Which of These Persons at UVa Oversees the Educational Development of the Rest?

by James C. Sherlock

In order to illustrate the truly insulting nature of the DEI program at the University of Virginia, I offer the following quiz.

See if you can pick out the person pictured who:

directs a range of educational programming focused on educational development for staff, faculty and students.

Nana Last, Professor of Architecture
Ira C. Harris, Professor, McIntyre School of Commerce
Sankaran Venkataraman, Professor, Darden School of Business
Sandhya Dwarkadas, Professor and Chair Department of Computer Science
Tisha Hayes, Professor of Education
Trinh Thuan, Professor Emeritus, Department of Astronomy
Kelsey Johnson Professor of Astronomy
Haibo Dong Professor Aerospace Engineering
Sly Mata, Director of Diversity Education, Division for DEI
Nicole Thorne Jenkins, Dean, McIntyre School of Commerce
Devin K. Harris, Professor of Engineering
Mool C. Gupta, Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Tomonari Furukawa, Professor of Engineering
Allan Tsung M.D., Professor and Chair Department of Surgery, Medical School
Sallie Keller, Professor of Data Science
Harsha Chelliah, Professor School of Engineering

 

 

 

 

 


Bottom line.  
Good guess.

There is every evidence that Mr. Mata is a fine man. His biography is inspiring.

But the people pictured above who are not Mr. Mata excelled and earned their plaudits and appointments before there was a UVa Division for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI).  Even before James Ryan was President.

It must be a source of embarrassment to the University faculty, and it certainly is to alumni, that Mr. Ryan, panicked by national events in 2020, has parachuted in people to oversee faculty, staff and student progressive political correctness and their  “educational development” and to police their speech.

To teach these extraordinary people how to be “sensitive” to gender and race issues.

These very distinguished people (read at the link) earned what they have.  It is pretty clear they already know how to teach, research and lead.

They don’t deserve to be “overseen” by political commissars. But most who don’t agree with the policy are controlled by specific and credible threats to their careers.

Ask Loren Lamasky. Professor Lomasky, pursued relentlessly by DEI functionaries, is best known for his work in moral and political philosophy.

Loren Lomasky
Cory Professor of Political Philosophy, Policy & Law

Moral philosophy is not high on the list of valued subjects at today’s University of Virginia.

TJ. For additional insight into Virginia mistakes, look at the University of Virginia’s Data Science and Engineering and Applied Science faculties.

Perhaps that will convince Northern Virginians that the “too many Asians” changes to the admissions criteria at the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology were as counterproductive as they seemed to most of the rest of us at the time.


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Comments

11 responses to “Which of These Persons at UVa Oversees the Educational Development of the Rest?”

  1. Eric the half a troll Avatar
    Eric the half a troll

    From the link you used to promote your prior article:

    “Among the few propositions on which Loren Lomasky and provost Ian Baucom agree is that the University of Virginia would be better off with exactly one of them gone.”

    Dated from February… sure looks like Loren is still gainfully employed, eh…?

  2. Eric the half a troll Avatar
    Eric the half a troll

    “They don’t deserve to be “overseen” by political commissars.”

    Funny, I read everything I could find on Mr. Mata (including job descriptions past and present). The word “oversee” did not show up anywhere…

    1. James C. Sherlock Avatar
      James C. Sherlock

      The left will never use the word “oversee”. Too much historical baggage. But it is accurate here.

      Cambridge Dictionary:

      “Oversee: 1. to watch or organize a job or an activity to make certain that it is being done correctly”

      It is undeniable, even by you, that DEI functionaries oversee every aspect of University life to make certain it is being done correctly according to their political views.

      Read the words of their job descriptions.

  3. Lefty665 Avatar
    Lefty665

    Mr. Meta (his pronouns are he/him/his) has a degree in “Interdisciplinary Studies”. Be interesting to know which two disciplines of the 170 options he chose to inter discipline. Hopefully they were more substantive than Biomimicry* and Fashion, although that combination probably would have given him insight into Sam Brinkman.
    https://cisa.asu.edu/ids-concentrations-new

    More to the point is that the Division of DEI at UVa of which Mr. Meta is a part is shockingly undiverse, uninclusive, and unequitable. https://dei.virginia.edu/who-we-are The division is at least 2/3 and likely 3/4 black, 1/12 white, 0/12 Hispanic and 2/3 female.

    Perhaps Mr. Meta’s efforts should first be focused on fixing the travesty of Diversity Inclusion and Equity staffing in his own division. It appears to be in blatant violation of the Civil Rights Act, and we know from CRT that inequity in the racial mix of groups is evidence of systemic racism. We have not even addressed genderism, ableism or LGBTQ+ism.

    Mr. Meta should fix the inequity, indiversity and ininclusion in his own Division of (un)DIE before proceeding to fix the faculty and student body of UVa.

    * “The concentration in biomimicry concentration is designed to address the growing interest in biomimicry knowledge and training, and students who complete the concentration will be enabled to integrate biomimicry principles and tools into their prospective career.” Is Kamala Harris moonlighting writing descriptions for Arizona State?

  4. Thomas Dixon Avatar
    Thomas Dixon

    Because we became weak and careless, we’ve allowed the communists to take over our systems and poison our society. It is like watching good water swirling down a drain.

    1. VaNavVet Avatar
      VaNavVet

      So the term political commissars triggers you to look under rocks for “communists”? Are you still living in the era of the “red scare”? Surely you are not referring to the author of the piece and his regular use of hyperbole.

      1. WayneS Avatar

        from Oxford dictionary:

        Commissar – n – an official of the Communist Party, especially in the former Soviet Union or present-day China, responsible for political education and organization.

        It seems to me that if the term commissar does not make you think of the communist party then it says quite a bit about you. Of course, I think it was the author’s intent to invoke images of the USSR.

      2. WayneS Avatar

        from Oxford dictionary:

        Commissar – n – an official of the Communist Party, especially in the former Soviet Union or present-day China, responsible for political education and organization.

        It seems to me that if the term commissar does not make you think of the communist party then it says quite a bit about you. Of course, I think it was the author’s intent to invoke images of the USSR.

      3. WayneS Avatar

        from Oxford dictionary:

        Commissar – n – an official of the Communist Party, especially in the former Soviet Union or present-day China, responsible for political education and organization.

        It seems to me that if the term commissar does not make you think of the communist party then it says quite a bit about you. Of course, I think it was the author’s intent to invoke images of the USSR.

        1. VaNavVet Avatar
          VaNavVet

          While it may bring the communist party to mind, the term need not lead one to the conclusion that communists have taken over the country!

  5. walter smith Avatar
    walter smith

    What is “Diversity Education?”
    The Left uses euphemisms to obscure what is going on.
    Is he there to promote “diverse” viewpoints?
    ROTFLMAO
    UVA’s “Diversity Dashboard” primarily measures IPEDS racial categories, and sex (of which there are TWO), which is ignored as to males in the scholastic area because they have been ignored/drugged/unnispired in K-12.
    In Admissions, UVA has tilted the table to offer admission to more POC (people of color), including going SAT optional, and, to the extent POC take the SAT, the “black” scores are significantly lower.
    So I suspect Director of Diversity Education means a service to massage the “diverse” students into better academic performance, but that is an educated guess.
    Meanwhile, if you examine the long term enrollment trends, the black students enrolled is largely static, as is white, while Hispanic, Asian and multi-racial has gone up. Again, my suspicion is that the competition for black student acceptances is fierce among the so-called “elite” schools, and UVA must not have the same amount of inducements as the other “elite” schools.

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