for this legal reason: Brown v. Board of Education doesn’t apply to higher education! 

    The case (actually, there were two separate decisions) applied to K-12 public education. Virginia was a losing defendant.

    Surely, Dhillon knows that. She was a top student at UVA law school. Her words are thus clear: The Trump administration wants to apply the equal opportunity principle in public schools from kindergarten to post doctorate.

    (more…)

  • Seriously?

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    by

    James A. Bacon

    Virginia Mercury headline: “After UVA president’s exit, Dems say they want to prevent further politicization of higher education.”

    Omitted from the article: Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell, D-Fairfax, said Saturday that he’s prepared to nuke all of Governer Glenn Youngkin’s nominations to the University of Virginia Board of Visitors in the next General Assembly session, and warned the board not to select a new president until next year (when Democrat Abigail Spanberger might be governor).

    And Democrats are worried about the politicization of higher ed?

    In its crafting of a new pseudo-narrative, the Mercury cited multiple examples of Youngkin efforts to dismantle DEI (Diversity, Equity & Inclusion) in Virginia’s public higher-ed institutions — as if the battle over DEI in higher ed started with Youngkin.

    (more…)

Now Available

Book cover of 'Dust Mites: A Second American Revolution' by James A. Bacon, featuring astronauts planting a flag with a blue and white emblem on a lunar landscape, with Earth visible in the background.
For sale on Amazon.com

The year: 2075. The American colonies on the Moon are getting restless under Washington’s tyrannical rule….

This second edition of “Dust Mites” has a snazzy new cover, includes helpful lunar maps, and is 5,000 words tighter than the original. The sequel, “Trogs,” is scheduled for publication this summer.

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Bacon’s Rebellion is Virginia’s leading politically non-aligned portal for news, opinions and analysis about state, regional and local public policy. Read more about us here.

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