Category Archives: Education (higher ed)

Hey NCAA, Let JMU Go Bowling!

Posted on October 27, 2023 by | 3 comments

by Kerry Dougherty

File this under “Even A Blind Squirrel Finds A Nut Occasionally”:

Louise Lucas, one of the worst members of Virginia’s General Assembly and the ringleader of the obstructionist “brick wall” in the state Senate that blocked chunks of Gov. Glenn Youngin’s popular agenda, is on the right side of an issue.

For once.

She recently posted this on X, the website formerly known as Twitter:

Let me remind the @NCAA that they are required by their charter to follow state laws where they operate. If they continue to hold @JMUFootball hostage to a technical rule and stop them from competing in the postseason they will face a very unfriendly future from our legislature.

I’m not sure there’s much to her veiled threat of “unfriendliness” from Virginia’s General Assembly, but her heart’s in the right place on this one. Until she brings race into it. As she always does. Sigh.

She’s one of many Virginia politicians – Republicans and Democrats – who are lobbying the NCAA to allow James Madison University to become bowl-eligible this year.

Let’s back up. In 2022 JMU moved up to Division 1 football after dominating the FCS for many years. This week the Dukes broke into both the AP and Coaches’ Polls national rankings in the 25th spot. The only Virginia college football program in the top 25.

No surprise, considering that after seven games, the university in Harrisonburg remains undefeated.

For most football programs, hitting six wins promises an invitation to play in one of the 41 bowl games. Seven wins? It’s a lock.

But NCAA rules prevent programs from participating in bowl games until they’ve been in the higher division for two seasons.

Continue reading →

3 Comments

Posted in Education (higher ed), Political Influence

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In Defense of Painful Free Speech

Posted on October 26, 2023 by | 75 comments

by Allan Stam

The horrific attacks of October 7th on Jews in Israel have prompted pro-Palestinian groups, including several at UVA, to rally in support of Hamas. In recent days, we have heard growing calls for support of Palestinians and condemnation of Israel as the Israeli Defense Forces and Iran’s proxies – Hamas, Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad, and Ansar Allah (the Houthi movement in Yemen) wage the most significant war in and around Israel in years. This is a war precipitated solely by Hamas’ surprise terror attack of unprecedented scale and proportion on unarmed Israeli civilians.

A common theme across the statements of pro-Palestinian groups and many university administrators and faculty is an explicit or implicit assertion of some moral equivalence between the suffering of human shields in Gaza and the victims of barbaric terror attacks in Israel. The linguistic turn that Hamas’ apologists employ most commonly is the ‘yes, but…’ device.

Some responded to these abhorrent statements with calls to restrict free speech, to sanction the terrorists’ enablers formally, and to quell somehow this pruriently hateful speech. I disagree. Most vehemently. Let the antisemites have their say. Why? Because now we know with certainty what they believe and how they genuinely feel about others in our community.

The downside of strict censorship is uncertainty about peoples’ actual beliefs. For example, by making the use of the n-word utterly forbidden, we protect the sensibilities of Black people who would suffer, at a minimum, great offense and possibly some genuine harm. However, the cost of that protection is that it enhances the ability of the faithful or casual racists to hide in our midst. Continue reading →

75 Comments

Posted in Civil Rights, Individual Liberties, Education (higher ed)

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Crime and Punishment in Charlottesville

Posted on October 25, 2023 by | 109 comments

by James C. Sherlock

UVa and Harvard are the two campuses most often cited by the national and world press as homes to the worst actors after October 7.

It is easy work.

I posted a column on Saturday making a series of recommendations for actions by the University of Virginia to protect its Jewish community and rid itself of those that threaten it.

That was my response to the infamous support of UVa-funded organizations for the slaughter of innocents in Israel by Hamas, a group designated by the United States as a terrorist organization.

Kill Jews “by any means necessary” they wrote.

Read the column.  I named them.

Now I have been told by the Executive Director of Hillel at UVa, Rabbi Jake Rubin, that the President’s office and law enforcement “have been incredibly responsive, helpful, and present during this difficult time.”

Good start, and Virginians thank them for it, but it does not answer the questions about enforcement of state and federal laws.

So, there is more to do. Continue reading →

109 Comments

Posted in Civil Rights, Individual Liberties, Courts and law, Crime, Corrections and Law Enforcement, Culture wars, DEI, Education (higher ed), Education (K-12)

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“Hate” Speech Does Not Make Students “Unsafe”

Posted on October 25, 2023 by | 21 comments

Scene from “Clockwork Orange”

by James A. Bacon

There is a widespread notion among militant leftists at the University of Virginia, as there is in universities across the Commonwealth, that exposure to objectionable ideas causes “harm” to those who hear them and, thus, should be suppressed. This logic is a totalitarian wolf in sheep’s clothing. While I do not countenance the banning of speech — even the speech of those who would happily ban mine — I do believe this leftist trope must be combatted forcefully in the marketplace of ideas.

We observed this thinking in the run-up to the speech by Abigail Shrier, author of Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters, which highlights the role of social contagion in the spread of transgender identity among teenage girls and the potentially irreversible damage of hormone treatments and sex-change surgery.

Shrier is Public Enemy No. 1 to transgender activists, and their social media accounts lit up once word got out that The Jefferson Council and its partners were holding a Q&A event with Shrier on the Grounds. I won’t bore you with the serial misrepresentations of Shrier as a transphobe and a hater. Rather, my intent here is to explore the logic that speakers with views like hers are unwelcome at UVa. 

“Unfortunately, knowing that the university is OK w allowing hateful ppl to come to this school (pence, pompeo, other hateful republicans) it is clear that ‘free speech’ and ‘bipartisanship’ is valued over the safety of their students,” messaged one writer in a QSU (Queer Student Union) account. [My bold face.] Continue reading →

21 Comments

Posted in Civil Rights, Individual Liberties, Culture wars, Education (higher ed), LGBQT

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The Impact of Virginia’s Certificate of Public Need Laws on Nursing Home and Home Health Care Availability and Expenditures

Posted on October 23, 2023 by | 4 comments

by James C. Sherlock

I have come across a major study in the National Institute of Health’s National Library of Medicine that made a point that I have not explored sufficiently to this point.

It discusses the intersection of nursing homes, home health care, CON laws like Virginia’s Certificate of Public Need (COPN) law, and Medicaid expenditures.

I have shown over time in a series of columns how bad many of Virginia’s nursing homes are.

Antitrust authorities at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and at the US Department of Justice (DOJ) have long taken the position that CON laws are anticompetitive.

This study, conducted prior to COVID, indicates that COPN administration will ensure that nursing facilities not only have little competition from other facilities, which it was designed to do, but also will limit home health care expansion, which the COPN law does not mention.

That is very good for the Virginia nursing home industry.

It is bad for every other Virginian, every one of whom may need at least post-operative recovery and rehabilitation if not long term care.

Some will need it in a dedicated facility, others can be better served at home.

The study indicated that COPN will tend to make home health care less available and potentially raise total Medicaid spending. It also showed that market forces unconstrained by CON laws like COPN will tend to reverse those trends.

So this article is dedicated to our politicians and their constituents.

You. Continue reading →

4 Comments

Posted in Central planning, Consumer Protection, Education (higher ed), Ethics, General Assembly, Governance, Health Care, Regulations and Government Oversight

What the Heck Does “a Historical Connection to Slavery” Mean?

Posted on October 22, 2023 by | 71 comments

by James A. Bacon

Project Gabriel, an initiative of the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine, discussed ideas this summer on how to circumvent the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling restricting the role of race in college admissions, Do No Harm has found through a public records request.

“VCU and other medical schools are trying their utmost to circumvent the Supreme Court decision striking down affirmative action,” Do No Harm Chairman Stanley Goldfarb told The College Fix. Do No Harm, a national organization headquartered in Henrico County, combats identity politics in medicine.

Project Gabriel scholarships, writes the College Fix, “would be available for ‘those with a historic connection to slavery.’ A list of challenges included questions such as ‘How do you determine someone’s historic connection to slavery?’ and ‘Restriction of affirmative action in college admission – how does this affect race-based scholarships?'”

“Work around the ruling on affirmative action and find ways we can still help give scholarships to those students in need,” say Project Gabriel notes. Continue reading →

71 Comments

Posted in Education (higher ed), Race and Race Relations

Anti-Jewish Extremism at UVa — Next Steps

Posted on October 21, 2023 by | 11 comments

Courtesy of SJP at UVa https://www.instagram.com/sjpuva/

by James C. Sherlock

The University of Virginia has made quite a national name for itself over the responses of its campus anti-Jewish extremists to the slaughter of babies in Israel.

It is not a reputation it wants.

On October 8th, Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at UVa, an organization officially recognized by the Student Council and eligible for funding by the student activities fee, issued a statement “unequivocally support(ing) Palestinian liberation “by any means necessary.”

“Any means necessary.”

It was cosigned by:

  1. Afghan Student Association
  2. Arab Student Organization
  3. Asian Pacific American Leadership Training Institute (APALTI)
  4. Asians Revolutionizing Together at UVA
  5. Asian Student Union
  6. Bengali Student Association
  7. Black Student Alliance
  8. Black Muslims at UVA
  9. Central Americans For Empowerment (CAFÉ)
  10. Environmental Justice Collective at UVA
  11. Ethiopian Eritrean Student Association
  12. FeelGood at UVA
  13. Hindu Student Council
  14. Indian Student Association
  15. La Unidad Latina, Lambda Upsilon Lambda Fraternity Inc.
  16. Lebanese Club
  17. Minority Rights Coalition
  18. Muslim Institute for Leadership and Empowerment (MILE)
  19. Muslim Student Association
  20. Muslims United
  21. National Pan-Hellenic Council
  22. National Society of Black Engineers
  23. Nepali Student Association
  24. Organization of African Students
  25. Pakistani Student Association
  26. Persian Cultural Society (PCS)
  27. Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity Inc.
  28. Political Latinxs United for Movement & Action in Society (PLUMAS)
  29. She’s the First at UVA
  30. Sigma Omicron Rho (ΣOP)
  31. Sikh Students Association
  32. Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers
  33. The 13 Society
  34. Turkish Student Organization
  35. undocUVA
  36. UVA Beyond Policing
  37. UVA Survivors
  38. Young Democratic Socialists of America

Continue reading →

11 Comments

Posted in Education (higher ed)

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The Incomplete Case for Higher Tuition at UVa

Posted on October 21, 2023 by | 3 comments

by James A. Bacon

As the Board of Visitors ponders how much to raise tuition & fees in the next two academic years, the University of Virginia is grappling with strong inflationary pressures and a long-term shortfall in state aid, senior university administrators said Wednesday.

Even so, administrators told the Board’s Finance Committee, UVa offers a great “value proposition” compared to other Top 50 universities. Its in-state tuition is lower than that of top private universities, and its four-year graduation rate is the highest of any public university in the country.

The Finance Committee meeting yesterday marked the beginning of a two-month decision-making process. The purpose of the initial meeting, said Committee Chair Robert M. Blue, was to provide “context” for the discussion. A November hearing will allow students and others to express their views about college costs. The Board is scheduled to adopt a new tuition structure in December. 

Although university officials did not say explicitly that a tuition increase is justified, the “context” presented was geared to supporting such a conclusion. Board members offered no pushback during the one-and-a-half-hour session, asking only a few questions for purposes of clarification. They did not drill into the data proffered by administrators, nor, despite assurances that UVa was working assiduously to achieve efficiencies and reduce redundancies, did they ask for specifics. No one addressed faculty productivity, administrative overhead, or other drivers of university costs. Continue reading →

3 Comments

Posted in Education (higher ed), Efficiency in Government

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Hatred of Jews at UVa – A Pot Brewed in the Faculty Lounge Boils Over

Posted on October 19, 2023 by | 37 comments

PHOTOS of smiling infants hang next to their bullet-ridden coat pegs in a bloodstained nursery devastated by Hamas terrorists. A little girl’s bicycle lays in a bullet-ridden yard. Credit Internewscast.com

by James C. Sherlock

Israel was attacked by Hamas on October 7.

On October 8, this letter was issued in Charlottesville.

“Events” were “a step towards a free Palestine.”

On October 11, President James Ryan issued a strong message condemning the savage Hamas massacre in Israel. He deserves credit for that, but has not gotten it on the grounds of the University.

Also on October 11, Jewish students at the University felt it necessary to address the University community in the Cavalier Daily. Continue reading →

37 Comments

Posted in Civil Rights, Individual Liberties, Culture wars, Democracy and Western Civilization, Education (higher ed), Education (K-12), Ethics

Lose the Masks

Posted on October 16, 2023 by | 66 comments

by Kerry Dougherty

Last Saturday’s horrors of Hamas were followed here and abroad with another kind of horror. There were anti-Israel rallies at colleges and in major cities across the nation. These heartless people were demonstrating for just one reason: to show support for the barbarians who had just invaded a country, slaughtered innocent people, raped women and children and grabbed hostages.

Frankly, I had no idea how widespread anti-Semitism was in the U.S. until I saw these shocking images.

Take a gander at their hatefests and tell me what you notice:

https://x.com/TBifford/status/1712577727071666607?s=20

https://x.com/therealmrbench/status/1712827303732932693?s=20

https://x.com/kerrydougherty/status/1713351767134466364?s=20

Yep, masks.x.com/…ugherty/status/1713351767134466364 Continue reading →

66 Comments

Posted in Democracy and Western Civilization, Education (higher ed)

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“Seeking a Better World” by Defending the Beheaders of Babies

Posted on October 13, 2023 by | 143 comments

by James A. Bacon

A week ago the Students for Justice in Palestine at UVA created a furor by publishing a statement defending Hamas’ attack on Israel. “Yesterday’s rebellion was not ‘unprovoked,’ as many have claimed, but is the consequence of years of mass killings, ethnic cleansing, and oppression from Israel,” the group wrote. “The events that took place yesterday [October 7] are a step towards a free Palestine…. We stand in solidarity with Palestinian resistance fighters and all oppressed people around the world seeking freedom and a better world.”

The same group organized a demonstration yesterday at the steps of the Rotunda in the shadow of the statue of Thomas Jefferson. I made a point of attending to hear what the protesters had to say and observe what transpired. I had one major question: who were these people? What kind of person living in a free society could defend the atrocities perpetrated upon Israeli civilians of all ages? What could they possibly be thinking?

As executive director of The Jefferson Council, which is dedicated among other things to free speech and free inquiry at UVa, I supported the right of the pro-Palestinians to hold their rally and make their case. But the Council also stands for viewpoint diversity, which is under threat from the steady leftward drift of the faculty and staff and the slow extinction of professors openly professing conservative, libertarian and independent views. While the far left is a distinct minority at UVa, it is a highly vocal and influential one. How representative, I wanted to know, were the Students for Justice in Palestine at UVA? Continue reading →

143 Comments

Posted in Democracy and Western Civilization, Education (higher ed)

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“Completely Ignored by Our School”: Roanoke College Swimmers, Part 4

Posted on October 13, 2023 by | 2 comments

Roanoke College swimmer Susanna Price (screenshot/WSLS on YouTube)

by Scott Dreyer

At Hotel Roanoke on October 5, members of the Roanoke College women’s swim team calmly and clearly delivered blistering indictments of what they described as failed, unresponsive leadership at their school, the NCAA, and USA Swimming. Some of their gut-wrenching stories about being forced to train, compete, and share facilities with a biological male are recorded in Parts One, Two, and Three.

Roanoke College team captain and swimmer Kate Pearson (screenshot/WSLS on YouTube)

At times choking back tears, team captain Kate Pearson painfully described the sense of emotional abandonment the girls felt, as they realized the school they had loved for years [and sent lots of tuition money to] was led by people who were turning both a blind eye and deaf ear to their concerns.

Pearson: “We tried numerous times to ask the school for support, but each and every time we were told to deal with it ourselves, or told nothing at all. The school refused to send out any information to our parents, and we were informed that even if our entire women’s team decided to stand together and not swim, and emphasized the unfairness that was happening, our coach would be allowed to have a ‘one-athlete’ swim team. Continue reading →

2 Comments

Posted in Civil Rights, Individual Liberties, Culture wars, Education (higher ed), Ethics

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Dumb and Getting Dumber

Posted on October 13, 2023 by | 56 comments

Two years after the COVID school lockdowns, the collapse in K-12 learning still has significant downward momentum. Of the 1.4 million high school seniors who took the ACT college preparedness test in 2023, the percentage meeting all four benchmarks — English, math, reading, and science — was 20.8% — down 1.3 percentage points from the previous year, according to ACT.

That’s not 21% of all high school graduates, it’s 21% of students who took the exam, which varied from 2% in Maine to 100% in Alabama.

“This is the sixth consecutive year of declines in average scores, with average scores declining in every academic subject,” ACT CEO Janet Godwin said in a press release. “We are also continuing to see a rise in the number of seniors leaving high school without meeting any of the college readiness benchmarks, even as student GPAs continue to rise and students report that they feel prepared to be successful in college.”

In Virginia, a mere 8% of high school graduates took the ACT exams, meaning only a highly self-selected group of college-bound students participated. Here is the percentage of Virginia students meeting ACT benchmarks of having “a high probability of success in credit-bearing first-year college courses”:

English — 83%
Math — 72%
Reading — 61%
Science  — 63%

— JAB

56 Comments

Posted in Education (higher ed), Education (K-12)

Jew-Hating Student Groups Crop Up Like Cockroaches. Virginia Is No Exception.

Posted on October 12, 2023 by | 58 comments

by Kerry Dougherty

As the world gapes in horror at the atrocities committed against the people of Israel malignant clots of the perpetually disgruntled appear, like cockroaches.

These brainwashed fans of Hamas cheer the murder of Jewish babies, the rape of Jewish women and the taking of Jewish hostages. They wave the Palestinian flag. They spew anti-semitism cloaked in something they call decolonization.

And where are these ghoulish fans of Islamic death cults found? College campuses, where else?

Many are oblivious to the fact that their nose rings, purple hair and non-binary existence would get them tossed off a tall building by the Islamists in the Middle East.

First out of the box were 31 student organizations at Harvard voicing support for the Palestinians. Not wanting to be outdone by the Cambridge brain trust, chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine at Stanford, Georgetown, Columbia, Swarthmore and George Washington University joined in the bloodthirsty, morally bankrupt cacophony. Then knots of nuts at the state schools jumped in: Florida State, University of Michigan, and the University of Illinois.

It didn’t take long for this nasty virus to infect Virginia. Misfits at William and Mary showed their solidarity with the Islamic rapists after the weekend bloodletting in Israel by harassing Jewish students who were raising relief funds for terror victims. And deranged hatred of the Jewish people crawled out of its hole at the commonwealth’s flagship: The University of Virginia.

In Charlottesville of all places!

Anyone else remember the national disgust over the white nationalist marchers in 2017 who carried torches and chanted “Jews will not replace us” and other Nazi slogans on the vaunted grounds of the university? Continue reading →

58 Comments

Posted in Democracy and Western Civilization, Education (higher ed)

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Roanoke College Swimmers Stand Up for Equality

Posted on October 9, 2023 by | 33 comments

Roanoke College women’s swim team (front row) and supporters at press conference at Hotel Roanoke, Oct. 5. (photo/Scott Dreyer)

by Scott Dreyer

At noon on Thursday, October 5, the Hotel Roanoke’s Washington Lecture Hall was the scene of a press conference featuring ten members of the Roanoke College women’s swim team. Aided by Riley Gaines and several women’s rights groups, they sought to shine a spotlight on what they portrayed as gross negligence and “emotional blackmail” at the hands of Roanoke College administrators, the NCAA, USA Swimming, and, by extension, state and federal politicians who have allowed them to suffer in many ways. Continue reading →

33 Comments

Posted in Civil Rights, Individual Liberties, Culture wars, Education (higher ed), Ethics, LGBQT