Monthly Archives: December 2023

Time for Moral Clarity, Mr. Ryan

Posted on December 7, 2023 by | 24 comments

Happy Hanukkah to our Jewish friends!

It is particularly ironic on the first night of the “Festival of Lights” that I feel compelled to address the rampant antisemitism existing at our American college campuses. I am writing this email expressing my personal views, not necessarily speaking for all of our Board since this was not reviewed by them.

Jim Bacon has already chronicled the “Students for Justice in Palestine” horrific October 8 statement and their marches on the Lawn afterwards. For those of you who missed it, please take a moment to read the articles and view the video links I provide below of the congressional testimony from the Harvard, MIT and the University of Pennsylvania presidents this past Tuesday. Each one of them steadfastly refused to unequivocally condemn the Hamas genocide or their students’ protests praising the “intifada” while chanting “from the river to the sea.” That is the terrorist Islamist euphemism for the eradication of Israel and Jews worldwide.

Recall that the Penn president is Liz Magill, former UVA EVP and Provost. As you will see below, she is now facing mounting pressure to resign over her comments last Tuesday, as are the presidents of Harvard and MIT. All have attempted to walk back their statements given alumni blowback, but the damage is done. Continue reading →

24 Comments

Posted in Freedom of speech and expression, Student health, safety, welfare

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Now UVa Has a Religious Diversity Task Force

Posted on December 7, 2023 by | 7 comments

As tensions escalate between Muslims and Jews across the United States, the Ryan administration has announced the creation of a Task Force on Religious Diversity and Belonging at the University of Virginia.

“The ongoing conflict in the Middle East has affected all of us,” Provost Ian Baucom told the Board of Visitors Thursday. The goal is to support free speech at UVa while ensuring that “religious minorities” — he pointedly specified Muslims and Jews — feel like they belong, he said.

Referring to UVa’s “unwavering commitment to be a diverse and inclusive university,” Baucom said “that work began this week and will continue this year.”

Kevin McDonald, UVa’s vice president for diversity, equity & inclusion, and interim senior associate vice president of student affairs Cedric Rucker are “meeting with and breaking bread with our Jewish and Muslim students,” Baucom said.

The announcement follows two large rallies at UVa by Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) in support of the October 7 terrorist attacks on Israel. Pro-Palestinian students have chanted, “Palestine will be free, from the river to the sea,” which Israel sympathizers interpret as demanding the dissolution of the Israeli state. Continue reading →

7 Comments

Posted in Board of Visitors, Freedom of speech and expression, Race, Equity and Diversity

Wait, What? An Operating Deficit at McIntire?

Posted on December 7, 2023 by | 1 comment

For policy nerds fascinated by the University of Virginia as an ongoing business enterprise, there was all sorts of interesting financial information in the Auditor of Public Accounts’ presentation Thursday to the Board of Visitors. Fiscal Year 2023 revenues for the combined health system and academic division closed out at $4.3 billion. Revenue from student tuition and fees was $690 million, philanthropic gifts amounted to $232 million, and investments (mostly from the endowment) generated another $190 million.

Oh, and then there was this note tucked away in the prepared Board materials but mentioned only in passing during the meeting: The McIntire School of Business — a business school where they teach things like, oh, I don’t know, like accounting — has been operating at a deficit.

Here’s how the Auditor of Public Accounts summarized the concerns raised in its audit of UVa finances (my bold): Continue reading →

1 Comment

Posted in Administration, Board of Visitors

Will Alderman Be Canceled? Not Yet.

Posted on December 7, 2023 by | 8 comments

Edwin A. Alderman

The University of Virginia Board of Visitors has tabled a discussion about renaming Alderman Library in honor of former UVa President Edgar F. Shannon until the Board’s February/March meeting.

John Nau, chair of the Buildings & Grounds Committee, told the full board Thursday that he had spoken to “every member of the board” about the measure but “there’s still work to address this issue.”

There was no discussion, and a presentation of the renaming proposal included in the board information packet was skipped.

Alderman was UVa’s first president, appointed after the job of running the university had proven too complex for the Board of Visitors alone. Serving from 1904 to 1931, he extended UVa’s outreach to a broader population, updated teaching methods, and admitted women to graduate programs at UVa despite resistance from faculty and alumni. Under his leadership, UVa entered a growth phase, growing enrollment dramatically, expanding the number of faculty, building the endowment, and increasing its budget more than ten-fold. Alderman has been criticized in recent years for his retrograde views on race and his embrace of the then-progressive enthusiasm for eugenics. Continue reading →

8 Comments

Posted in Memorials

Letter: Why I Resigned from the Jefferson Scholars Program

Posted on December 5, 2023 by | 9 comments

Open letter from David Greenberg (Engineering ’66, Law ’69).

It is with deep regret that I must decline to participate in the interviews I have enjoyed and found inspiring for so long I can’t remember the number of years. I have nothing but the highest regard for everyone I have met and been associated with in the Jefferson Scholars program. I have been proud to be a part of the selection process of some of the most outstanding students entering my beloved University.

My experience on Grounds was transformational. I am forever thankful that I had the opportunity to earn two degrees from the University. My hope has always been that new students will have a similar experience to mine.

However, I have become profoundly concerned over the rise in antisemitism at the University and its impact on the safety and security of Jewish students on Grounds and in the University community. Continue reading →

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Should UVa Adopt Institutional Neutrality?

Posted on December 2, 2023 by | 2 comments

“Institutional neutrality” as conceived by Bing image creator.

From the latest issue of The Jefferson Independent…

by Lauren Horan

Places of higher education exist to serve as sanctuaries for the exchange of ideas. With diverse student populations, a plethora of ethnic backgrounds and a variety of lived experiences, college campuses are enriched by the students that inhabit them.

However, with substantially sized student bodies, there will undoubtedly be a wide range of opinions regarding the highly contentious political and social issues of our time, with the Israel-Hamas war being one of them. This then presents the question of how higher institutions ought to react. When current events concern the students of these universities, are administrators obligated to issue a statement that demonstrates an ambiguously neutral stance, pacifying the anger of one half of the cohort while only enraging the other?

The Kalven Report, a document stipulating the University of Chicago’s role on institutional neutrality, arose as the creation of a committee by then-University President George Beadle. The purpose of the seven-person committee was to better understand how the University should approach “political and social action.” The committee’s efforts were prompted by the various protests over the social issues of the 1960s, including opposition to the Vietnam War and the civil rights movement.

Led by famous legal scholar Harry Kalven Jr., the committee published areport in November 1967 in which they firmly adopted a position of neutrality in order to best preserve the university’s goal of being a haven for “the discovery, improvement, and dissemination of knowledge.”

“The instrument of dissent and criticism is the individual faculty member or the individual student. The university is the home and sponsor of critics; it is not itself the critic,” the Kalven committee expressed in their statement.
Read the whole thing.

Lauren Horan, a fourth year Government and Spanish student, serves on the Jefferson Council Board of Advisors.

2 Comments

Posted in Governance

Fear and Loathing of Youngkin’s Higher Ed Policy

Posted on December 1, 2023 by | 1 comment

by James A. Bacon

In early October Governor Glenn Youngkin asked Attorney General Jason Miyares for a formal opinion on a seemingly innocuous question: Whose interests are members of Virginia’s public university governing boards supposed to represent? Miyares responded that the “primary duty” of the boards of visitors is to the commonwealth, not to the institutions themselves. The conclusion would seem to be so obvious, so clearly the intent of the state code, that it doesn’t warrant discussion.

But some people espy a vague but malign intent behind the finding.

Speaking to the higher-ed trade journal, Inside Higher Ed, Claire Gastañaga, former director of Virginia’s ACLU and a former deputy attorney general overseeing Virginia’s public colleges and universities, said Miyares’ opinion is a threat to the autonomy of public institutions. In the publication’s words, she “fears it signals an attempt by the governor to justify the removal of board members whose actions don’t align with his priorities” and replace them with appointees who share his priorities. Gastañaga pointed to the Bert Ellis bogeyman as evidence that Youngkin is scheming something nefarious. Continue reading →

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Posted in Board of Visitors, Governance