Tragedies in Charlottesville
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26 responses to “Tragedies in Charlottesville”
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Sometimes the real truth is painful but must be said. Excellent expose.
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Nazis on campus
Three murders
Prof. Lomasky precluded from passing out grades.
At least one of these things does not belong…..
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Yeah, the lack of perspective is remarkable.
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“Almost all American colleges and universities feature a large and growing rank of non-academic bureaucrats empowered by local policy and federal guidelines. They can be identified by initials such as DEI or EOCR. They may know little or nothing about academic standards, but through expertise in paper-shuffling they serve as unaccountable prosecutor, judge, and jury of students and faculty. The infection at UVA is not as pronounced as at some other well-known institutions, but it is not negligible. Only a fool or a hero will have the temerity to disregard the threat they represent.”
Gee, and the WaPo and the stalwarts of the BR comments section can’t understand why the Spirit of VMI PAC is leery of DEI engulfing VMI.
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Two separate issues, IMO. Yes, there is administrative bloat throughout US colleges. But that doesn’t by itself mean that DEI isn’t valuable; it just means they are over-indexing. VMI was the last college in the state without a DEI program, and it has a history of discrimination. DEI was long overdue at the school…and you don’t need to look any further than the racist VMI alumni website, Old Corps Spirt, or scroll down to see the PAC’s cartoons, or certain posters’ moral cowardice, to determine that VMI had a massive cultural problem.
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And now VMI has 25% fewer enrollees than it had before the DEI transformation. How do you explain that? Something has gone off the rails at VMI. How many more students can the institution lose while remaining viable?
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I explain it just like the analysts explained it at the last BOV meeting. Applications have been declining for the last decade for a number of reasons (demographic, pandemic, loss of interest in the military, bad press, etc.) it didn’t just happen. And you’re engaging in post hoc fallacy, assuming that the sequence of events means causality. Let’s put it like this–The Citadel, VMI’s closest analog and rival, has had a robust, fully-staffed DEI program since 2015. They had their largest entering class in history last fall. How do you explain that if DEI is a deterrent to students who want to go to a southern military school? The answer is that it’s not.
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“The Citadel, VMI’s closest analog and rival, has had a robust, fully-staffed DEI program since 2015. They had their largest entering class in history last fall. ”
Did Citadel DEI staffers run around the Main Post with sandblasters? Rename chapels? Demand that commemorative medals be redesigned? That’s what happened at VMI.
It sure looks like overkill, and pettiness run amok, from the DEI-favoring crowd in Lexington…and Richmond, and the WaPo staff.
It wouldn’t surprise me if some, or even a lot, of shameful racially-tinged actions happened at VMI. But the reaction appears way over the top, vindictive and petty. It seems that the DEI-favoring crowd took advantage of the George Floyd and COVID traumas, a weak governor and a woke newspaper to bully VMI. Effective, yes. Honorable, no.
Or, it could be taken as a sign that today’s sensitive Keydet really can’t abide the name of a Confederate general on an arch. If that’s really the case, then we have much bigger problems than some opportunistic Wokesters.
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“Racially-tinged actions” is an interesting euphemism. The term I would use is repeated cases of overt and insidious racism, homophobia and sexism. So, not only is your take on VMI’s DEI program “running amok” completely off and obviously fostered by the misinformation on this site and by regressive VMI alums, but you are misinformed about the degree to which El Cid has tried to reform itself. Back in 2015, The Citadel lobbied the SC legislature to change the law to allow them to remove Confed. iconography from campus, which they’re still fighting to do. They are also looking to rename buildings on campus directly tied to the Confed. Both actions were supported by their board and their past two superintendents. https://today.citadel.edu/johnson-hagood-stadium-part-of-citadels-study-of-structures-named-for-historical-figures/ They celebrate Gay Pride and had training sessions on post to talk about BLM: https://today.citadel.edu/citadel-initiatives-to-focus-on-campus-and-community-diversity/ Sorry, it’s only VMI where bing backwards is normalized.
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But what if we don’t accept your conclusion that VMI is “backwards” and beset with “repeated cases of overt and insidious racism, homophobia and sexism?” You are entitled to your opinions, but you’re not entitled to have everyone else share them. Barnes Thornburgh didn’t find that VMI was shot through with racism.
I repeat that Matt Daniels and the Spirit of VMI PAC have plenty of good reasons to be wary of the DEI crowd that wants to sweep through VMI. That crowd seems to be hypersensitive, have poor judgement, and seem to see racism everywhere and in everything. No one wants leaders who are shallow thinkers and driven by emotion—and that seems to be the kind of people that too often come out of DEI programs nowadays.
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Wins has “bigger fish to fry” than a DEI program. Plummeting enrollment is an existential threat to a college, a DEI program is not.
As far as engaging in fallacies, you first claim that VMI’s declining enrollment (not applications) is due to ” demographic, pandemic, loss of interest in the military, bad press, etc.” You then cite VMI’s closest analog as having the largest entering class in its history last fall. Do demographics, the pandemic, a loss of interest in the military not apply to the Citadel?
DEI is far from VMI’s most pressing problem.
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Hey, it’s conservative free market principles operating. That market may decide VMI viability.
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Bravo Zulu, Professor Lomasky. It seems as if’s time for good Virginians to give the same treatment to state university administrations that Sherman gave to the Shenandoah Valley. Get rid of the bad stuff, then Build Back Better!
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Sheridan!
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Indeed. Sherman was busy in Georgia with similar tasks. 🙂 Being old enough I still chuckle at the memory of the Carol Burnett sketch where the Yank asks her for directions to Atlanta and a match….
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Sherman, Sheridan – all those Irish guys look alike.
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Oops—point taken. Sheridan. Hey, it’s Monday.
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Indeed. Sherman was busy in Georgia with similar tasks. 🙂 Being old enough I still chuckle at the memory of the Carol Burnett sketch where the Yank asks her for directions to Atlanta and a match….
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Well, this is going to be interesting. Love the tag line at the end in italics. I can guess which one will be one leaving….
More on our author here:
https://ppl.virginia.edu/faculty/profile/lel3f
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The italicized tag line seems to have been added and not clearly tied to the author.
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The tagline is the author’s.
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JAB hasn’t exhibited THAT much of a sense of humor… yet.
Jokes of the proper kind, properly told, can do more to enlighten questions of politics, philosophy, and literature than any number of dull arguments. -Isaac Asimov, scientist and writer (1920-1992)
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Wait a second.. the pass/no pass thing that was supposed to be temporary during lockdowns is now codified permanently? How much longer can UVA coast on inertia before people realize it’s not what it used to be? I suppose the only thing that may save the reputation is the fact that almost all elite schools (public and private) seem to be in an equity pissing match to see who can race to the bottom first.
Holy Hell, look at this guy’s background. He’s made a career out of studying nonsense, and it shows: https://www.amacad.org/person/ian-baucom
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Please elaborate on how this has been “codified permanently”. Also what about this guy’s background suggests that he has studied nonsense?
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UVa does seem to have an inordinate number of issues. The rape hoax, Unite the Right, a spree killer, the rape and murder of Hannah Graham by a UVa hospital employee, the harassment of Martese Johnson by the ABC Gestapo, the kidnapping and murder of Morgan Harrington.
As for the education – definitely going downhill. A lot of companies don’t recruit at UVa anymore. Better skills and less entitlement at Virginia Tech.
The fact that Pass-Fail is now Pass-No Pass pretty much tells me everything I need to know about college administrators’ faith in the resiliency of our youth.
It is unfair for us to complain about the next generation being “snowflakes” when we are allowing our public schools to teach them to be “snowflakes”.
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