Latest News from The Jefferson Council
A number of recent mysterious events have brought into the open serious concerns involving the issues of transparency and accountability—two topics that have been subjects of repeated controversy by various elements of the University community.
OTHER Interesting Reads from Our Network
Jed Atkins, head of the Chapel Hill campus’s new School of Civic Life and Leadership, wants to teach students to be tolerant, in an old-school way.
Jim Bacon: If this emerging paradigm is correct, UVA and other higher-ed institutions are taking a generation of students coddled by parents and K-12 schools to begin with and making things worse.
Furman alumnus Evan Myers writes a guest commentary in The Post and Currier, highlighting the need for alumni to hold their administration accountable for protecting and promoting free speech on campus. What can we glean for UVA?
What does UVA’s Equity Center do? Bacon’s Rebellion founder and TJC contributing editor James Bacon offers his thoughts.
In Monticello’s realm, where dreams and doubts collide, I find within the past a guiding light, And hope that through our journey’s winding tide, We honor all who dared to stand and fight.
Americans need to begin to consider whether reorganization and reform of established academic institutions, including one founded by Thomas Jefferson, may be necessary.
University presidents must reclaim their roles as impartial administrators rather than advocates of progressive causes, ensuring that institutions of higher learning return to their core teaching and research missions. Guest contributor Alan C. Stam offers his thoughts.
The University of Virginia Faculty Senate voted to call for an "independent and external" review of the use of police force to shut down the pro-Palestinian "liberation zone." TJC contributing editor Jim Bacon offers his thoughts.
Like the Bolsheviks of yore, UVA militants have turned upon Ryan and Baucom with a vengeance. TJC contributing editor Jim Bacon weighs in.
The 2017 Unite the Right tragedy forced the University to think through issues it had not confronted in its recent history. The reforms created processes and protocols that were applied in 2024, TJC contributing editor Jim Back writes.
From professors to Lawn residents, members of the University of Virginia community continue to criticize senior UVA leadership for shutting down the UVA Encampment for Gaza "liberated zone."
The University of Virginia called in the Virginia State Police to disperse "UVA Encampment for Gaza" protesters, said President Jim Ryan, University Police Chief Tim Longo, and other University leaders in a virtual town hall.
“It is good to know that the University of Virginia set boundaries and enforced them, unlike other universities and states.“
Pro-Palestinian protestors erected tents last night at their "liberation zone for Gaza" near the University of Virginia chapel in defiance of orders to take them down. The administration's immediate response: engage in dialogue.
Pro-Palestinian demonstrators on the Grounds of the University of Virginia showed signs of losing enthusiasm, even as organizers demanded that the administration divest investments from Israel and cut off all ties with Israeli universities.
Virginia Governer Youngkin: "We’re not going to have encampments and tents put up and yes, we will protect the ability to peacefully express yourself, but we’re not going to have the kind of hate speech and intimidation we’re seeing across the country in Virginia."
Alumnus to TJC after UVA tour: “No history lesson of the Grounds, its architecture, or its purpose. No homage to TJ and his vision for the advancement of an enlightened society. No fabled stories about the secret societies, or traditions at the sporting events or around Grounds. Nothing.”
Virginia Tech arrested two dozen or more students Sunday night while dispersing an "encampment" similar to other anti-Israeli protests spreading around the country, according to media reports. University of Virginia President Jim Ryan likely will face a similar test.
Dr. Tiffany King, a tenured professor in the University of Virginia's Department of Women, Sexuality, and Gender, spoke in a virtual symposium "At the Edge of Each Other's Battles: Puerto Rican, Palestinian, Black, and Indigenous Futures.”
Whatever UVA leadership might have said to people in private, their words and actions have been ineffectual in altering the reality that pro-Palestinian students feel comfortable wearing their badges of loyalty while most Jews have stopped wearing theirs.
The Racial Equity Task Force, a 2020 document that transformed governance at the University of Virginia, listed 12 top priorities for addressing the legacy of historical racism. One was to address "serious challenges to racial equity in staff hiring, wages, retention, promotion, and procurement" but the report cited no actual evidence of disparities in pay.
Back in 2020, I was saddened and appalled when a student living on the Lawn scrawled "F--- UVA" in massive letters on her door. Where did this animosity originate? How had such thinking gained traction at Mr. Jefferson's University? The EscapeRoom exhibit provides part of the answer.
Meet Marisa Williamson. The Harvard-educated assistant professor in the University of Virginia art department works in video, image-making, installation and performance art around themes of history, race, feminism, and technology.
UVA is in the midst of a $1 billion DEI program. Student tuition, progressive third-party foundations, and taxpayer money fund this massive initiative. However, the tenets of DEI are fundamentally anti-American and radical.
The problem at UVA is not showcasing Bartov's perspective. The problem is showcasing only one side of a contentious debate.
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion staff at the University of Virginia downplayed concerns about Tessa Farmer, an anthropology professor who reportedly offered extra credit to students to attend a Students for Justice in Palestine-organized teach-in.