Category: Education (higher ed)
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Will Clement Leave His Mark as UVa Rector?
by James A. Bacon The University of Virginia Board of Visitors will have some fresh blood tomorrow. Whittington W. Clement will assume leadership as rector July 1, and he will be joined by three new members appointed by Governor Ralph Northam earlier this month on the 19-person board. The question is this: Will anything change?…
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A Free Exchange of Left Wing Ideas
by James A. Bacon There was an old joke back during the Cold War. An American diplomat was talking to a Russian diplomat. The American diplomat praised the superiority of the American way of life: “In our country, we are free to criticize President Reagan.” To which the Russian diplomat replied, “In our country, we…
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Pseudo Shame at VMI
by Phil Leigh Virginia Military Institute graduates familiar with the drumming out process know that real shame is emotionally one of the most painful experiences we can have. It makes us want to hide like the white-collar criminal covering his face with a newspaper during a perp walk. It is soul destroying and even the…
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Virginia’s New Ruling Class: How Exploitation Works in the Real World
Medical debt, which comprises 58% of all debt collections in the U.S., is the leading cause of bankruptcy in the United States. Between January 2018 and July 2020, hospitals filed tens of thousands of lawsuits and other court against against patients, according to AXIOS, which drew upon Johns Hopkins University data. Until a public outcry…
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The Real Fascists Next Door
by James A. Bacon If you read the recent post, “The Fascists Next Door,” you would see that serious people at the University of Virginia — people who get paid actual salaries, not people who store their worldly belongings in stolen grocery carts — peddle the notion that middle-class Americans are fascists. Not all middle-class…
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The Fascists Next Door
by Ann Mclean Want more evidence that the University of Virginia has become an impermeable thought bubble where people can say the craziest things without fear of contradiction? Consider this: Two University of Virginia professors —Manuela Achilles and Kyrill Kunakhovich — taught a history course this spring that portrays American conservatives as fascists. They weren’t being…
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Packing the UVa Law School Faculty
by Ann McLean Earlier this week UVA Today touted the addition of 17 high-profile professors — packed with former U.S. Supreme Court clerks, Rhodes Scholars, and even a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship genius grant recipient — to the University of Virginia Law School. “Our new and incoming faculty are either already academic superstars or superstars in…
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Don’t Ask Questions. Just Do What We Tell You.
by James A. Bacon Walter Smith, a University of Virginia alumnus, was miffed when UVa leadership mandated that all students must be vaccinated if they are to return to the university in the fall. His daughter, a UVa student, had caught the COVID-19 virus, lived through 10 days of quarantine, acquired natural immunities, and was…
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A Volatile Mix: Sex, Obsession, Microaggressions and Mental Health at UVa
by James A. Bacon Kieran Bhattacharya, a University of Virginia School of Medicine student who claims he was expelled for challenging left-wing political orthodoxy at the school, has filed new papers expanding upon his allegations. Among the more explosive charges, he asserts that he was twice committed against his will to psychiatric facilities, given antipsychotic…
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A Spirited Defense of George Rogers Clark
I reproduce here a letter from state Sen. Chap Petersen, D-Fairfax, who attended the University of Virginia and lived across West Main Street from the statue of George Rogers Clark. He addressed the letter to UVa President Jim Ryan and the Board of Visitors. — JAB I want to write, firstly, to acknowledge and express…
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Can Free Speech Thrive in an Intellectual Monoculture?
by James A. Bacon My fellow members of The Jefferson Council and I are united in our determination to protect the Jeffersonian legacy at the University of Virginia, in particular to champion free speech and expression on the grounds. An internal debate we have is whether we should work with President James Ryan in advancing…
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UVa Affirms Commitment to Free Speech… at Least in Theory
by James A. Bacon The University of Virginia Board of Trustees has voted to approve a statement affirming the university’s commitment to free expression and free inquiry. “All views, beliefs and perspective deserve to be articulated and heard free from interference,” states the Statement of the Committee on Free Expression and Free Inquiry. “Free and…
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W&L Board Keeps Lee in University Name
by James A. Bacon In a 22-to-6 decision, the Washington & Lee Board of Trustees voted today to keep the Lee in its name. There is no consensus in the W&L community regarding the name change, said the board in a statement. But the board explicitly repudiated racism, apologized for the university’s past veneration of…
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Independent Higher-Ed Governance in Virginia Is Dead
by James A. Bacon A special review board appointed by Board of Visitors President John Boland will study the recommendations contained in the Barnes & Thornburg investigation into racism and sexism at the Virginia Military Institute. The reviewers will report back to the Board of Visitors before its next meeting scheduled in September. Among its…
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First Get Kids in School, Then Offer Educational Theories, Then Pilot Them, and We Might Believe You
by James C. Sherlock The wisdom of Occam’s razor has seldom been more fully realized than in modern educational theory. Friar William of Ockham in the 13th century proposed that simpler theories are preferable to more complex ones because they tend to be more testable. And usually more accurate It has been true a long…