Not the UVA I Remember

We are reposting this letter from a UVA alumnus describing a “Dean’s Welcome and Tour” his family took part in this spring at the University of Virginia. We took administrators at their word that the Admissions Office was revising tours to give prospective students a more enticing sales pitch than the UVA-history-of-oppression narrative coughed up by the Student Guides. If this experience was typical, we made a huge mistake. — JAB

Thank you for your websites and articles highlighting the challenges UVa and other universities are facing in the age of wokeness and relativism. It is only recently that I came to realize how much UVa has changed, and how grave the challenges it faces are.

After graduating from Darden, my wife and I moved outside of VA to build our career. For 20+ years, we nostalgically enjoyed our fond memories of the Grounds and the UVa experience. My wife and I raised our three kids under clear and overt UVa indoctrination, hoping to extend our fondness and great memories to the next generation. We visited Charlottesville multiple times with our 3 kids. We took them to football games. They grew up learning The Good Old Song and have proudly worn orange and blue since infants. We were raising Cavaliers.
Especially our second child. She is a UVa fanatic. Her whole childhood has been preparing for UVa. She has studied, worked hard, volunteered – all to get into UVa with the plan to study Neuroscience pre-med with a double major in Economics. She is proud of her 4.6 GPA with nearly 20 advanced courses, a Certified Nursing Assistant, trained phlebotomist, a volunteer at the … hospital emergency ward, a leader in 2 orchestras, a National Honor Society Officer, to name a few. All to earn a spot as a Wahoo.

This spring, we were beyond excited to finally formally tour the Grounds with our daughter (our first is studying Aerospace Engineering and UVa didn’t have the program for him). We were shocked by and furious with the tour. From the moment it began, we were lectured at and inundated with woke ideology and apologist tropes (after being told everyone’s pronouns). No history lesson of the Grounds, its architecture, or its purpose. No homage to TJ and his vision for the advancement of an enlightened society. No fabled stories about the secret societies, or traditions at the sporting events or around Grounds. Nothing.

In fact, our 3rd year tour guide couldn’t care less about The University. She even told us as much. Instead, her tour highlighted at every turn the atrocities and injustices current society inflicts on the university’s oppressed students (even though she was an out-of-state student on a full ride scholarship – such injustice). But don’t worry, she assured, there are formal safe spaces set up and plenty of opportunities to be an activist.

None of that topped what I saw on the Lawn. Those historic dorms. An honor once reserved for those 4th years who were Wahoos through and through. Who embodied all the good The University is and hopes to achieve. Those doors – covered in woke hate speech. Accusing The University, and anyone that didn’t agree with them, of oppression and abuse. Anti-white, antisemitic, anti-conservative, anti-Jefferson.

I was speechless. My daughter in near tears and disbelief. Was everything I told her of Dear Ol’ UVa a lie? Whatever it was, it wasn’t my UVa.

Once fully committed, she is now undecided on whether she will even apply to UVa. She says she will, but I think it is to not hurt my feelings. I promised her another tour this Fall, if she wanted. Maybe another football weekend to try and “close the deal.” But she has already told me that the University of Florida is now the top of her list. While it breaks my heart to hear that, there is a part of me that wonders if I’d rather send her there.

Strange times.