Author: Peter Galuszka
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In Praise of Tar Heels
By Peter Galuszka Virginia is my state of choice although I am hardly a Virginian and have long had a hate-love affair with the Old Dominion. It is a beautiful state and well located, but there can be a certain problem with some of the people, especially in the capital area, who may think a…
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Hotter Than. . .
By Peter Galuszka …The Fourth of July. Sorry that I have to spell it out, but there are a number of climate change deniers at this blog, including the Big Blogger himself, so it may be necessary to make things simple. In case, you haven’t noticed, this Independence Day marks a period of some extreme…
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Remake Boards of Visitors Now
By Peter Galuszka An early summer calm has settled on the “The Lawn” at the University of Virginia following 16 days of pointless controversy that damaged the school’s reputation and raised serious questions about how Mr. Jefferson’s school should be run. The most important issues wafting up from the now-quiet battleground are not really whether…
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“Helen Dragas Gets It”
This just in from Charlottesville: Teresa Sullivan, president of the University of Virginia, was reinstated after a unanimous vote of the Board of Visitors, including that of Rector Helen Dragas. The Daily Progress reported that the board also voted unanimously to support Dragas. This is a happy ending to an unusual and unnecessary chapter in…
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BOV Day Reality Check
By Peter Galuszka In today’s run up to the decision on the future of University of Virginia President Teresa Sullivan, two printed items are of merit. Reading them sets the stage for the moment when we know if Rector Helen Dragas “gets it” or not, in the words of another blogger. One is an Associated…
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Finally, Good News on Immigration
By Peter Galuszka Long-simmering immigration issues are starting to bubble over now that the U.S. Supreme Court has given a partial victory in opposing Arizona’s racist law. The ruling follows a bold action by President Barack Obama to allow law-abiding young people who happen to be undocumented aliens to stay in this country. The court…
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U.Va.’s Strange Greenwich Connection
By Peter Galuszka Although momentum grows to reinstate Teresa Sullivan, the embattled president of the University of Virginia, there are still some strange threads left hanging. One of the most curious involves the role of two Wahoo grads that are big deal hedge fund managers and live in tony Greenwich, Ct., the Gatsby town for…
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Reinstate Sullivan Now
By Peter Galuszka The best way the University of Virginia can get out of its surrealistic nightmare is to ask Rector Helen Dragas to resign and reinstate President Teresa Sullivan. It is possible to do so, provided Dragas is gone and the board votes again on Sullivan’s future by June 27. From the start, the…
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Online Degrees: The Rodney Monroe Case
By Peter Galuszka The tragedy of Teresa Sullivan at the University of Virginia has brought forward a number of arguments critical to the future of higher education. Some have merit; others do not. One of the squishier topics being pushed is that somehow Internet classwork is the future of colleges. It is being touted as…
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A Tale of Two Speeches
By Peter Galuszka Call it a Tale of Two Speeches. One was a clear and resounding defense of one of America’s most prized possessions: its university system. The other was Corporate-Speak – a kind of muddle of platitudes and lofty thoughts with little point that is so common among chief executive officers and company presidents…
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Maybe It’s Not “The Vision Thing” At All
By Peter Galuszka The sad demise of Teresa Sullivan as president of the University of Virginia poses many questions regarding what happened to her and how and why the Board of Visitors did what it did. Given the board’s lack of transparency and non-communicative nature at this prestigious, public university, much opinion and supposition have…
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Ms. Dragas’ Greek Drama
By Peter Galuszka The antagonist in the drama against Teresa Sullivan is a rich real estate developer from Virginia Beach who holds undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of Virginia, took over her construction firm from her father and is a major donor to political, mostly Democratic, causes. Helen E. Dragas, 50, president of…
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Pulling the Trigger on Aeschylus
By Peter Galuszka The news from Charlottesville just gets worse. Freshly-fired President Teresa Sullivan, it turns out, had been getting pressure from the Board of Visitors to eliminate parts of the university that were “underperforming,” possibly the Classics Department. Meanwhile, the university administration is asking Dominion (that’s right, the power company) to parachute in two…
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Online Class Myths and Fantasies
By Peter Galuszka Far too often on this blog, a new program or an event gets taken far beyond its intrinsic value. One obvious example is a new program offered by Harvard and MIT for online classes. The program is being touted by the right-wing crowd as the next wheel or airplane or laptop computer.…
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The Liquidation of Teresa Sullivan
By Peter Galuszka The putsch had all the markings of Stalin-era intrigue. Select members of the Politburo had whispered for weeks that a key and popular leader had to go. She didn’t fit the Inner Circle’s philosophies. She was too prominent and her “vision” was too slow-moving and dogmatically out of step. Finally, without her…