When the Cooch Tried to Steal Science

When the Cooch Tried to Steal Science July 7, 2025

My daughter says that one of her early memories of UVa is an Environmental Sciences Department holiday party where the graduate students did a skit called “when the Cooch stole Christmas.” She was 7 in 2010 and didn’t get the humor. On April 23 of that year, Ken Cuccinelli, who was then the state Attorney General, had begun his assault on academic freedom in the form of a civil investigation targeting five grants held by Michael Mann and other members of the Environmental Sciences Department. Cucinelli doesn’t believe in climate change. Mann, an atmospheric scientist who had already left Uva, predicted in the 1990’s that climate change would lead to extreme weather events, flooding and fires. He meant things like the floods in Texas that killed a lot of people including little girls who are about the age my daughter was in 2007. In 2010 Multiple organizations and newspapers vehemently opposed what was then a relatively unprecedented attack on academic work. UVa, arguably did not fight hard enough, but they did argue that this constituted, “unprecedented and improper governmental intrusion into ongoing scientific research. “ Cuccinelli used amount other things emails stolen by a climate-denying hacker group who tried to use them to show that climate change amounted to a scientific conspiracy. This cost a lot of taxpayer money. This is all easily googleable. It is likely one of the reasons why Cucinelli lost the Gubernatorial election in 2013. Tea Party members were his most fervent allies.

Why does this matter today? Because it offers further evidence of why the blackmail/firing of President Ryan is so dangerous. It shows the long and nasty game the authoritarian regime has been playing against rigorous research and inquiry. It shows a sustained attack on UVa. When Governor Youngkin put Cucinelli on the BOV, even if he suspected that the appointment might run into trouble with Democratic legislatures, he appointed a man who directed homeland security in the first Trump administration. He appointed a man who led a harassment campaign against one of the most famous and well-funded scientists Uva had had until that point. He appointed someone who has worked for fifteen years to drag UVa back to its provincial mediocre roots. UVa taught Eugenics well into the 1950’s, which means that they did not for the most part get much federal funding. And of course, when so many Central European scientists fled Nazi Germany and gave new life to American Universities, they were not likely to go to one with affiliates who had quite literally given the Nazi’s advice on how to do Eugenics.