Category: Education (higher ed)
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Alumni Free Speech Alliance Affiliate at William & Mary
by Robert Kaplan, Karla K. Bruno, and John S. Buckley The cross removed from Wren Chapel in 2006. “Marshall-Wythe” deleted from the name of the law school during the past decade. Recently, urine thrown by a student protestor at other students promoting pro-life views on abortion and an ACLU spokesperson speaking on campus about free…
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A Fool’s Errand Finds Takers in Charlottesville
by James C. Sherlock As an experiment, I went to the UVa Ed School research page and searched “all topics” for “Charter Schools.” The response: “No research items found matching your search.” So, I expanded the search to “Charter” and got the same response. I then investigated what should have proven a promising lead. The…
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Back in Vogue at UVa: Viewpoint Diversity
by James A. Bacon The University of Virginia leadership normally keeps its Board of Visitors meetings running on such a tightly scripted schedule that board members rarely get an opportunity to engage in free-wheeling discussion. But Rector Whitt Clement and President Jim Ryan made an exception Friday during the board’s June meeting: they set aside…
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UVa’s Undergraduate Female/Male Demographics vs. Diversity, Equity and Federal Law
by James C. Sherlock The University of Virginia measures its diversity efforts by statistics. We’ll hold them to their own standards. That seems only equitable. President Ryan has said that the demographic composition of students is easy to measure. The Diversity, Equity and Inclusion office, proving him right, proudly displays a Diversity Dashboard. All eyes,…
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Deflating Degree Inflation
by Robin Beres In May 2021, The Harvard Business Review featured a column by Michael Hansen, CEO of Cengage Learning titled, “The U.S. Education System Isn’t Giving Students What Employers Need.” Hansen argued that today’s education system is not equipping students “with the skills and capabilities to prepare for a career where they can obtain…
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UVa President Ryan Has “No Idea.” Golly Gee.
by James C. Sherlock As a follow-up to yesterday’s story on the slide show for the UVa Board of Visitors on DEI at the University, I think it only fair to offer President Ryan’s preamble to that presentation. To summarize: He cannot imagine what all the fuss is about; but He assures that DEI efforts…
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UVa Board Trims Next-Year Tuition by 0.7%. Big Whoop.
by James A. Bacon Responding to a Youngkin administration request for Virginia’s public colleges and universities to curb tuition increases, the University of Virginia Board of Visitors voted this morning to reduce a scheduled 3.7% tuition hike next year to 3.0%. As explained by Chief Operating Officer J.J. Davis, the shaving of $5.5 million from…
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DEI Presentation at Tomorrow’s UVa Board of Visitors Meeting Attempts to Deflect the Discussion
by James C. Sherlock Tomorrow, June 2, there will be a meeting of the Board of Visitors at the University of Virginia. The University has published a preview of a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion presentation to the Board. That presentation is designed quite clearly to deflect the conversation from the true issues. It attempts to:…
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Ryan Calls for a Kinder, Gentler DEI
by James A. Bacon As the University of Virginia Board of Visitors gears up for a discussion of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion at its June board meeting, President Jim Ryan has made the case for a kinder, gentler DEI in an essay recently published in The Chronicle of Higher Education. Forgoing the rhetoric of “anti-racism”…
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UVa Takes on A Daunting Task – Reforming Its Own Management and Administrative Structure
By James C. Sherlock A favorite topic of mine is management and administrative overhead in state government institutions of higher learning. While a major university is a very large business with significant management and administrative needs, the overhead numbers seem higher than necessary. Overhead has certainly grown over the last few decades at a rate…
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Which of These Persons at UVa Oversees the Educational Development of the Rest?
by James C. Sherlock In order to illustrate the truly insulting nature of the DEI program at the University of Virginia, I offer the following quiz. See if you can pick out the person pictured who: directs a range of educational programming focused on educational development for staff, faculty and students. …
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Read It and Weep – DEI at UVa
by James C. Sherlock Kerry Daugherty’s column this morning was heart-wrenching for anyone who cares at all about kids’ educations. The Norfolk School Board voted 6-1… to begin teaching gender ideology, masturbation, sexual identity, homosexuality, abortion and lesbianism in middle and high schools. To kids who cannot read or perform mathematics at grade level. Now…
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Clear Violations of Title IX in Employment at UVa
by James C. Sherlock Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 (Title IX) prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance. It covers employees as well as students. There is clear work to do at UVa for its Title IX staff. We’ll sample the problems.…
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Is This Cartoon Racist?
by James A. Bacon Is the cartoon above, drawn by Virginia Military Institute alumnus Matt Daniel, racist? Former Governor L. Douglas Wilder thinks so. “It’s clearly racist,” he told Washington Post reporter Ian Shapira after Shapira showed it to him. Shapira evidently thinks so, too. “Some say” the depiction of Martin Brown, Virginia’s African-American director…
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To Teach Is To Touch the Future
by Bill Bolling As most of you know, I left my professional career in the insurance business behind in 2018 to pursue a passion for teaching. For the past five years I’ve had the privilege of teaching young people about politics and government. I started out guest lecturing at James Madison University, and for the…