Category: University of Virginia

U-VA seems to be in repeat mode

The University of Virginia seems to be in something of a repeat mode, according to Inside Higher Ed.  If you have been following our posts on this drama, the head of the university’s Board of Visitors fired the U-VA president and then unfired her when protests erupted.  At a critical point, the state governor became involved with a seeming threat to fire the whole board, including the head, if the issue was not resolved.

Now that the president has not been fired, neither has the head of the Board who the governor has now reappointed.  Inside Higher Ed has a related story suggesting that university boards – under pressure from budgets and such – are more likely than in the past to engage in U-VA type interventions.  Our Regents?

The two stories are at:
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2012/07/02/virginia-governor-reappoints-controversial-uva-board-member

and
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2012/07/02/trustees-are-different-they-used-be-and-uva-clashes-will-be-more-common

Anyway, U-VA seems to be in the repeat mode:


Love Birds at U-VA

Those who have been following the University of Virginia drama of the firing and unfiring of the university’s president by the Board of Visitors (equivalent of the Regents) may be surprised by one aspect of the outcome.

The unfired president and the head of the Board who led the charge in the firing are now – in public at least – acting like love birds.

Exactly how happy the ending of this story really is will undoubtedly emerge once the media attention dies down.

Inside Higher Ed has a detailed story today at:
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2012/06/27/uva-board-reinstates-president-sullivan-and-prepares-strategic-planning-effort

I guess all you need…
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJ98qac2UIM&w=320&h=195]

Yes, Virginia. There is a controversy – and apparently a showdown tomorrow.

Inside Higher Ed carries two items on the ongoing controversy set in motion by the firing of the president of the University of Virginia by its Board of Visitors (the U-VA’s equivalent of the Regents).  One item suggests that a high-up underling – the chief financial officer of the university – was in cahoots with those members of the Board who carried out the firing.  See http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2012/06/25/questions-about-uvas-coo-strine-show-complicated-loyalties-administrators.

The Board is due to meet tomorrow – possibly to undo what it did.  However, now it faces a missive from the state’s governor that says:
“Let me be absolutely clear: I want final action by the board on Tuesday. If you fail to do so, I will ask for the resignation of the entire board on Wednesday. Regardless of your decision, I expect you to make a clear, detailed and unified statement on the future leadership of the university.”
See http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2012/06/25/virginia-governor-calls-finality-tuesdays-meeting.

Earlier posts on this blog note that the firing seemed to have something to do with online education and such and a perception the president was not implementing innovations fast enough.


A further update appearing on the morning of the vote is at:
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2012/06/26/board-vote-today-puts-uva-center-debate-about-public-university-governance

The U-VA Story Ain’t Over

The U of Virginia story just keeps rolling:


Nearly two weeks after Teresa A. Sullivan was forced to resign as president of the University of Virginia, a push to reinstate her appears to have traction. The Board of Visitors [equivalent of the Regents]announced Thursday that it would meet on Tuesday to “discuss possible changes in the terms of employment of the president.” The announcement follows a statement Thursday from the college’s deans, who voiced support for Ms. Sullivan’s reappointment. The Faculty Senate has also endorsed her reinstatement…
Full story at http://chronicle.com/article/What-If-Sullivan-Is/132517/

The University of Virginia library staff is archiving materials related to the recent events that forced Teresa A. Sullivan to resign as president of the institution.  This is the first time the libraries have tried to preserve materials from a large-scale, continuing event, said Bradley Daigle, director of digital-curation services. The staff did not begin collecting materials on the subject until a rally on June 18. As of June 22, the team has archived nearly 20,000 tweets, 61 blog posts, over 200 media posts, and about 100 physical objects, such as signs from protests. About a dozen full-time staff members are working on the project, Mr. Daigle said. The archivists are focusing on preserving third-party materials, such as newspaper articles, because internal communication records already belong to the university, covered under existing record-management policies…

Full story at http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/author/achen
Apparently, it really ain’t over:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAhKf_Ro4ZU&w=320&h=195]

Plots at U-VA

For those following the University of Virginia saga of the fired president, there is this from the Washington Post:

Sullivan supporters plot to reinstate her as U-Va. president: Several members of the University of Virginia’s governing board spent Wednesday quietly counting votes and plotting a move to reinstate Teresa Sullivan after the popular outgoing president informed them that she wants to remain if Rector Helen E. Dragas resigns, according to current and former board members briefed on the conversations. Sullivan holds such broad support among professors that the Faculty Senate chairman held out hope that she could be reinstated following the resignation of one of her critics on the governing board. She has also indicated to board members that she would seek other changes were she to return, including communications with them…


Full story at http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dc-politics/interim-u-va-leader-carl-zeithaml-seeks-to-quell-uproar-over-presidents-ouster/2012/06/20/gJQAAsZ1qV_story.html

[Thanks to Bette Billet for this reference.]


I guess they want her back:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hn-enjcgV1o&w=320&h=195]

E-Mail Detectives at U-VA

Inside Higher Ed and other sources have gotten hold of emails involving the University of Virginia growing brouhaha that developed when U-VA’s equivalent of the Regents fired the university’s president.  The vice chair (vice rector) of that board has now resigned.  See earlier posts on this blog.

From Inside Higher Ed today:
E-mail messages were flying among leaders of the Board of Visitors of the University of Virginia in the weeks leading up to the ouster of Teresa A. Sullivan as president of the university. The e-mail messages show that one reason board leaders wanted to move quickly was the belief that UVa needed to get involved in a serious way with online education…

Full story at: http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2012/06/20/e-mails-show-uva-board-wanted-big-online-push

Apparently, despite the apparent interest in going high tech in higher ed, the emailers were not aware of the first law of high-tech communications: Never put anything in an email you absolutely don’t want published – there are secret agents everywhere:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mo3Wqf86N4w&w=320&h=195]



Etwas ist nicht ganz koscher

An earlier post on this blog noted the surprise ouster of the president of the University of Virginia.  A report in Inside Higher Ed today indicates that the Board of Visitors (U-VA equivalent of the UC Regents) fired her because she allowed too much German to be taught.  “…One of the most specific disagreements between board members and Sullivan was their view that she ‘lacked the mettle to trim or shut down programs that couldn’t sustain themselves financially, such as obscure academic departments in classics and German.’  To faculty members and others at the university who have been puzzled and dismayed since word last Sunday of (President Teresa) Sullivan’s forced resignation, news that she may have been punished for protecting liberal arts disciplines seems likely only to increase support for Sullivan and anger with the Board of Visitors…”


Full story at: http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2012/06/18/reports-suggest-uva-board-wanted-president-eliminate-language-programs  Our earlier post on this subject was at:
http://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2012/06/board-to-u-va-president-heres-your-hat.html


Anyway, we’ll carry you back to this story as it evolves:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hv1aRz0vu4Q&w=320&h=195]


UPDATE on the story at:
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2012/06/19/uva-presidents-ouster-centers-disagreement-pace-change

U of Virginia Implements Strategy of Faculty Raids

An article in today’s Insider Higher Ed quotes U of Va. Dean Meredith Jung En-Woo of the College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences: “What we wanted to do was take advantage of the very anemic environment that’s out there, [luring] very good people that would be difficult to hire in other times,” she says.

At the outset of the economic crisis, many anticipated that the institutions that found resources could actually take advantage of the downturn. With extreme candor, Woo says that’s exactly what Virginia did.

“The part of [the strategy] we think is wonderful is the ability to raid other institutions and get really good people,” she says.

And so, the Legacy of Distinction Fund was born. The $5 million pool, which the university expects to have raised by the end of December, will be used to hire about a dozen new professors over five years, each of whom is expected to replace an outgoing faculty member who has already declared an intention – in writing – to retire by a certain date. The overlap period of the new and retiring professor is expected to last three years.

There is more to Virginia’s approach than mere opportunism. While Woo says the university is not locked into replacing one faculty member with another whose interests are identical, there is an expectation that the “legacy” hires will often have specializations similar to those of their predecessors, allowing them to enter into something of a mentoring relationship.

“The idea is predicated on the recruitment of top people actually being easier if we can nest it in the reputation of the person about to retire,” Woo says. “The [retiring] legend would be a pull – a real magnet – and this would be a nice kind of transition.”

Virginia is not alone in this strategy. Cornell University, for instance, is raising money for the Cornell Faculty Renewal Fund. The $100 million pool will be used to hire new faculty three to four years prior to the retirement of a senior professor.

Full article at http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/11/09/virginia

Their raiding sounds ominous: