Category: Education (higher ed)
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UVa Needs Facts and Reason, Not an Opinion Survey
by Charles L. Weber, Jr. Recently Jim Bacon argued that the University of Virginia needs to conduct another Climate Survey to compare the results with the one conducted in 2018. He argued as follows: The premise of the Ryan administration is that making African-Americans feel more welcome at UVa requires rooting out the racism endemic…
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The Fiscal Challenge of Educating Immigrant Children
by James A. Bacon Last week Victoria Manning, a member of the Virginia Beach school board, posted a comment on her Facebook page noting that the school system had added 300 additional English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) students the past year, mostly from “South America.” The city’s ESL budget had increased more than $1 million over two years,…
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The State Budget: The House Reductions to Cover Tax Cuts
Budget is policy. A budget reflects what an organization chooses to spend its money on. The differences between the versions of the 2022-2024 biennial budget passed by the House and Senate this year are starker than they have been in recent memory. There are major philosophical and policy differences that the conferees will need to…
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Alumni Are Mad as Hell — and They’re Organizing!
by James A. Bacon College alumni, to borrow the classic phrase from the 1976 movie Network, are mad as hell and aren’t going to take it anymore. Unlike the fictional TV newsman played by Peter Finch, who had no idea how to channel his frustration, alumni groups around the country are organizing to push back…
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Causes of the School Funding “Crisis”
by James C. Sherlock Read the story, “House and Senate lay out dueling visions for education funding in Virginia,” in the Virginia Mercury this morning by the reliably thorough Kate Masters. If you follow it, you, like everyone else in Virginia, can pick a side or pick provisions from both houses that you prefer. What you…
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How Wokism Is Destroying UVa and Charlottesville
by Walter Smith A few months ago, Jim Bacon wrote an article asking, What’s the Matter with Charlottesville? My answer: UVa. Charlottesville used to be the proverbial sleepy, college town in a beautiful setting, blessed by a rich history centered around a giant of the Western world. The University of Virginia stuck to educating students…
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College Professor to White Males: Shut Up
by Kerry Dougherty Oh look. A woke New York sociology professor made headlines and got in hot water over her racist and sexist syllabus. It appears that SUNY Binghamton University has deleted Ana Maria Candela from its faculty directory. With good reason. She was caught bragging that she would use “progressive stacking” in her class…
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The Decline (and Fall?) of the Honor System
There was a time in Virginia when a gentleman’s word was his bond. Lying, cheating and stealing were universally condemned as reprehensible. The values of this by-gone era were enshrined in single-sanction honor codes at many Virginia universities. A handful of people paid a high price — expulsion — for violating honor codes. Though harsh,…
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Who’s “Marginalized” at UVa? Political Conservatives, That’s Who.
by James A. Bacon What does it tell you about the freedom of speech and expression at the University of Virginia when in 2018 one-fifth of the university community (students, faculty and staff) described itself as various degrees of conservative and three-fifths identified as various degrees of liberal — a three-to-one ratio — but two…
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Is It Even Possible to Get More Lopsided Than This?
by James A. Bacon Two years ago, University of Virginia President Jim Ryan issued remarks outlining his vision for making UVa an institution that is both “great” and “good.” In his view, a critical strategy for achieving that goal was recruiting and retaining the “best people,” whether students faculty, or staff. “To do this we…
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Creeping Totalitarianism of the Woke at William & Mary
by James A. Bacon Katherine Rowe has brought about sweeping changes to the College of William & Mary since becoming president in 2018. Most notable has been her implementation of a program of social justice under the banner of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI). In words crafted for public consumption, her vision sounds benign. Consider,…
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Follow-up: Appointment War Called Off
by Dick Hall-Sizemore House Republicans backed off late yesterday afternoon from their threat to let over 1,000 appointments by former Governor Northam lapse. They did, however, single out and deny eleven appointments to a few regulatory boards that have recently been the subject of controversy: Board of Education — denied three appointments, but confirmed one,…
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GMU Re-Koched
Republished with permission from VoxFairfax.com. There are several cognitive cautions that may sensitize a reader’s appreciation of important information. Among these is the elegant French caution that the more things change, the more they remain the same. Another is the guide that instructs the reader on the behaviors of public figures to “watch what they…
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No CRT to See Here. Move Along Now.
The University of Virginia paid $32,500 to Critical Race Theory popularizer Ibram Kendi to discuss “racial equity” for an hour. The university contracted with Penguin Random House Speakers Bureau, according to an agreement obtained by The Daily Wire through the Freedom of Information Act. The virtual event took place April 21 last year, and 876…
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Who Needs a Stinkin’ Honorary Degree Anyway?
by James A. Bacon Governor Glenn Youngkin is scheduled to speak at the College of William & Mary’s Charter Day ceremony in three days, when he will receive an honorary degree. Taking umbrage at his stance against Critical Race Theory in public schools, three law school students have started a campaign, “No Degrees for Bigotry.”…