Tag: James A. Bacon
-
The Purge Comes for Edwin Alderman
by James A. Bacon As President of the University of Virginia between 1904 and 1931, Edwin Anderson Alderman led Thomas Jefferson’s university into the 20th century. A self-proclaimed “progressive” of the Woodrow Wilson stamp, he advocated higher taxes to support public education, admitted the first women into UVA graduate programs, boosted enrollment and faculty hiring,…
-
Boomergeddon Countdown: Ten Years… Nine…
by James A. Bacon The last time the United States had a serious conversation about deficit spending and the accumulating national debt was in 2010 with the publication of the Simpson-Bowles study. (That’s about the same time I wrote Boomergeddon, predicting that the United States had 20 to 30 years before the fiscal wheels fell…
-
Scott Surovell’s End Run Around Jason Miyares
by James A. Bacon The battle for control of higher-ed institutions in Virginia is boiling over into the state legislature. Senator Scott Surovell, D-Mount Vernon, has submitted a bill, SB 506, that would allow Virginia’s public universities to hire their own legal counsel in place of lawyers answering to the Attorney General. The bill would…
-
Looking More Like New Jersey Every Day
by James A. Bacon I’ve frequently made the observation that Virginia has been leaking population through domestic migration. However, as recent data published by Old Dominion University’s Strome College of Business make clear, the loss of population through domestic migration is more than offset by net international migration. Between April 1, 2020, and June 30,…
-
The Most Woke Universities in Virginia
by James A. Bacon Borrowing a methodology from a Harvard computer science prof, Jay Greene and Mike Gonzales with The Heritage Foundation have calculated a wokeness ranking for Virginia’s public universities: the number of times “social justice” appears in a university’s course catalog. Measured by the absolute number of “social justice” mentions, James Madison University…
-
Virginia’s New, Post-Covid Population Growth Reality
by James A. Bacon Population growth patterns are shifting within Virginia. So far during the current decade, Virginia’s two largest metropolitan areas — Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads — have been losing population due to net migration (more people moving out than moving in). The trend, evident before the Covid epidemic, became more pronounced during…
-
What Do You Do If There Are No Statues Left to Tear Down?
Step #1: Reinterpret the Confederate statues; Step #2: Remove the Confederate statues from the public square; Step #3: Prevent those who want the statues from having them. Decapitate the statues, melt them down, or desecrate them in art and museum displays. What’s left? Where else is there to go? Step #4: Take away tax-exempt status…
-
“Enacting Racial Change by Design”
by James A. Bacon The backlash against Diversity, Equity & Inclusion in higher-ed and the corporate world may be gathering momentum across the country, but the University of Virginia is rolling out a new DEI initiative oblivious to the shift in the national mood. UVA’s College of Arts & Sciences has launched a program this…
-
Covid vs. Religious Freedom at UVA
by James A. Bacon The University of Virginia has paid more than $1.8 million in legal fees fighting a lawsuit filed by UVA Health employees who were fired, despite religious objections, for refusing to take the Covid vaccine. And that’s just through November. Given the continuing litigation, billing has likely passed the $2 million mark.…
-
Birth Dearth Portends Continued Public School Enrollment Losses
The Demographics Research Group at the University of Virginia Projects significant erosion in public school enrollment in Virginia through 2030 — the effect of a seemingly permanent Covid-prompted loss of some 40,000 students to private schools and home schooling, combined with a shrinking birthrate that was evident before the Covid epidemic. Hamilton Lombard has the…
-
The War Over Robert E. Lee Never Ends
by James A. Bacon First they came for the equestrian statues of Robert E. Lee. Then they removed his name from Lee Chapel at Washington & Lee University, where he is buried. Then they came for the memorial to his horse Traveller. Now they want to remove him from Virginia license plates. A bill introduced…
-
Look What UVA Is Hiding
by James A. Bacon Acting on behalf of The Jefferson Council, Walter Smith has filed a complaint in Henrico County against the University of Virginia, seeking a remedy for its refusal to supply documents under the Freedom of Information Act. Smith serves in a volunteer capacity as chair of the Council’s research committee. The suit…
-
What Does UVA Need in a University President?
by James A. Bacon For anyone following governance issues at the University of Virginia, Bill Ackman’s Twitter broadside against Harvard’s now- dethroned president Claudine Gay and its governing board is must reading. Ackman, the hedge-fund manager-turned-activist who spearheaded Gay’s overthrow, identifies serious systemic problems at Harvard, from its ponderous DEI bureaucracy to a tuition policy…
-
Nooses, Masks and Double Standards
by James A. Bacon In the fall of 2022 a furtive figure was caught on videotape draping a noose around the Homer statue on the Grounds of the University of Virginia. The university administration immediately declared the act a hate crime. University police launched an investigation, enlisting the FBI to help in the search for…