Tag: James A. Bacon
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Three Ideas for Protecting Civil Dialogue at UVa
by James A. Bacon On Oct. 11, 2023, journalist Abigail Shrier engaged in a Q&A session at the University of Virginia discussing the transgender movement in the United States. Offended by her views, transgender militants and their allies sabotaged attendance of the event, abrogated an agreement with university authorities restricting where to hold their protest,…
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Rising Costs Pushing UVa Tuition Higher
The Jefferson Council released the following press release this morning (Nov. 9, 2023): CHARLOTTESVILLE—Rising costs, not cutbacks in state aid, are primarily responsible for pushing tuition higher at the University of Virginia. State appropriations for UVa have declined sharply between 2002 and 2022 when adjusted for inflation and enrollment. But tuition has exploded over the…
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Song Sung Blue
by James A. Bacon Not every General Assembly race has been decided, according to the data displayed by the Virginia Public Access Project, but enough votes are in to conclude that the Democrats won the election. They retained their control of the state Senate and won a narrow majority in the House. Some preliminary observations:…
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UVa’s Modern-Day Barbarians
by James A. Bacon The latest round of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has stirred up emotions at the University of Virginia more than any event since the George Floyd riots. Not only are students holding demonstrations and counter-demonstrations; faculty, parents, and alumni are chiming in. Eighty University of Virginia professors signed an open letter proclaiming themselves…
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A’s for All!
by James A. Bacon Grade inflation in American universities is a well-documented phenomenon. Nearly half of all grades handed out at Harvard are A’s. The average Grade Point Average (GPA) at the University of Virginia, having drifted steadily upward over the past 30 years, is moving higher at an accelerating rate. One possible explanation —…
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Lee Statue Meltdown
by James A. Bacon At one point during the decade-long debate over Confederate statuary, the logic of the Taliban, er, progressives, was that the statues should not be commemorated in highly visible public spaces, but could be relegated to battlefields, cemeteries and museums. If the statues and memorials must be removed, that seems to be…
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Free Speech and Advocacy of Genocide
by James A. Bacon Chanting “Palestine will be free, from the river to the sea,” hundreds of pro-Palestinian students held a protest on the Lawn at the University of Virginia yesterday. As reported by The Washington Free-Beacon, they demanded the Biden administration defund aid to Israel. The event was part of a national “walkout”…
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“Hate” Speech Does Not Make Students “Unsafe”
by James A. Bacon There is a widespread notion among militant leftists at the University of Virginia, as there is in universities across the Commonwealth, that exposure to objectionable ideas causes “harm” to those who hear them and, thus, should be suppressed. This logic is a totalitarian wolf in sheep’s clothing. While I do not…
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Transgender Issues — Whose “Centerpiece,” Youngkin’s or the Post’s?
by James A. Bacon The latest Washington Post spin on its recent public-opinion poll about transgender issues in Virginia schools is a window into the unconscious biases of WaPo reporters and editors. Here’s the lead (my emphasis): Education is an important factor for many Virginia voters this fall, but transgender issues, one of Republican Gov.…
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The Incomplete Case for Higher Tuition at UVa
by James A. Bacon As the Board of Visitors ponders how much to raise tuition & fees in the next two academic years, the University of Virginia is grappling with strong inflationary pressures and a long-term shortfall in state aid, senior university administrators said Wednesday. Even so, administrators told the Board’s Finance Committee, UVa offers…
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Quote of the Day: Abigail Spanberger
“For me there is no equivalence between armed, individual militants going into a home, shooting parents in front of their children, killing children, lighting babies on fire, burning down entire kibbutz and military action going after military targets, terrorist perpetrators of a horrible massacre. Those are different things.” So said Congresswoman Abigail Spanberger in an…
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You Can’t Make This Stuff Up…
Hmmm…. Gendered negotiation of urban spaces among transgender persons in Pakistan: dismantling the colonial binary. Sounds interesting. Actually, I’d be more interested in gendered negotiation of rural spaces among transgender persons in Pakistan…. as in, rural spaces controlled by the Taliban. I’d also like to know more about dismantling the pre-colonial binary. You know, the…