What’s Next for UVA?

The departure of President Jim Ryan and Provost Ian Baucom suddenly leaves reformers in the driver’s seat at the University of Virginia. Now what? We know what we didn’t like — we didn’t like the reign of social-justice orthodoxy that stifled intellectual diversity and free expression, and we didn’t like the bureaucratic DEI apparatus that enforced the rules with dual standards. But what do we want? What is our vision going forward? Shared expectations of the future are essential as the Board of Visitors searches for a new president and provost.

Perhaps the newly constituted Board under the direction of newly appointed Rector Rachel Sheridan will have that discussion. Previous Boards did not. Most critical meetings were held in closed session. Open meetings were carefully scripted and allowed negligible opportunity for blue-sky thinking. With this column and several to follow, I hope to spark that conversation.

For all of its deficiencies, UVA has a remarkable opportunity — a chance to position itself as the most exciting university in the United States, and thus the world, to study and teach.

That seems an audacious ambition. But consider: We start our journey, if we give credence to the U.S. News & World-Report best universities ranking, as the 24th top university in the country. Our academic programs are held in fairly high esteem. We have rich history and traditions. The Rotunda and Lawn are an unparalleled architectural treasure. We have a $14 billion endowment. We have a AAA bond rating. Those are not bad attributes to start with.

Unfortunately, UVA slipped slightly in national standing over the past decade by trying to beat more prestigious institutions at their own game. As the elite private universities embraced wokery, so did UVA. But it is impossible to be more politically “progressive” than Harvard and Yale. For all its me-too efforts to be “great and good,” UVA did nothing to distinguish itself as different in the competitive higher-ed marketplace.

Orthodoxy is stifling; free-range thinking is exhilarating. Orthodoxy suppresses creative thought; free-range thinking gives rise to innovation. UVA can stand out nationally by positioning itself as the institution most dedicated to intellectual diversity and the free-wheeling exchange of ideas, a place where students are at liberty to explore the full gamut of human knowledge.

Let me be clear about one thing: The vision of an intellectually diverse UVA does not mean purging the University of professors and staff who hew to the doctrines of wokery (critical theory, intersectional oppression, or whatever label you choose). That’s part of the excitement. Some of the biggest debates in our society center on what social justice should look like in the 21st century. You need political progressives, even radical Marxists, as part of the mix. The trick is, you also need scholars who espouse conservative views, classical liberal views, technocratic views, and idiosyncratic outside-the-box views.

If UVA can create the most intellectually diverse academic culture in the U.S., scholars from around the country will flock there. The brightest, most ambitious students will vie to attend. Philanthropists will line up to fund new initiatives. Success will build on success. The torch of enlightenment will pass from institutions mired in leftist obscurantism to the institution most seriously dedicated to fulfilling Thomas Jefferson’s vision of following the truth wherever it shall lead.

Getting from here to there won’t be easy. The biggest obstacle… well, the biggest obstacle outside of leftist Democrats in the General Assembly bent upon reasserting the primacy of wokery… will be the lack of clear priorities. UVA leaders will need to focus on a few exceedingly important things that help the University stand out as unique in the higher-ed marketplace.

Over and above achieving intellectual diversity, UVA needs to formulate a meritocratic vision to replace Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI). UVA is the flagship university of Virginia. It needs to set the highest academic standards in the commonwealth, and it needs to recruit students capable of meeting those standards. Leadership needs to be clear that, despite the dismantling of DEI, UVA is open to all elements of society (diversity), and it wants everyone who attends to feel welcome and find a niche where they feel like they belong (inclusion). DEI bureaucracies are unnecessary to achieve either goal.

The demolition of DEI requires substituting “equality” for “equity,” a slippery term that means what people need it to mean in any particular context but has evolved in practice into a form of favoritism toward people of “marginalized” groups. UVA should promote equality of opportunity and provide financial aid to merit-worthy students without regard to ethnic, religious or socioeconomic background. If you’re a student who wants to be treated equally, not given special consideration as recompense for past sins committed against your ancestors, I expect you might find such a prospect refreshing. Do not be surprised if UVA attracts more qualified minority students this way.

To create a meritocracy, special attention must be given to admissions criteria. How does one define “merit”? While SATs and ACTs are predictive of academic flourishing — roughly 50% by some estimates — other factors account for the other 50%. What are they? Most critically, how does one account for a student’s “grit” or determination in overcoming personal adversity and a poor K-12 education? There is no consensus on this question. UVA needs to start giving it serious thought.

Once upon a time, UVA’s honor code was a distinguishing feature. It was one of the strongest in the country (a cachet we shared with the Virginia Military Institute and Washington & Lee University, to be sure), but it is no longer. The Honor Code, eroded for years by students’ embrace of moral relativism and situational ethics, is now under massive assault by AI-enabled cheating. Although there are limits to what can be done to change the student-run Honor Code, the UVA administration can take the lead in revamping curricula and testing to stamp out cheating. In a nation increasingly inured to lying, theft and corruption, there are enough young people who value the virtues of truth and honesty to make a robust honor system a huge competitive advantage.

Finally, UVA needs to make tuition & fees affordable not just to lower-income students, which it does through extensive financial aid, but the middle class. Students from middle-income facilities — especially out-of-state students — are being priced out. The high out-of-state tuition severely disadvantages UVA in competing for the best and brightest. New leadership needs to attack the University’s bloated cost structure to make attendance more affordable. It’s not acceptable to say that UVA is more efficient than its administratively corpulent peers, the epitamy of damning with faint praise. UVA needs to strip out massive costs that serve secondary and tertiary priorities — an arduous, painful but necessary task.

In sum, to become the most exciting university in the country, UVA needs (1) to build an intellectually diverse faculty, (2) create an inclusive, welcoming and meritocratic ethos, (3) rebuild the Honor Code, and (4) slash costs and tuition. I will explore these ideas in more detail in future columns.