Did UVa Stack the Deck in Its Lawn Selection Process?

Posted on February 24, 2021 by | Leave a comment

by James A. Bacon

It is deemed a great honor to be one of the 47 fourth-year students at the University of Virginia awarded a residence on the Lawn, Thomas Jefferson’s architectural masterpiece and World Heritage site. A committee of 60 students selects the residents from a pool of applicants, in theory based on their record of “unselfish service and achievement in their respective fields of activity and academics.”

But when the Cavalier Daily published an article yesterday providing the racial/ethnic background of the individuals who were offered a spot on the Lawn next year, it didn’t emphasize their accomplishments. Rather, drawing from data provided by Dean of Students Allen Groves, the article focused on the increased demographic “diversity” of the Lawn residents.

“Students of Color” received nearly 60% of the offers this year, compared to only 30% last year, reported the student-run newspaper.

The dramatic one-year shift in the racial/ethnic composition of Lawn residents raises the question of whether race and ethnicity has become an explicit but not-stated-publicly criteria for selection. Continue reading →

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Posted in Race, Equity and Diversity

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Demanding Openness about UVa’s Cost Structure

Posted on February 23, 2021 by | Leave a comment

by James A. Bacon

Last week the University of Virginia Board of Visitors held a workshop to discuss next year’s increase in tuition, fees, and other charges and to hear input from the public — mostly students begging the board for relief from the ever-escalating cost of attendance.

A PowerPoint presentation released at the meeting essentially made the case for hiking tuition again, although the exact percentage will depend upon the level of financial support provided by the Commonwealth. The estimated increase for undergraduate, in-state tuition will range between 0% and 3.1%. Additional fees are set at $114.

The presentation reflects the Ryan administration’s spin on the numbers. It’s the job of the Board of Visitors to probe deeper. In this post, I will first summarize the administration’s stats, and then I will provide some numbers that the board should consider as it ponders the tuition increases. Continue reading →

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Posted in Governance, Tuition, affordability, scholarships

UVA Board Ponders 3.1% Hike in Tuition & Fees

Posted on February 18, 2021 by | Leave a comment

by James A. Bacon

The University of Virginia Board of Visitors is considering raising in-state undergraduate tuition up to 3.1% next year and hiking student fees by $114. The increases potentially would add $554 to tuition and fees next year, bringing the total to $17,860, reports the Daily Progress. Including room, board, books and other expenses, the total cost of attendance would reach $34,600 for students not benefiting from financial aid. Out-of-state students would pay $70,200 all told.

Rector James B. Murray cited the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic. “2020 has been a tough year for everybody, for the students, parents and the administration. It’s been a financially troubling year and psychologically troubling year. We have lost a lot of revenue. We don’t have housing revenue, dining revenue, athletics, or student and public services. … The board is committed to keeping tuition increases at a minimum and using every other source of revenue whenever and where ever we can.”

Said Murray: “Tuition is always the last lever that we pull.” Continue reading →

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Posted in Tuition, affordability, scholarships

UVa Lifetime Virtue Signaling

Posted on February 16, 2021 by | Leave a comment

by Walter Smith

“Lifetime learning” sounds pretty innocuous, right? Maybe even charitable and aspirational?

To be fair, the University of Virginia lifetime-learning program does offer some courses that provide an opportunity to learn something.  The two offerings by Professor Ragosta on Patrick Henry look interesting.

But there is a difference between “learning” and “indoctrination. And the “Governor’s Summit on Equitable Collaboration,” hosted by UVa’s lifetime learning program, is shaping up to be an embarrassment for an institution of higher learning whose purported goals are to be “good and great.”

The toolkit for “transforming community spaces” sounds more like the manual for a Red Guard reeducation camp than a lifetime learning experience. Continue reading →

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Posted in Race, Equity and Diversity, Speakers, Panels and Events

UVa Committee to Study Free Expression Issues

Posted on February 10, 2021 by | Leave a comment

Leslie Kendrick

by James A. Bacon

The University of Virginia has created two new committees: one to articulate the university’s commitment to free expression and inquiry, and another to examine naming and memorials on the grounds (as the UVa campus is referred to).

“We are working to give voice to our commitment as an educational institution to the free and open exchange of ideas, and to grapple with the complexities of our University’s history and the names that we honor,” Ryan said in making the ann0uncement. “These committees will help us forge a path forward as we continue to address these issues as a community and as a nation.”

Continue reading →

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Posted in Freedom of speech and expression

Gerald Warburg and the Other “F” Word

Posted on February 10, 2021 by | Leave a comment

Gerald Warburg

by Walter Smith

UVA Today seems quit enamored with Gerald Warburg, a national security expert with the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy. UVa’s official administrative mouthpiece profiled him yesterday and highlighted the publication in the Wilson Quarterly of his article discussing Congressional dysfunction in matters of war and peace.

UVA Today had featured the former Congressional aide just a few days previously in a post headlined, “Be Grateful, Build Community, Fight for Justice.” The nation is at a “pivot point,” he opined in reflecting upon the Jan. 6 storming of the nation’s Capitol. “The fever of fascism has broken.”

The fever of fascism? Continue reading →

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“This Is the cost of ignoring white supremacy”

Posted on January 23, 2021 by | Leave a comment

The University of Virginia’s Miller Center kicked off 2021 with a virtual discussion entitled, “Race Relations and Criminal Justice in the New Year.”

Kevin Gaines, African American and African Studies professor, was joined by Paul Butler, Georgetown University law professor and legal analyst on MSNBC, to discuss the aftermath of the Capitol insurrection and criminal justice reform, reports the Cavalier Daily.

The speakers used the Jan. 6 storming of the U.S. Capitol building by right-wing extremists as a jumping off point to discuss systemic racism. Continue reading →

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Posted in Leftist orthodoxy, Speakers, Panels and Events

Positive Developments in Freedom of Expression at UVa

Posted on January 21, 2021 by | Leave a comment

University of Virginia Rector James B. Murray Jr.

by James C. Sherlock

I am an alumnus of the University of Virginia and have been one of the most prominent public critics for its drift into left-wing ideology at the expense of academic freedom and the best interests of its students.  

University of Chicago Principles

I have recommended both publicly and privately that my university adopt the University of Chicago Principles, or their equivalent.  Continue reading →

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Restructuring Higher Ed for Greater Produktivität

Posted on January 17, 2021 by | Leave a comment

Pre-COVID, the UVa Kaffeestunde met every week. German speakers of all levels hung out to sprechen deutsch.

by James A. Bacon

Last month the University of Virginia Board of Visitors approved a recommendation to eliminate the M.A. and PhD programs in the Department of Germanic Languages & Literatures. While UVa students retained a healthy appetite for learning to read and speak in German, only a few showed an interest in plumbing the depths of German literature.

The scaling back of the German department, which offered advanced courses in such authors as Freud and Kafka last semester, was part of a larger restructuring of UVa’s graduate foreign-language program. The board also voted to eliminate the M.A. program in Italian and the B.A. in Comparative Literature. Continue reading →

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Posted in Academic programs, Restructuring

Another Higher-Ed Apologist Calls for More State Funding

Posted on January 4, 2021 by | Leave a comment

James Socas

by James A. Bacon

You’d think James Socas would know better. As an employee of the Blackstone Group, he invests in technology companies. He knows what it takes to run successful business enterprises. He has even served two terms on UVa’s alumni association board. But he’s willing to cut Virginia public universities plenty of slack when it comes to the way they run their enterprises.

In an op-ed he wrote for the Richmond Times-Dispatch, Socas calls for greater state funding for Virginia’s public colleges and universities — with no strings attached and no calls for accountability. He should know better.

Continue reading →

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Posted in State funding, Workforce development