Sullivan oustermath: A timeline of UVA in tumult

"It is more honorable to repair a wrong than to persist in it."

- Thomas Jefferson

Today's Washington Post reports that Geoff Allen, a start up internet business guru, states that on line instruction is intended to increase graduation rates, raise GPAs and reduce teaching resources. I wonder if he is related to the Dragon Lady? Reducing faculty at a time in our nation when we need to motivate students is silly. Inflating GPAs is even sillier. There is no creditable research to support any of Mr. Allen's statements. The BOV should watch out what it wishes for, it just might get it!

Sam:

We don't know the motives of the Dragas/Kington cabal. They may have been financial, may have been ideological, or may have been some combination thereof.

We do know, however, that 'statistics' and language from the Koch-funded American Council of Trustees and Alumni have shown up in statements written for Rector Dragas and in the very few other public expressions in defense of Dragas. It is, therefore, quite relevant that the Governor was at the Koch-funded confab over the past weekend.

Shinealight --

Do you think he ever thought that he would be at the center of this sort of debate? He was hoping to use his donation money to silently influence the university, pulling strings from behind the scenes while people were too busy studying, teaching, or getting drunk and watching football games.

Just follow the money... University of Florida has gone full in for online learning, pulling in $66 million per year

http://www.gainesville.com/article/20120619/ARTICLES/120619530/1183?p=1&...

Thanks Karl, I'm sure that once Sullivan is reinstated the subject of online learning will be hotly debated. I have heard others say that there is no business model that makes money, but this article says otherwise. Any online learning experts care to comment ?

And note the last line

“There's a risk here of going too slowly,” he said.

And Karl, I'm sure you noted that the 66 million was gross and not net. One has to wonder how much money actually went into the bank.

Clifford:

The confab was in San Diego. More information with links to further reporting can be found here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/virginia-politics/post/mcdonnell-att...

The Koch brothers actually went to MIT so don't hate on the other colors in my bloodstream (grin).

Rick, among online courses at U.Va. that I know of, many are offered both in the Engineering School and in the BIS Program of the SCPS. You will find out something about Larry Richards's experience in this area from this YouTube video of his speech at Sunday's rally:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUaXFOa5TGE&feature=relmfu

BleedOandB,

Thanks for the info on the guv chez Koch. Guv is in pretty deep it would appear.

Also, thanks for correcting me per their MIT connection. I have fond memories of a wonderful visit to Princeton almost five decades ago for a party weekend. Lovely date, great place, great time.

As for the Kochs, Prof. Juan Cole at Michigan, a leading Middle East scholar, has written incisively on the matter of the culture war on higher education. Article is entitled "The Koch Brothers and the End of State Universities":

"The real scandal around the endowment by the Koch brothers of two chairs at Florida State University is that state universities now have to seek such outside money and accept strings. The reason they have to do so is that many state legislatures have chosen not to have state universities any more. At many ‘state universities’ the state contribution to the general operating fund is less than 20 percent, falling toward 10 percent.

This abandonment of their responsibilities to higher education on the part of the states hurts students in the first instance. Institutions that used to be affordable to students from working and lower middle class backgrounds are now increasingly out of reach for them. State universities are becoming the new Ivies, a good bargain still for the upper middle class and the wealthy, but a distant dream for the daughter or son of a worker in a fast food restaurant.

This development is also scary because it promotes the corruption of academia. In fact, as Charles Ferguson showed in his film, “Inside Job,” some academic economists are already hopelessly corrupt. The barracuda capitalist system in contemporary America provides many incentives for economists to promote laissez-faire, anti-regulatory ideas of the sort that led to the 2008 collapse of our economy. Endowments with strings attached are just one more...."
http://www.juancole.com/2011/05/the-koch-brothers-and-the-end-of-state-u...

So I imagine a reasonable surmise is that the Koch brothers influence is somewhere behind the scenes in the Sullivan matter and the general attack on Mr. Jerfferson's University.

"When the rector of the Board, Helen Dragas, declared late last week that she was unsatisfied by the fact that she saw the University of Virginia falling behind other major universities in the deployment of digital classroom innovation, we were shocked.

Why didn’t she just ask us? UVa’s innovative digital reputation is one of the reasons I moved here five years ago. I have taught online, and so have many of my colleagues. If she had asked, I would have introduced Dragas to six or seven of my colleagues, including distinguished professors of computer science, English, religious studies, and engineering. I would have taken her to our world-renowned Scholars’ Lab and introduced her to the staff members who guide students and professors through the use of powerful digital platforms and tools."

http://chronicle.com/blogs/innovations/the-right-way-to-lead-higher-educ...

UVa, along with Tech, ODU, VCU, and Mason, launched the Commonwealth Graduate Engineering Program in 1983. Without CGEP, it is likely that I would not have gotten my master's in systems engineering because I just did not have the ability at the time to attend classes on site. I remember the TV days! It's all about Internet streaming now, but the core value of providing a solid educational experience remains. Larry Richards makes critical distinctions between CGEP and other online learning programs in the aforementioned video. I KNEW my professors and that they truly cared about all their students - both on and off grounds - mastering the presented concepts and content.

Naturally, Virginia governors are loathe to give up a big perk of their job, appointing hundreds of wealthy big donors (to them or their political parties) as board directors of the Commonwealth's fifteen state institutions of higher education. Then, as a "practical" double 'hoo (Ph.D.,MBA and retired quarter century long participant in that "filthy money" profession of fundraising at UVA), I would propose a (tongue in cheek?) compromise. Why not make the best of all possible worlds. " Put their money where their hubris is": Require a proportionally very large personal financial commitment to the institution by persons appointed to serving as BOV members. After all, most are believers in the power of money to resolve problems. Two thirds of my estate is going to UVA, which in the scale of things will mean relatively little to the University. But, what if our governors would require such a substantial commitment (a half, a third of any estate over five or ten million dollars?) to the University. Then you'd see who really cares about "serving the University." And this would make the University much more likely to be able to resolve its seemingly largely financially based needs, while the BOV members continue to get their usual privilege of imposing their own personal money governs ideas and success models. So I'll be impressed only when I see the Paul Tudor Jones type billionaires and multi-millionaire "influencers" and BOV members committing a third, a half, or two thirds of their three billion dollar estates to help the University to resolve the problems they like to point out exist for others to resolve. Think, for example, of the salary raise needs that would be met by a University president with four percent annually paid out from such a multi-billion dollar fund!. Until then I'll have to presume many of these persons are politically connected dilletantes enjoying playing God with other people's careers and money, and seeking to impose their personal values (good or bad) that made them successful in acquiring their fortunes (except for those among them with family wealth who were "born on third base believe they hit a triple"). This is a University trapped by some nineteenth century governance concepts/structures overlaid by a concept that having big money confers intellectual superiority and a right to govern the Commonwealth's intelllectual training institutions according to one's particular prejudices and business background. With any luck this current entire sordid example of hubris will lead to a rexamination that results in a twenty-first century institutional governance concept and structure recognizing that its maximum performance (hallowed national rankings) will best arise from the University being a "multi-stakeholder partnership" rather than a political payoff fiefdom.

One question here - if they are all concerned about on-line learning and need an investment - why not stop the Yoga Building that Jones is to build and put it into on-line education? Oh, that is right, arrogance.

No one is against on-line learning but there are courses that could not be taught this way - example Nursing and phlebotomy - I'm sure we can all agree we would want a nurse to be trained in person and not with a virtual arm!

The point is Dragas never knew of how much UVA was doing and she and others jumped the gun and manufactured something in their own heads based upon articles they didn't completely read. Mistakes happen. Now it has come out, and perhaps UVa can do more.

Truly on-line courses and degrees came into play - not for high schoolers but for those of us in the workforce who do not have the time (because we work) to go to school in the traditional sense. For that, I think UVA could take what they have and do something amazing which would further revenue. And by no means should it be like "fast food education".

What needs to be done in Virginia is changing how the BoV at every state college/university is chosen, have an equal number of alum, faculty, student leaders (so the Board is informed on the educations received) and perhaps community leaders. It is about time for unification of all those in order to help not just UVA - but the entire area of the universities and colleges.

@C'villeNative. Believe it or not - nursing degrees obtained online are very common - and very popular. Seems a little wacky but I have a friend who just received her BSN in this manner. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/24/education/changing-requirements-send-n...

Great find, Dr. Kiracofe!

It seems "accountability" is ACTA's buzz word-in-chief, though they redefine the word for their own purposes:

http://www.goacta.org/publications/downloads/Governor'sBrochure.pdf

http://www.goacta.org/publications/downloads/VirginiaReportFinal.pdf

Rick: I was responding to your original statement: "What is the number of people in Virginia that are taking online courses ... probably triple that! UVA has zero, Nada, nothing!" I suspect I've just learned an important fact about commenting on blogs....

Is there a Dominion Power connection here? I believe Dragas and Kington are both on the board, as is CEO Thomas Farrell, a former Rector. Farrell apparently was in the same high school class as McDonnell.

BleedOrangeandBlue,

Very good point anent the use of language to include terms of art.

Through content analysis of statements of BOV members and legislators we can analyze their "mindset" to include their ideology. Usually in this sort of profiling and analysis the best indicators are off the cuff remarks and statements by the subject of interest.

My line of work has always involved analysis of foreign affairs, foreign policies, foreign leaders, and the like. Haven't worked on US state pols. But as I am semi-retired, keeping an eye on VA state pols could be interesting sport.

Will give that ACTA document a lookover. Many thanks for that heads up.

As I noted on another thread, ACTA was established by Lynne Cheney, VP Cheney's Neoconized wife, in 1995 with her pal Senator Joe Lieberman, then a Dem and today pal of McCain and that fellow from South Carolina.

Dr. Kiracofe: I just put you through the Google.

Would you happen to know my good friend and next door neighbor, Dr. J. D. Anthony?

You seem to have a number of interests/ties in common?

Others: Sorry to stray a bit off topic.

@Sidney - just to back up your comment - UVA has 5 BILLION in their endowment and it earns an interest rate far above the 5-7% we as average citizens may get from investments.

The few on the BOV and few "donors" and the Governor all were "chomping on the bit", so to say, and truly pulling out things that when you dug a bit deeper you found were not true, including faculty pay - you can't compare the pay by the amount alone when comparing UVA to Harvard - Boston is a much more expensive area to live in.

Any state anything - implement change immediately - it will take a year or more...that is fast for them!

disciplinam

enim omnis culus est a modo in

είναι ελληνικά για μένα!

Rector Dragas stated that UVA was way behind in terms of online education, and stated that Stanford had an online class of 160,000. Well, no longer - see Udacity company. The class, "Artificial Intelligence" was taught by Sebastian Thrun, born and educated in Germany:

1) Free;
2) no Stanford admission criteria;
3) Professor Sebastian Thrun (inventor of robot car and Google Glass) is no longer teaching at Stanford because of the outcry from paying students;
4) "free course touched off an intense debate behind the scenes at Stanford, where annual tuition is $40,050...certificates of completion were issued" NYT - 4/18/2012, and
5) Udacity, a private online school was created by then Professor Thrun.

There seems to be a lot of 'smoke and mirrors' on the part of Dragas' reason for terminating Sullivan, and few real facts. What outcome was Rector Dragas thinking of...? Seems as if Rector Dragas is all about stategy, no plan for a successful conclusion...

@Shinealight

Then the voters of Virginia are to blame? I see that only 10% of UVA funding comes from taxpayers. Maybe taxpayers should have at least a 10% say on the BOV? I don't know. I do know that I disagree with the way Sullivan was removed. I do agree with the fact the higher education should be a funding priority.

GOOG [ε μεταφραστής είναι εδώ είμαστε επικοινωνία δεν είμαστε, αλλά πού είναι η γνώση .... είναι όλα APS

BleedOandB,

I will give the ACTA document a close read. Forewarned is forearmed. It may well be that this ACTA document is in fact their game plan and the basis of legislation drawn by the Republicans (and some Dems?). If we obtain some legislative language, then we could compare that with the ACTA document.

The stance of Republican alum in the General Assembly is shocking, frankly. They failed to assimilate the core values of Mr.Jeffersons's University it would seem. Why would they make this such an obvious partisan issue? What hidden agenda do they really have?

Whatever happens tomorrow, there is no question that the Education Committees in the General Assembly must be the focus of attention. Also, the fight for democratic governance and the inclusion of Faculty and Staff on the Board should be undertaken immediately as agenda item number one.

Perhaps as it dawns on A&S alumni that Humanities/A&S is slated for euthanasia, they may step forward in more force.

Pat Buchanan had an interesting piece lately on the takeover of the Republican party by the Neocons...will see if I can locate that as background here. It was something about Bill Kristol boasting to that effect.

Could someone tell us whether Hunter Craig got on BOV before or after the collapse of his multimillion dollar "Biscuit Run" real estate project? I heard he was suing the state of Virginia for millions or some such??? What is up here???

[Give JD my best. An Old School gentleman with deep knowledge.]

Griechisch ist für mich!

@lost whoo

could you please speak English? I do not know Latin or Arabic?

@HOOK readers

I am a mom from California who's 'child' just graduated UCSB, and may or may not attend UVA graduate program in the fall. We paid cash for UCSB, and we are very grateful for the State of California's taxpayer contributions.

And, @UVA

We will be watching your live feed tomorrow. Your tarnished image may not be something my 'child' wants on an application...may just go to work at Price Waterhouse and get CPA in 2 years.

@ UVA DONORS

Please stop polarizing public education or just call it PRIVATE!

@ Shinealight

excellent analogy!

if one must start somewhere let it be the law...n'est pas?

I hope Pres Sullivan is reinstated!

@Sidney: "According to Governor McDonnell's home page there is a $544.8 million surplus in the State of Virginia"

It's total fiction.

Barry, this sounds very scary let's meet for vino at Tempo one evening to discuss at length.
Dan

@Rodney

What is fictional about VA's budget?

@ An Observer

Up until June 2012, we were one the of the cash-paying, committed, and 'out-of-staters'. Now we are on the fence. Why should we pay nearly $150,000 over 4 years for a college education at UCSB, University of Bocconi, internship at Barclays in Paris, France; only to have these monies evaporate because UVA is showing very poor judgement. My 'child' deserves better.

@Sidney

Cueing another poster here in my own apathy meeting your own laziness in research:

democracy June 23rd, 2012 | 8:12am

Rather than paying for its own services, which it can well afford to do, Bell has tried to help Albemarle take money from its neighbor. Bell claimed that the state under Little Bob McDonnell has achieved a budget “surplus” (wink). What he doesn't say is that the so-called "surplus" was attained because of $2.5 billion in federal stimulus funds, acceleration of state sales tax payments, and the raiding of the state pension fund of $680 million (to be paid back at 7.5% after McDonnell leaves office).

--

Like Gilmore's "No Car Tax" slogan (and then halting implementation), you can't invent new rules of simple math.

@Rodney

My apologies for not researching better. I am clearly wrong, and on a learning curve...not an excuse, just a fact. please accept my apology...

@the Hook

What an epidemic failure of Virginia's higher education system!

Is it okay for the Governor of VA to accept too much funding by way of Federal Stimulus monies with a surplus 2 years in a row?...just how is that serving the greater good of the United States Federal Tax payer?

How does Governor McDonnell call himself a Republican, balance his faux budget on the backs of surplus monies, public education, and the UVA? How? You stopped supporting the Commonwealth education for VA in general? Ironic.

Another reason to have a more balanced Board of Visitors at UVA, including a rep from the Commonwealth that is not affiliated with any 'monies'/donations, and has full voting rights...come on! I cannot believe a State such as Virginia could be so blind. Do you see what I see?

Virginia is making California look good...

...seems as if public education in all states are getting short-shrift...I don't like what I see at all but how do we do better?

An epidemic failure to our children who need an excellent education!

Dan,

There is something happening here which is becoming more clear. Postings from democracy, george, bleedorangeandblue, and many others on all these threads taken all together point to a settled design. I have been amazed and heartened by the outpouring of concern over the situation and the information which has been brought to the community's attention.

The visible designing men and women we confront in this UVA crisis appear to have others, visible and invisible, in various places around the US behind them. In turn, the others appear to form part of a well financed network seeking to alter the nature of American higher education as part of a culture war which includes K-12.

Until this crisis, I had not followed the state or national situation regarding the politics of higher education.. The HOOK reporting and the comments by readers got me going. The Rally organized by students was a powerful experience. I stood in the front row area and witnessed professor after professor speaking from the heart with emotion to defend the ideals of our University and its Founder. Those attending from the young folks to those of us with some hair now gray were upbeat and determined.

The Rally in front of the Rotunda brought back memories of the turbulent Vietnam days and our protests against that tragic situation. Stan remembers. At that time, the University was in crisis, as was the case across the county. When it was announced at the Rally that the Library and Archivist were trying to collect things related to the present Sullivan situation, it really hit me that we are indeed in a very significant historical moment in the life of Mr. Jefferson's University, our University.

Anonymoose, with good reason, insists that we maintain caution and prudence given the evident hard ball political nature of this crisis. Should President Sullivan be reinstated, we will need a Plan A directed specifically toward the objective of democratic governance of the University and thus reform of the BOV process. Demands must include permanent voting seats for Faculty and Staff.

Should President Sullivan not be reinstated, we will need a Plan B.

In either outcome, in the immediate near term we will need to focus on the Governor's BOV appointments which are forthcoming. Then, we will need to focus on the General Assembly and committees dealing with legislation pertaining to higher education. There is clearly something afoot there by designing men and women. We need to find out what it is and then to deal with it.

Close attention by A&S alumni is warranted as the attack by the designing men and women seems aimed at the Humanities in particular.

This is a link to a live streaming of the BoV meeting that begins at 3 p.m. today:

http://www.virginia.edu/bov/live/

The link will go live close to the start of the meeting, although the board could vote to go into closed session at any time, so the show could be short.

Separately, would someone who is able to attend the meeting please explain to Dragas what RICO stands for.

Wahoo-Wa.

Thanks Cliff & Barry

The WP handicaps the possible voting breakdown by the BoV, including potential swing votes:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dc-politics/u-va-leadership-crisis-s...

“Everybody thinks university presidents are hierarchical and top-down,” said Donna E. Shalala, president of the University of Miami, and a former president of the University of Wisconsin and secretary of health and human services. “But we are not corporate chieftains, and we cannot rule from the sky. We are more like tugboat captains, trying to get our ships aligned and pulling them in the right direction.”

The great research universities, she said, have achieved their dominant position in the world through shared faculty governance, and leaving faculty both academic and research freedom.

“It was a lot easier to run a cabinet department than the University of Wisconsin,” Ms. Shalala said. “There are a lot of different constituencies at a university, and the president cannot be successful without buy-in from all of them.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/26/education/public-universities-see-fami...

"the $66 million being pulled in by the University of Florida is gross, not net. But still, if the gross take is even half of that ($33 million!) then it's no wonder that there would be more of a push for online education"

Why should we think they're netting even $1? The article you cited made no mention at all of costs, but that doesn't mean there aren't any. The MIT/Harvard effort that Dragas cited was a $60M investment with zero return.

Michael, thanks for the data. I understand also that he is not a UVA alum. It was good to see the corn at Morrowdale looking so well, I can recall happier times there.

ACTA came out publicly with Ann Neal's Washington Post piece on 23 July. ACTA was founded by Lynne Cheney and Joe Lieberman etal as part of the culture wars. Ann Neal has been there at her cauldron since the beginning. I suppose Hill and Knowlton might have thought this a smart move to do some damage control inside the Beltway.

"Neal began her career as an attorney at the firm of Rogers & Wells in New York City, where she specialized in First Amendment law. She also served as an associate at Wiley Rein in Washington, D.C. Neal later served as senior vice president of corporate legal affairs for the Recording Industry Association of America where she was involved in the RIAA's campaign to oppose mandatory lyrics labeling.[6][7][8]

In the early 1990s, Neal served as general counsel and congressional liaison for the National Endowment for the Humanities under Lynne V. Cheney, where she addressed a range of issues including academic freedom, intellectual diversity, and historical literacy.[9] Along with Lynne Cheney, U.S. Senator Joe Lieberman, former Colorado governor Richard Lamm, former University of Colorado at Boulder president and U.S. Senator Hank Brown, Nobel Laureate Saul Bellow, and sociologist David Riesman, Neal co-founded the American Council of Trustees and Alumni (then known as the National Alumni Forum) in 1995.[10] Neal served as vice president and general counsel of the organization from 1995–2003 before succeeding Jerry L. Martin as president in 2003.[11]"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_D._Neal

This isn't political????

BleedOandB placed the ACTA war plan for Virginia website on thread above.

Will Republicans reassure Virginia and UVA community that the ACTA war plan is not part of their legislative agenda hidden or otherwise?

Bell is in a position to know perhaps he could tell us in plain American English.

See folks on the Lawn later today.

out mowing the lawn (at my house) this morning the question of university governance came up in my thought as I marched around my yard... it occurred to me that, in light of the apparent to the core humanities curiculum, it might be wise to include on the BOV not only the head of the faculty Senate but also positions for members of the several colleges, perhaps the core College of Arts and Sciences maintaining a permanent seat, while others might rotate... just a thought...

but the thought of having the core of the university shut down or even diminished in order to provide more funding for "business" oriented curriculum is a terrible thought and we ought do what we can to prevent it.

She's a star and this wil be a great loss if the BOV fails to reinstate her.
Front page of Washington Post :

"From the start, Sullivan outlined what she called “Sullivan’s laws”: Never surprise an administrator. Never punish the messenger. Don’t hide bad news; meet it head-on. People and time are our greatest resources; don’t waste them. When dealing with a difficult matter, don’t leave anyone out, or else be prepared for fallout. "

http://mobile.washingtonpost.com/rss.jsp?rssid=599&item=http://www.washi...

thank you michael for the 9:58 post in answer to my brother's question.

so, from what you say i take it that in fact we have a member of the board of visitors who is actually in the process of suing the commonwealth in connection with tax credits related to the biscuit run project, now a state park. i gather that the amount in question is significant, in the millions of dollars. I can only suppose this is perfectly legal, or he wouldn't be on the board or suing the state. but it seems, at least on the surface, that there is something about this relationship that is, well, peculiar.

and isn't he the same one who teamed up wth ms. dragas, on a sunday, to form the "quorum" of the executive committee of the bov that made the decision acting on behalf of and with the authority of the whole board to authorize ms. dragas to request president sullivan's resignation. i think i have that right, but i may no, and please correct me if i am in errort.. but then later, perhaps upon reflection, he said he favors reinstatement. it just all seems so confusing.

i don't know all there is to know about it, that's for sure, but it occurs to me that if, in his place, i brought an action against the state seeking millions of dollars in judgment over tax credits, i might first step off the board until the matter was resolved, or wait until it was resolved before accepting the appointment, if for no other reason than to avoid any questions about conflict that might be prejudicial either to the pending case or my performance on the board. but then i am not an expert in this kind of thing and have not had the benefit of council.

This new just out..from a mere 4 hours ahead! Dragas has resigned and Sullivan, wisely understanding her presidency is damaged, has agreed to move on. New interim president Julian Bond ... [or your fav here]

@ dr. james b. kiracofe :

He's funnin' ya,.

BUT ... it's not an entirely unlikely outcome.

I think President Sullivan would be very unwise to accept the Presidency past her 8/15 resignation date.

At least 13 of the BOV either supported or quietly allowed Dragas and Kington's despicable machinations.

It's easy to just point at those two and blame them, but the whole BOV has proven itself useless at best, and wretched at worst.

She's dodged a bullet ... better to get out now and start over at a school that's actually capable of appreciating and making full use of her gifts. She'll have no problem finding schools to choose from - particularly since she can now informally advise a very attractive "raid" on UVa's dejected faculty.

This afternoon's meeting has become a meeting to demonstrate the modern elitist concept, supported by Governor McDonnell, that "following the spirit of the rules is for for fools", i.e. it is about "power" to lead the majority/lesser masses who need the guidance of society's winners in a society celebrating economic power as its ultimate achievement and license to lead. It is an ethos seemingly contravening the theoretical philosophy of UVa' s honor code. Note the governor's emphasis not on correcting a process that clearly violated the spirit of the BOV rules and possibly legality. Instead his chief concern is an insistence that the issue simply go away as quickly as possible to avoid possible political penalty to the perpertrators or himself. If he reappoints Ms. Dragas, you'll know he is in concurrence with her winning in any way necessary philosophy, as he simulatenously demands that all the non BOV constuencies, even his fellow state legislators, be quiet and obey the Marquis of Queensbury rules he does not interpret as being applicable to him andDragas' board allies.
As an aside, we all should be proud of the public stance the Darden School's dean just took in publicly calling out the recent Wall Street Journal editorial's total misrepresentation (lying about, in common English) of his stance in the Teresa Sullivan matter. And while it may not be popular for me to say this (I try to see both sides in this as an A&S Ph.D. and a Darden alumnus) my experience at Darden was one totally devoid of any teachings or implications in materials used or from professors that anyone should practice anything less than straightforward hones ty in one's career dealings. Succinctly put, their philosophy was "never do anything you would not be proud to discuss on the six o'clock news." Those that subsequently practiced questionable ethics in their business careers did so as the result of character traits they brought with them to Darden, contrary to the School's teachings that good ethics makes for good business in the long run. MBA programs teach that intellect, unrelenting pursuit of identified and researched goals, as well as effective use of learned successful business concepts lead to success. Combined with ultra-competetive and/or sociopathic personalities the result can be persons for whom only their own leadership and ideas can be pursued and any continuing opposition must somehow be eliminated. There were others involved in this "conspiracy" who did not have MBA's but who also felt the acceptance of their ideas was more important than any set of rules as to how they were to arrive there. One doesn't have to question their dedication to the success of UVA. But that still did not give them the "right" to evade concepts of propriety and even possible legality in order to achieve their goals. One can only hope that they will not attempt to hide behind a cowardly secret vote on this matter. After all, personal accountability is a large part of Ms. Dragas proposed "reforms" for UVA. One would presume the BOV would hold themselves to no less of a standard.

Sullivan is back (unanimous BOV vote), but Dragas still must go!

Yes, just watched the live stream of the meeting. Sullivan accepted, she is probably speaking on the Rotunda steps with Deans and VPs behind her....

Yeah. I have very mixed feelings about this. But if it's what Sullivan wants to do with her life, I'm for it.

Here's the Post's person inside tweeting: http://liveblog.washingtonpost.com/2012/06/26/u-va-board-of-visitors-mee...

i was able to watch the president deliver her thoughtful and evidently heart felt remarks with surpassing grace and dignity remarks, introduced by mr heywood fralin, the distinguished member of the board and former rector. what a gerat relief that this part of the ordeal is finally over. I was able to personally thank President Sullivan for staying with us even after what she has had to endure and to speak briefly with mr fralin to thank him for his important role in this happy outcome. I said to him in parting " and the fellows in New York thought they could role us..." He smiled with a twinkle in his eye.

But I am afraid we have won only one battle, a crucially important one, in what promises to be a long war. Now we need to keep the spotlight on the governor to see who he nominates to the board to replace those departing at the end of the month. And we need to immediately learn all we can about the new members to be able to anticipate their intentions and be watchful. then we need to keep the spotlight on the board in general and be very careful to monitor their every decision.

beyond that, we need to do all we can to ensure legislative review of this whole dreadful episode with the goal of enacting reforms that will prevent anything like this from ever happening again. What the board did today was to correct a terrible, grievous mistake that should never have happened. The mistake was the direct result of an abuse of power by a dangerously out of control rector. The legislature should enact reform of the selection and confirmation process, provide clearly defined mechanisms for the removal from office of abusive members, should there ever again be any in the future, and should provide for permanent positions on the Board of Visitors for members of the faculty and staff of the university, perhaps including the president of the facuilty senate, the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, and rotating deans of other schools. I would include the dean of the college of arts and sciences as a permanent member because this is the heart of the university.

But we should not feel that todays events have brought the underlying problem to an end, rather we should see today's victory as the beginning of a new era in which we are all more watchful and focused on the actions of the board.

eternal vigilance is the price of freedom...

sic semper tyranus