Virginia Tech’s Board of Visitors has joined the University of Virginia and Virginia Commonwealth University in voting to dismantle its Diversity, Equity & Inclusion program. Of course, local media found minority students who are unhappy with the decision.
“I’m here on a scholarship for first-generation students, so I find these kinds of programs are super important to ensure that these voices are visible and heard,” Kaitlyn Guzman, a senior from Leesburg studying political science and Spanish, told The Virginia Cardinal.
It turns out, according to a revealing figure in the Cardinal article, that 40 percent of Virginia Tech students are from so-called “under-represented” groups: primarily first-generation students (the first in their family to attend college).
Ever since the U.S. Supreme Court restricted the use of race in admissions, it seems that every public university in Virginia has discovered the virtue of increasing “first-generation” admissions. VCU, a much less selective institution than UVA or Tech, has defined its niche in Virginia’s higher-ed system for many years as serving first-gen students. Now everyone wants in on the first-gen action.
Wielding irony like a razor-sharp butcher’s knife, Governor Glenn Youngkin (R) has proposed a series of amendments on bills intended to mandate renewable energy that basically reverse the impact and do just the opposite. One amendment would even repeal the 2020 Virginia Clean Economy Act (VCEA), which is central to Virginia Democratic climate politics and future utility profits.
Youngkin opened the 2025 session calling the VCEA a “quagmire,” but had not proposed his own bill to repeal it. Now he has placed an opportunity for repeal on the table.
Many of the energy bills identified earlier by the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy as unwise were vetoed outright by the Governor. For others, he offered the changes that remove the harm they would do. Youngkin’s deadline for actions was Monday at midnight, but many of the substitutes were not available for review until Tuesday afternoon.
The General Assembly returns on April 2 to consider overrides of the vetoes, but that motion requires a two-thirds vote in both chambers. With only narrow Democratic majorities, the vetoes are likely to stand. There are enough Democrats, however, to reject the Governor’s amendments and substitutes, so the new proposals described below are unlikely to pass. If the General Assembly rejects his changes, the Governor gets a final opportunity to veto the underlying bill.
The worst energy legislation to reach his desk was two matching bills to completely revise the monopoly utility’s integrated resource process, incorporating a mandate to consider the social cost of carbon in all analyses, among other changes detrimental to consumers. House Bill 2413 and Senate Bill 1021 were vetoed.
Who leaked police-cam videos meant to embarrass Bert Ellis to The Washington Post? If we knew the answer to that, we could get a clearer view of the behind-the-scenes power play to shape the future of the University of Virginia.
Governor Glenn Youngkin has asked Ellis to resign from his position on the UVA Board of Visitors, and Ellis has so far resisted. The objection to Ellis cited in the Post — which is consistent with what I have heard — is that his outspoken manner conflicts with the gentlemanly demeanor that Youngkin would like to see on the UVA board. The two men are scheduled to hash out their issues in a meeting this afternoon.
But there is more going on than a difference of style. Ellis is a hate object for the left. Just read the comments onThe Washington Post article that broke the news of the requested resignation, for a taste of the venom. Ellis was the victim of a character assassination campaign when Democrats almost blocked his nomination to the board in 2022, and his enemies could be dusting off the same playbook.
Sources are leaking. Their identities and motives remain obscure.
The Post cites at least “two people familiar with the matter” for its article this morning laying bare the controversy. The reporters, Dan Rosenzweig-Ziff and Laura Vozzella, do not identify their sources, but they provide clues. One is probably a senior Youngkin administration official. The identity of the second is uncertain, but some evidence points to someone senior in the UVA administration.
At the University of Virginia (UVA), we stand with our feet firmly planted in two worlds: the world of our founding and the world we now inhabit. The tension between those two worlds is an alchemical force, capable of transforming memory into momentum and history into hope. It is this very tension that propels the university ever forward.
UVA’s Board of Visitors also straddles two different worlds, per se. According to the “Statement of Visitor Responsibilities — Board of Visitors of the University of Virginia — December 7, 2018,” members of the Board of Visitors are expected to serve “… as conduits for conveying the interests of citizens and political leaders of the Commonwealth to the University.” At the same time, they are expected to “…actively safeguard principles of academic freedom for the University and its faculty and endeavor to protect the University from outside influences seeking improperly to shape it.”
Considering the recent BOV resolutions designed to compel UVA to carry out President Trump’s executive orders (consistent with directives from Attorney General Miyares and, by extension, Governor Youngkin), the BOV must grapple with a question that strikes at the heart of our identity as an institution: should BOV members prioritize serving as the conduit for conveying the interests of the Governor and AG over protecting the University from outside influences seeking improperly to shape it? Put another way: should the University abandon Thomas Jefferson’s call to “follow truth wherever it may lead” and instead allow elected officials to define truth on our behalf?
The news regarding Columbia University agreeing to President Trump’s list of demands increases my sense of urgency that UVA’s Board of Visitors needs to grapple with these questions sooner rather than later. The University of Virginia cannot fulfill its mission if the scope, focus, or direction of scholarly inquiry is restricted to align with the ideology of the sitting President—regardless of party affiliation. Students and faculty alike cannot follow truth freely if the price of federal funding is compliance with a political agenda.
Having bragged on national cable news that “DEI is done” at the University of Virginia, Governor Glenn Youngkin now is asking for the resignation of the man most determined to ensure that DEI is, in fact, laid to rest.
Youngkin is worried that Board of Visitors member Bert Ellis’ “outspoken and sometimes combative manner,” to use The Washington Post’s words, could undermine his efforts to reshape the university.
Ellis has declined to oblige the governor, and the two men are scheduled to meet Tuesday to discuss the matter.
The Post cites two unidentified sources for its story. I don’t know who those sources are, but it’s safe to describe the piece as part of a larger effort to neutralize Ellis, who was the object of a previous smear campaign in 2022 after Youngkin nominated him to take the lead against DEI, administrative bloat, and rising tuition.
The tip-off is the Post’s reference to April 2023 videos in which Ellis harangued two University Police Department officers for their invisible presence on the Corner retail strip adjacent to UVA. The Post reporters obtained the police-cam videos through a highly specific Freedom of Information Act request that could only have been fed to them from a source familiar with the incident. In a sure sign that the newspaper is a willing tool in the effort to discredit Ellis, the reporters left out critical exculpatory context. (More on the Post article in a follow-up post.)
Ellis narrowly survived an effort by Virginia Democrats to derail his appointment two years ago after a character-assassination campaign depicted him as racist, homophobic and a physical danger to the UVA community. Since then, he has emerged as the one member of the Board of Visitors willing to openly confront Northam appointees who, until this year, controlled the board. In one showdown with Rector Robert Hardie, he insisted that the board discuss openly, not in closed session, the wave of antisemitism arising from pro-Palestinian rhetoric and demonstrations on Grounds. More recently, he has been voting solo against new spending requests until the Ryan administration presented a budget with major spending cuts and tuition relief.
Excepting only the confrontation with Hardie, Ellis has been restrained and respectful during board meetings. Outside the board, he has been blunt, plain-spoken and colorfully quotable. In a recent interview with The Daily Progress about the University, he said that “every aspect of DEI is to be ripped out, shredded and terminated.”
Let’s check in on the left — and paid social media influencers — to see what they’re screaming about today, shall we?
Oh boy, this is a good one: they’re livid that food stamp recipients in the SNAP program may be prevented from using their government assistance to buy junk food.
You know, sodas, cookies, sugary cereals, chips, etc.
Exactly five years ago, March 23, 2020, Virginia’s Governor issued “Executive Order 53” which shut down the state economy in order to “flatten the curve” of COVID19 infections. It would continue in force until June 30, 2021, or over fifteen months.
Five years later, there is not a shred of evidence that these unconstitutional actions saved a single life. Indeed, Executive Order 53, like most shutdown orders, very likely caused thousands of unnecessary deaths as Virginians stopped visiting their doctors, stopped checking in on relatives and radically increased their use of illegal narcotics.
Today it is quietly acknowledged that the COVID shutdowns were an embarrassment; a reaction driven by public fear and hysteria. Sadly, the usual guardians of executive abuse -– the media and judiciary –- failed to intervene. I know that for a fact, as I personally filed lawsuits to undo these disastrous actions while lives and businesses could be saved.
Are Rockingham County leaders fabricating numbers and seeking more power just because they can?
by Joe Fitzgerald
Travis McGee once mentioned a particular type of no-see-um mosquito that swarmed but did not bite. He said the evolutionary question was, “What do they want?”
The difference with the Rockingham County School Board is that we can see them, but the question remains.
Watch the average school board meeting and see people discussing policy details, programming decisions, budget issues, teacher raises, and student accomplishments.
Watch a county board meeting and tell me what happens. I’ve suffered enough.
A short review is in order. The board banned 57 books, seven of which aren’t in their libraries. They’re still deciding on the rest, 15 months later, and they’re ignoring the recommendations of the secret committee they appointed to review the books. But let’s allow that to be a metaphor for the rest of their rushed changes and move on to the Massanutten Technical Center (MTC).
I is for indoctrination. To celebrate Women’s History Month this month, West Springfield High School erected an alphabetized display in the school colors. A is for abortion. F is for feminism. J is for justice. Q is for queer. T is for trans women. W is for wage gap. Z is for male gaZe. You get the idea. “There is simply no defense for this display, which would be expected in the Democratic Party’s National Headquarters but not in a taxpayer-funded public school,” writes Stephanie Lundquist-Arora in The Daily Signal. “This display clearly encapsulates … the pressing need for school choice in America. Perhaps DEI should be rebranded Diversity, Equity & Indoctrination.
Speaking of equity… how about making kids walk to school? Faced with a shortage of school bus drivers, Charlottesville Public Schools in 2021 expanded the “walk zones” from a quarter mile to three-quarters of a mile. Walking is healthy, right? And buses emit CO2, right? But for some kids the trek can take half an hour, which in the cold and rain can be unpleasant. Now some parents are complaining, reports The Daily Progress. “The school system claims to be big on equity.… It feels hard for me to believe they are big on equity when the kids who need the most services don’t have a ride to school,” said one. “These kids are the ones who have the horrible attendance rates, and literacy rates are the lowest. You’re not even providing them a way to get to school to learn.”
Waaah.
So inclusive that she kicked her meds! After a year at the University of Virginia, Rebecca Fitch hadn’t found her niche. “At the end of my first year, it felt almost like UVA wasn’t for me,” she said. “I was just really depressed. I didn’t feel like I was making any friends, because I wasn’t. I didn’t feel like I had people who really cared about me.”
So, how did she finally find a sense of belonging?
Governor Youngkin is again showing that he’s “all hat and no cattle.”
The latest example is his fawning response to the President’s actions to gut the U.S. Dept. of Education. In it, he declares, “Virginia is ready to take full responsibility for K-12 education.” That sounds impressive, but I thought that Virginia has always had full responsibility for operating public education. What will Virginia be able to do that it could not do before the President’s executive order?
Perhaps I should give Youngkin a little more credit. Perhaps, when he said, “full responsibility,” he meant “full” in the literal sense of the word. We are ready to go it alone, without any federal assistance. We are taking full responsibility, which includes paying for it all.
But, no. That couldn’t be what he meant, because in the next paragraph of the news release, Secretary of Education Aimee Rogstad Guidera is talking about federal dollars the state will be receiving. So, it looks like the state will not be taking full responsibility after all. We still expect the federal government to pay part of the costs of our educational system.
Secretary Guidera seems really excited that “the President’s Executive Order ensures that federal dollars will arrive in Virginia with less red tape and bureaucracy and allow” the state and localities to spend all that federal money however it deems best. She might want to read that order again. Nowhere in that order does Trump address the issue of how federal funding, if there is to be any, will be allocated to states and localities, except to say that none will go to any entity that has programs “under the label ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion’ or similar terms and programs promoting gender ideology.”
Despite his declaration that “waste, fraud and abuse is stunning and shocking, and everybody sees it,” Youngkin seems to be assuming that Virginia will still be getting federal dollars to help pay for its schools. It seems that the “waste, fraud and abuse” is somewhere else and not in Virginia.
Image from the University of Virginia Special Counsel Review taken from the executive summary.
by James A. Bacon
After more than a year of delays, the University of Virginia has finally released two reports ordered by the Attorney General — one detailing the University Police Department (UPD) response to the Nov. 13, 2022, mass shooting at UVA, and one reviewing the failure of the University’s Threat Assessment Team (TAT), despite abundant red flags, to prevent the tragedy.
The reports provided comprehensive background information about formal policies and administrative structures of the UPD and threat assessment team. But extensive redactions removed almost all content describing how events folded and what specifically went wrong.
The reports recommend some administrative reforms, but literally no names are named in the unredacted portions of the reports. No one is called to account. There is not even a timeline. The public learns almost nothing new about the events that transpired, and no narrative of bureaucratic decision-making is provided to help readers understand the basis for the conclusions.
It would be unfair to describe the redacted reports as worthless. They do contain some useful insights and recommendations. (More about those in a follow-up post.) But they leave important questions unanswered.
Almost eight of the 16 pages in the executive summary of the Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan report on the threat assessment team were blacked out. Roughly 34 of 43 pages in the executive summary of the Vinson & Elkins report on the University Police were suppressed. Of the approximately 70 exhibits mentioned in the Vinson & Elkins report, only four were identified — and none were attached to the report.
Two weeks ago, following the decision of the Virginia Military Institute Board of Visitors not to renew his contract, Superintendent Cedric T. Wins, defended his record and asserted that the Board’s decision was influenced by political bias rather than job performance. Bacon’s Rebellion posted his statement here.
Wins, a 1985 alumnus, was appointed superintendent by former Governor Ralph Northam amid accusations of institutional racism and sexism. His tenure included initiatives such as removing the Stonewall Jackson statue and implementing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs. Some alumni supported the changes and others criticized them for undermining the traditions that made VMI distinctive and worthy. The Board, dominated by appointees of Governor Glenn Youngkin, voted 10-6 against renewing his contract.
The Cadet, which has had a tumultuous relationship with Wins, found that some of the claims in his letter were accurate but needed context, others lacked substantiation, and yet others weren’t supported by the facts. Among the highlights:
Claim: The Board’s decision was politically motivated
Assertion: The decision not to renew his contract, said WIns, “was not based on my performance or the tangible progress we achieved.”
Evaluation: Unsubstantiated. “This claim suggests political motivation without evidence. The BOV follows a standardized evaluation process, and no public evidence supports allegations of bias. The BOV, consisting of sixteen highly qualified individuals, conducted its annual performance rating in a closed session as required by its Bylaws and state law. MG Wins was not in the room for those discussions and has no first-hand knowledge.”
Last night, as promised repeatedly during the campaign, President Donald Trump signed an Executive Order directing Education Secretary Linda McMahon to take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure of the Department of Education (the Department). The order also ensures the continued delivery of essential services such as federal student aid and funding for students with disabilities. This historic move will rightly transfer most education funding and authority back to states and local communities — the first step, one would hope, in getting funds to parents, where it belongs.
This has led to the expected outrage from progressives. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer described the attempt to dismantle the Department as “one of the most destructive and devastating steps Donald Trump has ever taken” (probably the hundredth time he has made this assertion). House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries accused the administration of “taking a chainsaw to public education in America,” warning that such actions could lead to increased class size, educator layoffs, and cuts to special education programs.
President Trump’s Department closure, however, aligns with long-standing conservative philosophy that education policy is best that is determined closest to the students being served — namely, state and local entities and parents. The Thomas Jefferson Institute recently advocated for the closure of the Department, arguing that federal education oversight and funding imposes uniform standards that hinder schools’ adaptability to local needs and divert resources away from classrooms and towards administrative overhead. Eliminating the Department empowers states and local communities to tailor educational policies more effectively, fostering environments that better serve their unique student populations.
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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