Stop the Search
UNA PAUSA PER FAVORE Many, many groups have weighed in asking the Board of Visitors to pause the search for the next UVa President. These groups include the Faculty Senate, Student Council, General Faculty Senate and more…. The short version is that no one trusts this BOV, which does not even have the proper number of members. The Governor elect said that this board, has “undermined the public’s and the university community’s confidence in the board’s ability to govern productively, transparently, and in the best interests of the university.”
The Rector is probably not been telling truth about a lot of stuff and the search is moving faster than one can hire a post doc or adjunct banjo teacher. Here is a letter from 181 concerned faculty.
ATTENZIONE The Cavalier Daily had a virtuosic mic drop this morning. They reported on the “irregularity” of the failed Provost search. Six sources confirmed that, among other things, in last meeting the now Rector declared one candidate “unacceptable,” and said that the board would reject said candidate. This means someone was blackballed. One source said, “The problem I see is you cannot, before a vote happens, say whether someone will be confirmed or not. That's irrelevant to [the] process. That's an overreach,” the person said. “The bottom line is this person was highly qualified ... [Wilkinson’s actions] were unacceptable. You cannot do that when you are voting on people. That's not part of our process.” This is a masterful story. The kids are still alright…
WHILE WE WERE OTHERWISE OCCUPIED The students also voted on the question of whether or not we should hold class the week of Thanksgiving. The student council bus to Dulles airport was on the SATURDAY BEFORE thanksgiving. And the football team won again.
NINE DEANS….
Nine out of fourteen Deans wrote a letter to the Board of Visitors calling on them to pause the search for the next President of UVa. “It is critical to recognize, however, that a president appointed amidst the current swirl of unresolved governance would start their tenure under a cloud.” The BOV has yet to meet with the Deans. Note that Deans both run their schools and serve as human bridges between the University and their school. These are extremely smart people; many of whom were hired by search firms. They know how this stuff works. See the Cavalier Daily Article and linked letter here.
THIS BOARD IS LOSING TRUST by the minute. More and more people are expressing dismay at this Board of Visitors. John Kluge weighed in as a major donor. “We gave not for plaques or prestige. We gave because we believed UVa stood for moral leadership — the kind that resists pressure, protects truth and refuses to trade principle for convenience.” He expressed his distaste for this board rather poetically, “The board delivered a master class in moral cowardice — and a betrayal of the trust Virginia law places in its stewards.”
THE BOV MET Dec 3-5. The schedule was posted here.
PLANNED ACTIONS The AAUP and UCWVA organized an action; a march across the lawn from Bryan hall at noon and a bus from Madison Hall to the BOV meeting at Boar’s Head at 12:45. RSVP at bit.ly/March-for-CB. This event brought to you by an incredible team effort between @ucwvauva and @aaupnational; see here.
TRANSPARENCY PLEASE Wahoos4Uva says this. The Board of Visitors held their meeting at the Boar’s Head Resort this week. When we went online to view the meeting agenda, we were surprised to see the following notice:
PLEASE NOTE: THERE WILL BE A CLEAR BAG POLICY IN PLACE AT THE BOAR'S HEAD RESORT PAVILION FOR THESE MEETINGS.
Let’s be clear, security is a very serious matter. Every member of the Board and the University community deserves to be safe, and if there is a credible threat, we applaud the University in taking proactive steps.
However, the bags should not be the end of transparency at the Boar’s Head. Transparency must be present within the room where the BOV decisions are made as well. The actions of the Board must be as transparent as those bags.
Check out the Wahoos4UVA website here and get on their email list.
RUNNING WITH PAUL 1000 people ran with Jim at 7:30 on December 4th. I was not one of them as I do not like seeing students before 8:00, I hate being cold etc. Thank You Ragged Mountain!!!!!
I did run with Paul this week as in I listened to his testimony while running. I do not recommend this. The PM wanted to clear up some “misconceptions that the legislators might have been exposed to.” He opened by talking about the Faustian bargain with the DOJ. Recall that just a few days after a tepid no to the compact, he signed a letter obliging UVA to follow the Pam Bondi DOJ guidelines. He said, “After difficult and lengthy negotiations, the University of Virginia has resolved federal government investigations through an agreement that will not cost Virginia taxpayers a single cent that contains an explicit and ringing endorsement of academic freedom.”
According to his account, we owe our friends who teach at Northwestern and Cornell apologies. Your agreements would not have been signed had UVa signed such an awesome deal. He said, “I don’t have any nonpublic information, but my assessment, my interpretation of what happened is that the monitor was the sticking point in those two negotiations. And once they were able to go back to the to the government and say, look, Virginia didn’t get a monitor, we don’t want a monitor. That was the thing that broke the logjam.”
The PM said he has no knowledge of who might be applying for the President job. But not to worry, the candidate pool is excellent. The senators were none too pleased that the Rector and Vice Rector did not have time to meet with them. They had time for lengthy clandestine deals with DOJ over the summer but need more than two weeks to get to Richmond….
You can find it on Youtube here.
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