Category: Education (higher ed)
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The Invisible Side of the Student Loan Crisis: Debt Collection
by James A. Bacon VPM News tells the story of Joshua Bowser, a Virginia State University dropout who was living at home in New Jersey with his parents and working two jobs. Unbeknownst to the young man, he owed the Commonwealth somewhere between $6,900 and $10,700 (the paperwork gave different figures) for unpaid tuition and…
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College Faculty Don’t “Think Like America”
by James A. Bacon It has become a widespread conviction on Virginia’s colleges and universities that faculty and staff should “look like Virginia” in their demographic make-up. There is no comparable obsession with hiring faculty and staff that “think like Virginia.” Employees of James Madison University — faculty, staff, and administrators — donated more than…
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Day One Powers of the Governor – Removal of Members of Boards and Commissions
by James C. Sherlock The left routinely reminds us that elections have consequences. Well, indeed they do. People ask what can Glenn Youngkin really do on day one of his administration. The answer — more and more consequentially — than is commonly understood. I have written here repeatedly about long term corruption in the Board…
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The Stunning Wealth of UVa’s Nonprofits
by James C. Sherlock As an alumnus of the University of Virginia, I like to check in occasionally to see how my alma mater is doing financially. Not the actual University, but the wealthy and proliferating nonprofits set up for its off-the-books support. When I say wealthy, I mean $13,568,527,649 wealthy. OK, rich. All of…
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VMI, Recognize Binnie Peay’s Distinguished Service
Here follows a letter from Salvatore J. Vitale, class agent of the Virginia Military Institute class of 1961. — JAB I am a graduate, and proud to be one, of the Virginia Military Institute’s Class of 1961. Since last summer, I and others of the VMI alumni have been pleased to note that Bacon’s Rebellion…
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The Alumni Rebellion Gains Momentum
First, Stuart Taylor and Ed Yingling (with Princetonians for Free Speech) got a column published Monday in the Wall Street Journal about the formation of the Alumni Free Speech Alliance. Fox News followed with a story yesterday (seen above). Since then, Inside Higher Ed, the leading higher-ed trade publication, has run a news story of its…
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Why W&L’s Dudley Must Go
Republished from The Generals Redoubt newsletter. The Generals Redoubt is calling for Will Dudley to resign or be terminated as President of Washington and Lee University and for a new president to be recruited who better reflects the historical values of the school and the majority of its alumni. Unfortunately, there are too many reasons…
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Alumni Power
by James A. Bacon The university alumni rebellion, which first took root in Virginia, is going national. Washington & Lee University was the first higher-ed institution in the country, to my knowledge, where alumni organized to fight the leftward drift of their alma mater. The W&L group, known as the Generals Redoubt, was followed quickly…
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Alumni of the World Unite!
This press release was issued today by the Alumni Free Speech Alliance, of which The Jefferson Council is a founding member. I serve as vice president-communications of the Council. — JAB Millions of college and university alumni around the country are dismayed by the intolerance of unpopular viewpoints at their alma maters, and many have…
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McAuliffe Lets the Cat out of the Bag
by James C. Sherlock Current Virginia law and Terry McAuliffe cannot coexist. “A parent has a fundamental right to make decisions concerning the upbringing, education, and care of the parent’s child.” Code of Virginia § 1-240.1. Rights of parents. “I don’t think parents should be telling schools what they should teach.” Terry McAuliffe, Sept 28,…
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A New Form of Sexual Identity Enters the Lexicon: Gender Fluid
by James A. Bacon Loudoun Now has confirmed key details of the Daily Wire expose describing the ordeal of plumber Scott Smith and his family after his daughter was sexually assaulted in a high school bathroom by a boy dressed in a skirt. Yesterday I refrained from going ballistic on this story, which was based…
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W&L Alumni Rebels Deploy Nuclear Option
by James A. Bacon The Generals Redoubt, an association of alumni protesting the leftist drift of Washington & Lee University, scored a seeming victory earlier this year when the W&L Board voted to keep Lee — as in Confederate general and former university president Robert E. Lee — in the school’s name. But subsequent events…
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Charlottesville a Pioneer of Woke Architecture
A dustup over classical architecture at the University of Virginia prefigured the controversy over Donald Trump’s architecture executive order. by Catesby Leigh When Donald Trump ordered a traditionally oriented reform of federal architectural patronage in his final days as president, its life expectancy was exceedingly short. Sure enough, his successor soon revoked the order and…
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With a $14.5 Billion Endowment, Are UVa Leaders Accountable to Anyone But Themselves?
by James A. Bacon The University of Virginia endowment racked up a breathtaking 49% investment return in the year ending June 30, 2021, bringing the total value of the university’s investments to $14.5 billion, reports the University of Virginia Investment Management Company (UVIMCO) in its 2020-21 annual report. I’m not sure that’s a good thing.…
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Universities as Prestige Maximizers, and the Growing Disconnect with the Public
by James A. Bacon I have long observed that nonprofit colleges and universities, by virtue of being nonprofit, behave very differently than for-profit enterprises. Having weak systems for accountability, higher-ed institutions are captured by their internal constituencies whose interests they place of those of students and their families. Instead of endeavoring to maximize profits, as…