What the strategic plan says, and Doesn’t say
President Beardsley's decision to formulate a new long-term strategic plan for UVA is a welcome one. The "key early priorities" President Beardsley has announced are, for the most part, generic no-brainers. But the most telling thing about President Beardsley's list are the two key priorities it leaves out: the degradation of our famed Honor System and the critical lack of thought diversity on Grounds.
UVA’s FIRST-YEAR ENGAGEMENT COURSES DIVIDE, NOT UNITE
The first year of college is supposed to do one thing above all: take a class of 18-year-olds from every background imaginable and forge them into a single community. That used to be the point of a shared first-year experience. UVA's Engagements program does the opposite. Instead of bringing disparate students together around a common intellectual foundation, it sorts them into courses organized almost entirely around race, gender, and identity — teaching incoming students to see each other first as members of competing groups, not as classmates.
DEI BY ANY OTHER NAME IS STILL AS NOXIOUS
UVA has submitted two compliance certifications to the Department of Justice affirming that it has dismantled its DEI apparatus. But a review of University records suggests a different story. From vice presidents to assistant deans, many of the officials who once led DEI initiatives remain in place under new titles and reorganized offices. Was UVA's DEI infrastructure dismantled—or merely rebranded?
WhY MR. JEFFERSON DESERVES AN APOLOGY FROM KENYON BONNER
At last month's UVA graduation ceremony, Vice President of Student Affairs Kenyon Bonner impugned Thomas Jefferson's character and intelligence, chastising him for "ignorance and hubris." The charge is empirically unfounded and displays both a profound lack of historical knowledge by the speaker–and considering the time and place of the speech, a profound lack of professional judgment.
Jefferson was among the most progressive thinkers of his era. And few of his contemporaries did more to challenge slavery in a time when that institution was rife throughout the world.
Updates from
The Jefferson Council
PAVING THE WAY FOR CIVIL DIALOGUE AND INTELLECTUAL DIVERSITY at UVA
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UVA has fallen into a monoculture that rejects the free exchange of competing ideas. Check out the stories that you might not hear from the official channels.
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