Ryan Ignored Board of Visitors in Formulating Admissions Policy

Posted on August 8, 2023 by | 11 comments

Screen capture from UVa’s “Common Application” form. UVa no longer has a checkbox for race — but it does ask if applicants belong to a Virginia-recognized Indian tribe and if they identify as a “sexual minority.” The applications also invite applicants to share their “personal or historic connection with UVa,” including legacy status and descent from “ancestors who labored at UVa.”

by James A. Bacon

When University of Virginia President Jim Ryan and Provost Ian Baucom announced the university’s new admissions policy last week, they made a point of saying that they had sought input and guidance from “leaders across the university,” including members of the Office of University Counsel.

But one key group was not consulted: the Board of Visitors.

That’s noteworthy because state code says the Board of Visitors sets the university’s admissions policy.

Describing the powers and authorities of the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV), state code notes that the SCHEV shall prepare enrollment projections for Virginia’s public colleges and universities. However, “the student admissions policies for such institutions and their specific programs shall remain the sole responsibilities of the individual governing boards.”

Not university presidents — the governing boards. Continue reading →

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Posted in Admissions, Board of Visitors, Governance

Ellis Recognized for His UVa Work

Posted on August 5, 2023 by | 8 comments

The Common Sense Society, an international organization dedicated to championing liberty, prosperity and beauty, has awarded its Common Sense Courage Award to Bert Ellis, serial entrepreneur, president emeritus of The Jefferson Council, and member of the University of Virginia Board of Visitors.

“Bert has worked tirelessly to promote intellectual diversity in the face of a radical and intolerant ‘DEI’ agenda, to protect the UVA Lawn, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, against defacement, and to promote the UVA Honor System, which champions integrity and honesty in students,” stated the press release.

Common Sense cited the “unjustified smear campaign” unleashed against Ellis in local and national media.

“Bert has shown inspiring resolve against the anti-intellectual forces that are assaulting free speech and freedom of academic inquiry,” said CSS president and CEO Marion Smith. “He has pushed UVA to focus on teaching instead of indoctrinating, defended its beautiful and historic UVA Lawn, and stood resolute in the face of an unjustified smear campaign. We are happy to present Bert with the Common Sense Courage Award.” Continue reading →

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Racial Check Boxes Out at UVa Admissions. Racial Life Experiences In.

Posted on August 1, 2023 by | 10 comments

by James A. Bacon

The University of Virginia will eliminate the race/ethnicity checkbox on admissions applications but will allow students to describe how their “personal experiences” — including but not limited to race or ethnicity — “shaped their ability to contribute,” announced President Jim Ryan in an announcement emailed to the University community Monday.

The change in admissions policy represents Ryan’s first tangible response to the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent ruling restricting the use of race as a factor in college admissions. Ryan had previously signaled his intention to “admit a class of students who are diverse across every possible dimension and to make every student feel welcome and included here at UVa.”

The tweaks to UVa’s admissions policy incorporated input from “leaders across the University,” including the Office of University Counsel, Ryan said.

Ryan’s announcement boiled down the changes to several bullet points: Continue reading →

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Posted in Admissions

Bettinger v. Ryan, Groves and UVa

Posted on August 1, 2023 by | 4 comments

The Jefferson Council has obtained a file-stamped copy of a lawsuit filed on behalf of Morgan Bettinger against University of Virginia President Jim Ryan, former Dean of Students Allen Groves, and the University of Virginia.

The allegations must be demonstrated in court. If proven true, they paint an unflattering picture of civil rights (for anyone of any race or color) at UVa. They certainly recount a horrifying tale of the abandonment and betrayal of Ms. Bettinger by the people whose very job was to protect her.

We will let the complaint speak for itself. Readers can draw their own conclusions. — JAB

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Tech to End Racial and Legacy Preferences in Admissions

Posted on August 1, 2023 by | 5 comments

I have cross-posted this article about Virginia Tech’s admissions policy from Bacon’s Rebellion. Tech is a peer institution, and its restatement of admissions policy sets an expectation that the University of Virginia should as well. The views expressed here are my own, not those of the Jefferson Council. — JAB

by James A. Bacon

In the wake of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling, Virginia Tech has announced that it will eliminate race and legacy status as factors in admissions. Information about an individual’s race/ethnicity will no longer be visible during the application process.

“Much of our recent success in attracting and graduating students from underrepresented minority and underserved backgrounds (including low-income, first generation and veteran students) has been achieved by lowering barriers to admissions, creating effective pre-college programs, and supporting our students while on campus,” said President Tim Sands. “We will increase our emphasis on those programs and support mechanisms going forward.”

These changes strike me as a reasonable compromise in response to the Supreme Court ruling. Dropping race and ethnicity as factors in admissions ends the invidious practice of explicit discrimination on the basis of race. It represents a huge defeat for “anti-racists” who believe that the only antidote to past discrimination against minorities is reverse discrimination in their favor.

Tech has coupled that decision with a formal end to favoring legacies. Given the fact that legacies are disproportionately White, the symbolic value is huge. Continue reading →

5 Comments

Posted in Admissions, Race, Equity and Diversity

UVa Board Should Demand Transparency on Racial-Preference Initiatives

Posted on August 1, 2023 by | 1 comment

Last week Jefferson Council President Tom Neale sent the following letter to University of Virginia Rector Robert Hardie, members of the Board of Visitors, and selected UVa administrative officials. 

July 25, 2023

Dear Mr. Hardie:

I am the President of The Jefferson Council for the University of Virginia, and am writing you regarding what we believe to be an egregious contravention of academic governance by Provost Ian Baucom.

In a presentation to the Faculty Senate on October 11, 2022, Provost Baucom described between $20 and $40 million in initiatives to recruit graduate students and faculty from “under-represented” racial/ethnic groups. When describing these and other academic initiatives to the Board of Visitors in its March 2023 meeting, however, he never alluded to the scope of the programs, or the racial preferences embedded in them.

For most of the year, the U.S. Supreme Court was widely expected to issue a ruling restricting the use of race as a factor in college admissions. Mr. Baucom had been cognizant enough of the debatable legality of the programs to seek guidance from the University Counsel, yet he failed to mention these concerns – or the nature of the University Counsel’s guidance, if any — in his presentation to the Board. Continue reading →

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Posted in Admissions, Race, Equity and Diversity

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UVa Donations Skewed More Democratic Than Ever in 2022

Posted on July 26, 2023 by | 10 comments

Graphic credit: Daily Progress

by James A. Bacon

You’ve finally heard it from someone other than the Jefferson Council: Political donations by University of Virginia employees skew overwhelmingly to the left. In the 2022 election cycle, found Daily Progress reporter Luke Fountain, “UVa faculty and staff favored Democratic candidates over Republican candidates, based on donations, by a ratio of 30 to 1.”

“During the 2022 election cycle, Democratic candidates received 96.1% of donations, Republican candidates received 3.3% and Libertarian candidates received 0.6%,” writes Fountain in an article exploring the implications of a discussion during the June UVa Board of Visitors meeting regarding the desirability of tracking viewpoint diversity at the university.

Campaign donations are only one way of measuring viewpoint diversity. In 2018 the University of Virginia conducted an extensive survey of attitudes among students, faculty and staff that measured, among other things, respondents’ left-right political leanings. If it is impractical to conduct such an extensive and expensive survey every year, tracking political donations is a readily available proxy for attitude surveys. Continue reading →

10 Comments

Posted in Intellectual diversity, Leftist orthodoxy

Hadley Departs UVa Without Explanation

Posted on July 22, 2023 by | 2 comments

Robyn Hadley. Photo credit: University of Virginia

Robyn Hadley, the University of Virginia’s dean of students, will leave her job effective Aug. 1, announced President Jim Ryan and Provost Ian Baucom yesterday in a letter to the university community.

The letter provided no explanation for Hadley’s sudden departure. Hadley had served two years in the position, which oversees 300 employees engaged with student life. She supervised key functions such as the Office of African-American affairs, the career center, student housing, student health, fraternity-sorority life, event planning, and facilities operations.

“Since she came to the University in the summer of 2021, Robyn has led Student Affairs with grace and determination, even in the face of enormous challenges like the COVID-19 pandemic and the tragic shootings of Nov. 13, 2022,” wrote Ryan and Baucom. “Through it all, she has demonstrated the professionalism, wisdom, and deep care for our students for which she will be remembered here at UVA. We are grateful to Robyn and her team for all they have achieved these past few years.”

The letter contained no statement from Hadley herself. Continue reading →

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Posted in Administration

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Info-Wars at UVa: Who Decides What the BoV Needs to Hear?

Posted on July 21, 2023 by | 5 comments

Provost Ian Baucom

by James A. Bacon

Last October University of Virginia Provost Ian Baucom briefed the Faculty Senate executive committee about a package of four multimillion-dollar academic initiatives that were in the works. The camera angle in the video recording shows him as a tiny, barely discernible figure at the far end of a long conference table. But his fast-clipped, staccato voice comes through loud and clear.

One initiative would address society’s “Grand Challenges” while another would build the university’s R&D infrastructure. Two others, largely geared to the pursuit of diversity, would set up a $20 million fund to aid the recruitment of graduate students and a $20 million fund to boost recruitment of “under-represented” faculty.

Members of the Faculty Senate were on board with the diversity programs, and Baucom felt at ease talking about them. “Behind [the faculty-recruitment initiative],” he said, “is the reaffirmation of the Audacious Futures Report to double the number of under-represented faculty. The president and I have been very clear that he stands by that goal.”

Four months later when the initiatives had moved further through the administrative pipeline, though, the Provost was less forthcoming with the Board of Visitors than he had been with the faculty. He described the Grand Challenges and R&D initiatives in considerable detail, but barely acknowledged the other two strategic priorities. He never explained that the faculty and graduate-student initiatives were designed in part to advance diversity.

The dichotomy in Baucom’s presentations raises important questions of governance at UVa. At a time when racial preferences in admissions and hiring are coming under increasing scrutiny, how much information about those practices is the Ryan administration withholding from the Board of Visitors? Who decides what to tell the Board? What power does the Board have to demand a fuller accounting? Continue reading →

5 Comments

Posted in Academic programs, Board of Visitors, Governance, Transparency

Beat the Rush — Register for Mike Pompeo Now

Posted on July 19, 2023 by | Leave a comment

As previously announced, Mike Pompeo is coming to the University of Virginia Sept. 25 to speak on the topic, “Talk softly but carry America with you: Inside negotiations on the world stage.” Registration is now open!

Register here.

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Posted in Speakers, Panels and Events