Category: Education (higher ed)
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Most Virginia Public Universities Score Low in Board Accountability
by James A. Bacon Five Virginia universities score an “F” in a rating of governing board accountability and transparency released today by the Partners for College Affordability and Public Trust. They include Virginia Tech, James Madison University, Virginia Military Institute, Virginia State University and Longwood University. George Mason University set the pace for board accountability…
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Bacon Bits: Why-Virginians-Are-Losing-Faith-in-Government Edition
The state ends at Roanoke. It’s a long way from Clintwood, county seat of Dickenson County on the Kentucky border, to Richmond. Seven other state capitals are closer. As an old saying goes, “The people in Richmond think the state ends at Roanoke.” There has been nothing in recent events to dissuade them from that…
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Race vs. Class in Education Personal Data Collection – An Alternative
by James C. Sherlock Earlier I addressed the current method for collecting racial and ethnicity data for civil rights enforcement and found it lacking. So why do we do it that way? Because we have done it for a long time? The constitutional concerns can’t be wished away, and there are new proofs available in…
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E Pluribus Unum
by James C. Sherlock Federal and state executive and legislative branches and the courts make thousands of decisions daily based on race and ethnicity data. The federal regulations for gathering and reporting those data have been imposed in response to civil rights laws. The iron law of unintended consequences has taken precedence as it often…
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General Assembly Legislation of Note: Education, Schools and Health
by James C. Sherlock As bills affecting education, educational institutions or health get filed and make their way, or not, through the General Assembly in 2021, I will occasionally make note of them here. I will certainly not list them all, but will highlight the ones of interest to me and I hope to our…
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Another Higher-Ed Apologist Calls for More State Funding
by James A. Bacon You’d think James Socas would know better. As an employee of the Blackstone Group, he invests in technology companies. He knows what it takes to run successful business enterprises. He has even served two terms on UVa’s alumni association board. But he’s willing to cut Virginia public universities plenty of slack when it…
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UVa and Tech — Less Intolerant than Other Elite Universities
by James A. Bacon I have been critical of Virginia’s colleges and universities, especially the University of Virginia, for the intolerance of conservative political and cultural viewpoints. But there’s another side to the story, and I believe in presenting all the evidence, not just the facts that fit my narrative. By the standards of other…
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A Glimpse into UVa’s Fund-Raising Juggernaut
by James A. Bacon Alumni unhappy about recent developments at the University of Virginia claim to have withdrawn $150 million or more in pledged financial support for the institution. Money talks in academia as elsewhere. President Jim Ryan and Rector James Murray have engaged disgruntled grads in spoken and written communications and have given them…
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A Budget Cut for Higher Ed
By Dick Hall-Sizemore I am used to tilting at windmills, making proposals that have little chance politically of being adopted. This is another one of those forays. Here is a proposal for addressing higher education fiscal issues: Require all state-supported colleges and universities to reduce their tuition and fees, equivalent to a 10 percent reduction…
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Hard Power Matters – America’s Universities Must Protect It
by James C. Sherlock This is a continuation of the discussion raised by my column on the folly of educating Chinese and Iranian visa holders in Virginia universities and colleges. Some in that discussion thought soft power would overcome what America loses in hard power. Soft power is both crucially important and utterly insufficient to…
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Prince William Republicans Walk Out of “Bias” Training Session
by James A. Bacon First comes bias training, then comes anti-bias enforcement. Can the thought police be far behind? In Prince William County last week, three Republican members of the Board of Supervisors walked out of a presentation, “Raising Awareness of Unconscious Bias to Foster Inclusivity and Equity,” at a joint meeting of the supervisors…
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Ranking Virginia Colleges for COVID Performance, Round II
by James A. Bacon It is a legitimate question to ask: Which of Virginia’s colleges and universities are doing the best and worst job of managing the COVID-19 epidemic? Over the weekend, I posted some numbers showing that Virginia Tech, James Madison University, and the University of Virginia had posted the largest numbers of confirmed…
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UVa Builds Scholarship Endowment to Half-Billion Dollars
by James A. Bacon Over the past four years the University of Virginia has raised $500 million, enough to endow 350 undergraduate and graduate scholarships, President Jim Ryan informed the Board of Visitors Friday. He highlighted two programs in particular that share the goal of “fostering excellence and diversity of the student population, and ensuring…
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As It Turns Out, UVa Has Third Most COVID Cases in Virginia Higher-Ed
by James A. Bacon In my previous post I reported how the University of Virginia has handled the COVID-19 epidemic, noting that the state’s flagship university had experienced 1,250 cases since reopening this fall and only seven hospitalizations. Having no basis for comparison, I withheld judgment on whether UVa had done a superior job compared…
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How UVa Dodged the COVID-19 Bullet
by James A. Bacon The major challenge facing the University of Virginia this fall was controlling the spread of the COVID-19 virus when reconvening for the new academic year. With a combined student and employee population of about 45,000 the UVa administration had a gargantuan task. Fear was running rampant. Many people thought the university’s…