Tag: Peter Galuszka
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Could VCU Become the Next UVa?
When word leaked out about the University of Virginia’s $2.2 billion Strategic Investment Fund, UVa officials suggested that they had found a way to spin dross into gold. Sweeping up low-yield cash and short-term investments in assorted reserves and accounts, they consolidated a vast sum which, in the hands of the University of Virginia Investment…
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PC Strikes Again: Dissing Jefferson at UVa
On occasion, I feel sympathy for UVa President Teresa Sullivan. As if she didn’t have her hands full dealing with state budget cuts and General Assembly criticism, now she’s under attack from the left for the grievous sin of…. quoting Thomas Jefferson at the university he founded. Last week Sullivan tried to rally the community in…
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Can UVa Restrain Tuition Hikes?
Under intense political pressure from the General Assembly and the McAuliffe administration, the University of Virginia Board of Visitors discussed several plans in its November meeting on how to hold the line on tuition increases. So reported the Washington Post Friday. The WaPo article was short on specifics about what those plans were, but it…
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UVa, Inova Partner in Research Initiative
by James A. Bacon The University of Virginia and Inova Health System have joined forces in a $112 million partnership to launch a medical campus and a biomedical research initiative in Fairfax County. The partnership has three main components: A cancer research partnership between the Inova Schar Cancer Institute and UVa. Cancer Center. The aspiration…
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Virginia as Free Speech Zone
Three Virginia universities received high rankings in the Heterodox Academy Guide to Colleges for their commitment to diverse viewpoints. The University of Chicago and Purdue University garner the top “heterodoxy” scores for freedom from politically correct strictures on speech, but the University of Virginia, College of William & Mary and George Mason University belonged to a cluster of…
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Does Diversity of Viewpoint Matter to UVa?
The Douglas Muir controversy may have settled down now that the entrepreneurship instructor has abjectedly apologized for a stupid remark about Black Lives Matter on Facebook and will resume teaching at the University of Virginia. But questions about UVa’s commitment to freedom of expression linger. Muir’s comment was a flash in the pan; the worldview…
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Muir Apologizes, Will Resume Teaching
Douglas Muir has issued an apology for making a controversial Facebook statement about the Black Lives Matter movement and will resume teaching his classes at the University of Virginia next week. An excerpt from his statement, as reported by the Cavalier Daily: On October 4, I responded to a Facebook post about Black Lives Matter…
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More Questions about Muir’s “Leave” from UVa
by James A. Bacon In light of the departure of adjunct faculty member Doug Muir from his University of Virginia teaching positions after making controversial statements about the Black Lives Matter movement on Facebook, the question has arisen: Does UVa have the right to fire employees for objectionable speech? (For background, see “Safe Spaces: Not…
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Where Are the Free Speech Advocates?
When Douglas Muir lost his job teaching entrepreneurship at the University of Virginia after making a Facebook comment highly critical of the Black Lives Matter movement, WCVE reporter Hawes Spencer wondered if his treatment raised free speech issues. He couldn’t get any first amendment advocates to return his call. Recalling the column I wrote a couple of days…
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Safe Spaces: Not Just for Classrooms Any More
by James A. Bacon Narrowing the realm of politically acceptable speech, not only on but off the grounds, the forces of political correctness at the University of Virginia have compelled adjunct professor Douglas Muir to take leave from teaching positions at the School of Engineering and Darden School of Business. Muir’s offense: comparing the Black Lives Matter…
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DeSteph’s “Relentless” Search for the Truth at UVa
by James A. Bacon The controversy over the University of Virginia’s $2.2 billion Strategic Investment Fund may have settled down since a state auditor determined in August that the controversial pot of money was in full compliance with Virginia law. But William R. DeSteph, Jr., R-Virginia Beach, isn’t satisfied. He has released correspondence expressing his ire at university…
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Universities as Economic Engines
by James A. Bacon The world’s first university was founded in 1088 in Bologna (in what is now Italy). The idea of bringing scholars together in a dedicated institution caught on. In time, universities were established throughout Europe, the United States and the rest of the world. Almost every country has a university today, with Bhutan in…
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UVa Fund Is Legal and Proper, State Auditor Finds
by James A. Bacon In morning testimony before the General Assembly, a state auditor provided a detailed breakdown of how the University of Virginia cobbled together its controversial $2.2 billion Strategic Investment Fund: UVa was in full compliance with the Code of Virginia, and all of its monies have been properly accounted for over the years.…
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Digging into Rate-of-Return Assumptions
by James A. Bacon House Speaker William J. Howell is rightfully concerned about the long-term health of the Virginia Retirement System. The pension system’s own actuary estimated a year ago that the $68 billion retirement system has unfunded liabilities of $22.6 billion. On Sunday, the Richmond Times-Dispatch’s Michael Martz described the debate over restructuring the VRS from a…
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A Bright Line between Research and Academic Funding at UVa?
by James A. Bacon Gerald Warburg, a professor of public policy at the University of Virginia, provides important context for the university’s controversial, $2.2 billion Strategic Investment Fund. In an op-ed published a week ago in the Virginian-Pilot, he describes the fund as a tool to boost the university’s research mission without relying upon state funds or…