Category Archives: Freedom of speech and expression

A Tale of Two Protests: UVA vs. Berkeley

Posted on April 13, 2024 by | 15 comments

by James A. Bacon

The Jefferson Council is often critical of the free-speech environment at the University of Virginia, but we’re also cognizant that things could be a lot worse. UVA could be Harvard, which has the worst possible free-speech rating from the Foundation for Individual Rights & Expression… or Berkeley, which is almost as bad.

In his Substack publication Original Jurisdiction, legal analyst David Lat contrasts the behavior of law students at UVA and Berkeley. Describing a speech at UVA by Justice Jay Mitchell of the Alabama Supreme Court, who wrote the controversial opinion in Alabama’s invitro fertilization case, Lat writes:

Some UVA students decided to protest him. As I approached the room where he would be speaking, I saw several protesters standing outside and holding signs. I wondered if they would yell at me or other people going into the talk, à la the Stanford law students who shouted “shame, shame” at attendees of Judge Kyle Duncan’s March 2023 talk—and who screamed at Judge Duncan things like, “We hope your daughters get raped!”

Continue reading →

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The Daily Progress Recaps UVA Antisemitism Controversy

Posted on April 6, 2024 by | 5 comments

by James A. Bacon

The Daily Progress, Charlottesville’s daily newspaper, has published a balanced report about the controversy swirling around antisemitism at the University of Virginia. Followers of this blog will find most of the narrative familiar. What we find refreshing is reporter Emily Hemphill’s willingness to explore all sides of the issue without slanting the story — a throwback to the journalism of yore.

There are a couple of points worth noting. First, to reconstruct events, Hemphill made ample use of the video footage of the February-March Board of Visitors meeting archived by the Jefferson Council. State law requires UVA to livestream the meeting, but not to archive it. UVA has declined to provide that basic element of transparency and accountability. The Jefferson Council recently begun archiving that footage as a public service, and it is gratifying to see the media using it already.

Further, the Daily Progress pursues an angle to the ongoing antisemitism story that we have not fully reported: UVA officialdom’s thin-skinned response to a truck with LED billboards that displayed messages that Rector Robert Hardie was “unfit to lead UVa” and should “resign now.” Continue reading →

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Jewish Parents Decry Double Standards at UVA

Posted on April 4, 2024 by | 32 comments

by James A. Bacon

A half year after Hamas terrorists assaulted Israel, hostility at the University of Virginia toward Israel and Jews is unrelenting, according to parents of Jewish students there. In collaboration with other parents, Julie Pearl complained in a letter Tuesday to Rector Robert Hardie that a “blatant double standard against Jewish students persists at UVA.”

Pearl’s letter was prompted in part by the administration’s response to a recent incident in which a truck with digital billboards rolled through the University displaying messages critical of Hardie. One screen said, “Rector Robert Hardie won’t confront antisemitism” while another said Hardie is “unfit to lead U.Va.” The administration’s reaction was to criticize the slogans and investigate who was behind the stunt, Pearl said.

“How does the billboard incident directed at you merit outrage, an immediate statement of condemnation, and investigative action … while the ongoing harassment and intimidation faced by Jewish students receive no such response?” she asked. Continue reading →

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Posted in Freedom of speech and expression, Honor code

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The Use and Misuse of a UVA Lecture Series

Posted on March 21, 2024 by | 4 comments

by James A. Bacon

The “fixation” of modern-day Israelis on the Holocaust has become a “vast and ugly fig leaf” hiding oppression of Palestinians and giving Israelis license to brush aside moral qualms about their response to the October 7 terror attacks, Brown University historian Omer Bartov told an audience of 60 or so people Tuesday at the University of Virginia.

In vowing to “never again” let Jews fall prey to genocidal extermination, Israelis indulge in “self-victimization,” “self pity,” and “self righteousness,” said Bartov, an Israeli-born Jew who has built his academic career around the study of the Holocaust and genocide. “It’s not a condition conducive to understanding, toleration, and reconciliation.”

The lecture, entitled, “The Never Again Syndrome: Uses and Misuses of Holocaust Memory in Contemporary Global Politics,” was one in a series of events billed by UVA leadership as broadening understanding of the Middle East conflict. The lecture series is an outgrowth of the tension between pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli groups at UVA. Jewish students have complained of a hostile environment that leaves them afraid to speak out or even openly identify as Jews. In a parallel initiative, the Ryan administration created a religious diversity task force to understand how Jewish and Muslim students, faculty and staff “experience life on Grounds.” Continue reading →

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Posted in Freedom of speech and expression, Intellectual diversity, Speakers, Panels and Events

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Assigning Extra Credit for Attending Pro-Hamas Event

Posted on March 14, 2024 by | 1 comment

Tessa Farmer

by James A. Bacon

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion staff at the University of Virginia downplayed concerns about Tessa Farmer, an anthropology professor who last fall offered extra credit to students to attend a Students for Justice in Palestine-organized teach-in, reports The Washington Examiner this morning.

The purpose of the event was to show solidarity with Palestinians resisting Israeli “occupation” and demand that the United States withdraw its support for Israel. 

“Internal emails show DEI staffers were apparently unperturbed by this professor’s promotion of a Students for Justice in Palestine event despite the group’s radical rhetoric,” the newspaper quoted Adam Andrzejewski, CEO of federal-spending watchdog OpenTheBooks, as saying. OpenTheBooks worked with the Examiner on the Freedom of Information Act requests that recovered the emails. The group also collaborated with the Jefferson Council to publish recent findings that UVA spends $20 million on salary and benefits for DEI staff at UVA. Continue reading →

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Posted in Administration, Freedom of speech and expression, Leftist orthodoxy

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UVA Leadership Squelches Debate About University’s Antisemitism Problem

Posted on March 3, 2024 by | 16 comments

Provost Ian Baucom and Academic & Student Affairs Chair Elizabeth Cranwell: Antisemitism issues best addressed “in another setting.”

by James A. Bacon

During the University of Virginia Board of Visitors meeting Thursday, Provost Ian Baucom briefed board members on what the administration was doing to defuse tensions in the UVA community between Jews and the vocal pro-Palestinian faction over the Israel-Gaza war.

He mentioned “sustained academic programming” to illuminate sources of the decades-long conflict. He took note of the mental health services provided those experiencing mental anguish. He assured the Board that the University was working to bring opposing parties together in dialogue and to understand “the reality of Jewish, Muslim and other religious minorities.” UVA, he said, was committed to “deep engagement” and “freedom of expression.”

The Provost reiterated the administration’s support for free speech. UVA, he said, was a place where “people are free to disagree” but where “everyone belongs.” “We need to listen to people we disagree with,” he added, and concluded by thanking the Board for its “help and wisdom.”

But when board members began addressing the hostile environment for Jewish students at UVA, there was no sign that the Provost, President Jim Ryan, or Rector Robert Hardie were interested in “listening” to anyone who disagreed with them, much less in “engaging” with them on the most contentious issue to afflict the University in recent years. Continue reading →

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Posted in Board of Visitors, Freedom of speech and expression

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Morgan Bettinger Lawsuit Settled

Posted on February 14, 2024 by | 5 comments

Morgan Bettinger, the former University of Virginia student who claimed in a federal civil rights lawsuit that she was ostracized, bullied, and abused at UVA based on false charges and faulty legal grounds, has resolved her lawsuit with the university and its administrators.

Brown & Gavalier, the Charlottesville law firm that represented her, issued the following statement in response to our inquiry: “We are pleased to report that Morgan Bettinger’s lawsuit has been resolved. Neither she nor our law firm have any further comment at this time.” The firm declined to make Ms. Bettinger available for comment and declined to disclose the terms of the settlement.

University of Virginia spokesman Brian Coy said: “This case was resolved by a mutual and amicable agreement and dismissed following a joint motion by both parties.”

The Bettinger saga drew national attention as an extreme example of “cancel culture” on campus. To learn more about what was done to Bettinger, the extent and severity of the harm she claimed to have suffered as a result, and her allegations regarding the UVA Administration’s role in the events and responsibility for the alleged deprivations of her federally protected civil rights, read the lawsuit here.

— JAB

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Posted in Freedom of speech and expression

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Ryan Appoints Board to Craft University-Neutrality Policy

Posted on February 10, 2024 by | 8 comments

After vetting the idea with the Board of Visitors in December, University of Virginia President Jim Ryan has announced the creation of the Committee on Institutional Statements to develop principles to guide official university statements on national and global events.

Twelve individuals — nine faculty members, one student, one alumnus and one member of the Board of Visitors — will serve on the Committee. John Owen, a political science professor, will chair the group.

“It seems like a simple question: When, if ever, should ‘the University’ comment on political and social events?” Ryan said, as quoted in UVA Today. “But answering that question is more complicated than it seems, and it brings up a range of additional questions and knotty issues.” Continue reading →

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When Protesters Misbehave, Who Pays for Campus Security?

Posted on January 23, 2024 by | 15 comments


by James A. Bacon

Let me post a hypothetical situation: If an event is held on a college campus and the university police department mobilizes 20 to 30 officers and auxiliary personnel to maintain order and keep everyone safe, who should pay the bill: (1) the group that organized the event and conducted itself in an orderly, respectful fashion, (2) the group whose participants cursed, condemned and intimidated attendees, or (3) the university itself?

Actually, the situation isn’t hypothetical. It happened Oct. 11, 2023, when the Young Americans for Freedom in partnership with the Jefferson Council invited author Abigail Shrier to speak at the University of Virginia, only to have protesters organized by the Queer Student Union harass attendees as they entered the venue at Minor Hall and later as they left. We have written about the protesters’ belligerent behavior before. (Read our report for a refresher course.) This post focuses on who pays the bills to maintain security at such events.

In this particular instance, the University billed the Jefferson Council $7,847 for the cost of providing security.

What kind of logic charges the victims of disruptive behavior for maintaining order and security? It’s a logic that draws irrelevant distinctions such as whether the event is held indoors or outdoors, is in a public venue or a private venue, or is a “demonstration” versus a ticketed event. Continue reading →

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Posted in Freedom of speech and expression

How Do You Say “F— UVA” In Arabic?

Posted on January 19, 2024 by | 12 comments

This image of two doors on the Lawn is taken from the Instagram account of the Students for Justice in Palestine boasting of its accomplishments this fall.

by James A. Bacon

One of the key events that sparked the creation of The Jefferson Council was the defilement of a Lawn residency door. In 2021 a 4th-year student posted “F— UVA” in large letters, along with a bill of particulars detailing why the university was a racist institution. Outraged alumni mobilized to protest the desecration of Thomas Jefferson’s academical village, a UNESCO World Heritage Site visited by thousands of potential students, their parents, tourists and others every year.

Turning the door into a bulletin board for profane political posters violated the terms of the lease and the spirit of Lawn residency, described on the UVA website as respecting the living space as “a place of historic value and as the public face of the University.”

The Ryan administration argued that because it had failed to enforce those terms from the beginning of the school year, removal of the sign would constitute a violation of the woman’s right to free speech. However, the administration did issue new guidelines effective the following semester restricting door postings to a small bulletin board on the doors. From that point onward, unhappy alumni were assured, the guidelines would be enforced consistently. Continue reading →

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