Bacon's Rebellion

Democracy Thrives in Sunlight

More News from the Berkeley of the South

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by

James A. Bacon
in ,

The fun never ends in the People’s Republic of Charlottesville. Rather than subject readers to excessive content about the University of Virginia, I’ll boil the latest two stories down to their essence and provide links for those who wish to read more.

The Curious Case of the Missing Podcasts. Walter Smith delves into the 2019 launch of the University of Virginia’s Woodson Institute series of podcasts reinterpreting Thomas Jefferson. UVa rolled out the program with great fanfare. Unsurprisingly, the “reinterpretation” was uniformly negative toward the university’s founder. But only two of the planned six recordings were produced. The series was canceled without explanation, and the two podcasts and accompanying features were buried deep in the Woodson Institute’s website where, for all purposes, they are inaccessible. What happened? Smith makes a powerful case that the decision had to have come from high up in the UVa hierarchy.

Student Veterans Are Up in Arms. UVa President Jim Ryan insists that he supports “all dimensions” of diversity at Thomas Jefferson’s university, extending beyond race, gender, and sexual orientation to religion, political beliefs, geography, socioeconomic status and even veteran status. But UVa’s student veteran organization isn’t feeling very welcome at the moment. It seems that the Office of Student Affairs has unilaterally co-opted space at the Veterans Students Center to create an office for an assistant dean of student affairs. The veterans’ pleas to Ryan and former Dean Robyn Hadley have gone unanswered. Frustrated, they have organized a petition to seek redress.

— JAB

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5 responses to “More News from the Berkeley of the South”

  1. WayneS Avatar
    WayneS

    It seems that the Office of Student Affairs has unilaterally co-opted space at the Veterans Students Center to create an office for an assistant dean of student affairs.

    Perhaps the “Student Veterans Rock’n’Roll Ensemble” should start practicing 4 hours per day in the room next to the dean’s office.

    Don’t have a band? Form one – just make sure it has two bass players. 😉

    1. Lefty665 Avatar
      Lefty665

      …and two drummers and bag pipes (you ain’t heard nuthin’ until you’ve heard bag pipes with fuzz and chorus with volume at 11) Oh, and full Marshall stacks. 105dB is the minimum acceptable sound level in the Dean’s office.

      I’d also suggest using the space for beginner’s fiddle lessons and banjo practice to prepare vets for Inclusion in the Old Time and Bluegrass music scenes in C’ville (Diversity in music). Allowing Ukes would illustrate the utter folly of Equity that degrades the quality of music for everyone.

      The female vocalist in a band I was in did a disabled veterans music program at the local VA hospital. Some of those guys got good and the group played for the president. It was clearly therapeutic for some, just fun for others.

      If they’re still around maybe we could get them to do a reunion tour and recruitment gig at the Veterans Student Center.

  2. WayneS Avatar
    WayneS

    FYI Mr. Bacon – the “Student Veterans Are Up in Arms” Link took me to the missing podcast story, not the one about the Student Veterans.

    1. James A. Bacon Avatar
      James A. Bacon

      Whoops! Link fixed. Here it is: https://thejeffersoncouncil.com/student-veterans-want-their-space-back/

  3. Nancy Naive Avatar
    Nancy Naive

    “Research by James V. Koch, an economist who studies college spending and a former president at Old Dominion University in Virginia, found that public-university trustees approved 98% of the cost-increasing proposals they reviewed, often unanimously. In most states, he said, there hasn’t been anyone to say, “No, you can’t do that.”

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/state-university-tuition-increase-spending-41a58100?st=avc8m9ug3xpai6g

    Fun fact… oooh lookie. DeSantis spends.
    “ The University of Florida in 2022 had more than 50 employees with titles of director, associate director or assistant director of communications, roughly double the number it had in 2017. The school also employed more than 160 assistant, associate, executive and other types of deans last year, up from about 130 in 2017.”

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