BOV Meeting September 12
Maria Cosway
BOV MEETING SEPTEMBER 12
The Agenda is here. Actions included reappointments and a resolution making Jim Ryan President emeritus. RMC and UPD staff monitored the door to the Rotunda. I’m told that the administration did not know there would be an action outside or that large numbers of people would try to come in. (I’m not sure how they missed this memo as it was not secret, and it was predictable.) I got one of the very few seats—not because I did anything radical or aggressive. I was on classical music time; you are tuned up and ready to go 7 minutes before the down beat. The whole thing felt like entering a surrealist play or the twilight zone.
RECTOR’S REPORT Much gratitude was expressed to all. The timbre was rather saccharine.
She expressed gratitude, enthusiasm for football, and some weird ideas about civic dialogue. I’m not convinced the BOV is interested in any dialogue. She said that we need to look to Jefferson’s ideals of replacing passion with reason. And we need to model how to bridge differences and create unity, community, and a return to our nation’s values.
She is not familiar with Jefferson’s Head and Heart letter, which shows that like most Neoplatonists he was never sure whether passion or reason should be the dominant force. This letter was written to Maria Cosway, who ran off with a castrato. Also, “returning to our nation’s” values rarely goes well in Virginia for anyone who is not a white Christian landowning man in a heteronormative marriage.
FACULTY REPRESENTATIVE REPORT Jim Lambert, the faculty representative to the board, was to my ear the rock star. He spoke clearly and with very little emotion. He reported on the full range of faculty activities and “successful advocacy,” including a Labor Day teach in and an Opening day rally. He sent a message of faculty resiliency and reminded the BOV that we are strong and resilient. He issued a subtle warning to the powers that be. We are preeminent in the world. If we walk into a room anywhere in the world to give a paper people pay attention because we teach here. The subtext was DO NOT MESS THIS UP.
PRESIDENT’S REPORT Cue the music for the twilight zone overlayed with the Law and Order theme song. The big reveal came when he said that two DOJ investigations have been closed: the one involving antisemitism and the one involving admission to the schools of public policy and business. See the Cavalier Daily article here. He remarked that in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s murder, we must work and will work to ensure the safety of students, faculty, and visitors. It is never acceptable to silence a speaker. We make it easy to report interference with speech rights through our program Just Report It. See here for the very creepy Just Report It. There is one button that requires a netbadge to report. But you DO NOT have to be a member of the community to report. This threatens academic freedom.
THE PRESIDENTIAL SEARCH It continues. The BOV assures us that this is the most diverse search committee ever and the search committee looks forward to many listening sessions. Faculty, staff, students, and alumni continue to question the legitimacy of this process. The Cavalier Daily, continuing their excellent reporting, pointed out last week that the committee includes outsized representation from Athletics: the director of Athletics, an Olympic swimmer, and three people from the Athletics foundation. (the president, vice president, and a trustee). The University of Florida and Louisiana State did presidential searches this year and had no sports people. Recall that THERE ARE NO HUMANITIES PEOPLE ON THE SEARCH COMMITTEES FOR THE PRESIDENT OR THE PROVOST.
CHARLIE KIRK The Jefferson Council and various student groups are hosting a “celebration of Free Speech and Civil Discourse” @UVa on Tuesday September 23 from 5:00-6:00 in Old Cabell Hall. According to the twitter post, you can “hear from students and invited faculty about how we need free speech on our college campuses and in our nation now more than ever.” I learned about it because my office is in OCH and we cannot teach or go to our offices after 2:00 on Tuesday. This is standard procedure for an event that requires security. This happens to be the first day of Rosh Hashanah. This is the Jewish New Year and one of the high holy days. This an odd choice of dates for a group of people who claim to be so worried about antisemitism.
Meanwhile on Monday September 15 the Vice President of the United States hosted Charlie Kirk’s show and promised to crack down on “radical left lunatics.” The American Association of University Professors issued a statement condemning the shocking murder of Charlie Kirk and all violent acts. “The AAUP notes with great alarm the rash of recent administrative actions to discipline faculty, staff, and student speech in the aftermath of the murder of Charlie Kirk. We write to remind leaders of colleges and universities of their fundamental duty to protect academic freedom and the absolute necessity to ensure that the freedom to discuss topics of public import without constraint is not curtailed under political pressure….” Jimmy Kimmel was fired by ABC.
The Virginia Department of Education issued a warning to public school systems. They claim that there are multiple reports of educators making “deeply troubling” posts about the murder of Charlie Kirk. They warn that, “Local school divisions should promptly investigate these reports in accordance with their policies and local Standards of Professional Conduct and Ethics and refer teachers and administrators who have violated these essential standards of decency to the Virginia Board of Education for licensure revocation. The Department stands ready to support superintendents and will be evaluating options with the Board of Education for state action for those local school divisions that do not hold their personnel responsible.” Full statement is here.
WAHOOS FOR UVA ON LEADERSHIP Their awesome weekly newsletter reminded us that UVa does not currently have exceptional leadership. UVa prides itself on cultivating student leaders and on modeling leadership in general. So this is bad for the brand. They say, “Exceptional leadership does not attempt to hide behind closed doors to keep out voices of disagreement. Exceptional leadership opens doors, welcomes the views of dissenting voices and seeks to find reasonable solutions that meet the needs of the persons they were appointed to lead. Exceptional leadership does not attempt to keep students and faculty at arms-length, it attempts to address their concerns, as they are the community that is most impacted by the decisions of the leaders.”
THE UVA WEBPAGE is weird. The 2030 strategic plan, “Great and Good,” still appears. The homepage now says “Excellence for a Purpose.”
THE BOV MAY NOT HAVE READ THE MISSION STATEMENT or the University Code of Ethics for faculty and staff. The mission statement of UVa states that we are defined by “our enduring commitment” to “free and collegial exchange of ideas,” and “our unwavering support of collaborative, diverse community bound by distinctive foundational of honor, integrity, trust and respect.” The marketplace of ideas is in serious trouble around here and trust in the BOV and the Presidential search is broken. They are not staff or faculty, so I guess they needn’t worry about the code. The environment is not “healthy” It does not feel collaborative.
Respectful Workplace: We treat every individual with kindness, dignity and respect, regardless of position or status. We provide a safe and healthy environment for working, living, and learning. We collaborate with others in a positive and respectful manner.
Honesty and Integrity: We act and communicate honestly and with integrity, upholding the University’s values at all times. We do not condone dishonesty by anyone in any form, including fraud, theft, cheating, plagiarism or lying.
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS The Faculty Senate sent a list of questions to the new president. The Senate queries and his responses are included in the faculty senate updates. See below for a summary of the questions and the President’s replies.
1.Faculty are glad that two DOJ investigations have been “closed.” Were they closed with Voluntary Resolution Agreements? We have all been told they would be made public upon resolution.
We did not enter into a VRA or other settlement agreement with respect to the two closed claims. We provided information to the Department of Justice about our policies and actions. On that basis, the DOJ terminated the investigations without a finding of liability or sanctions against the University.
We continue to discuss the remaining investigations with the DOJ. I therefore do not know whether they will ultimately be resolved through a VRA or other means. Any agreement will be a public document.
2. Faculty are concerned about recent events at Berkeley where the federal government as provided with student, staff, and faculty names and details. Can you assure us that this has not happened here and that it won’t happen here?
The DOJ investigations to which we are subject allege potential legal violations by the University, not by individuals. The DOJ has not requested, and we have not provided, information about legal violations by individuals.
3. (I’m quoting this one in full) On Friday, September 12, state employees received an email from Governor Youngkin’s Chief of Staff regarding a moment of silence for Charlie Kirk. That email included the below paragraph. Faculty are concerned about the implications of the below paragraph on their freedom of speech. Can you please provide guidance on how you interpret the below paragraph with respect to faculty’s right to free speech, especially when they are acting as individual citizens? “As public servants, we are appropriately held to a higher standard. That means not only representing the Commonwealth during work, but also outside of the office and, especially, in social media. We have received notice of several posts that clearly violate this standard of conduct. I remind you of the standards that are expected of state employees.”
As you know, Section 3.1 of the Faculty Handbook endorses the 1940 AAUP Statement of Principles, which explains among other things that:
College and university teachers are citizens, members of a learned profession, and officers of an educational institution. When they speak or write as citizens, they should be free from institutional censorship or discipline, but their special position in the community imposes special obligations. As scholars and educational officers, they should remember that the public may judge their profession and their institution by their utterances. Hence they should at all times be accurate, should exercise appropriate restraint, should show respect for the opinions of others, and should make every effort to indicate that they are not speaking for the institution.
Provost Baucom’s remarks to the Senate last year touched on some of those themes.
Let me also reiterate a point I made to the Faculty Senate. Academic freedom does not entail protection from criticism, even outrageous, harsh, or mean-spirited criticism. Any faculty who believe that they are being harassed or threatened should use Just Report It.