Continued Turmoil at UVA and in Charlottesville

The backlash against the coup lead by Helen Dragas to fire University of Virginia president Teresa Sulliavn continues to roil the University and the City of Charlottesville which is dominated by the University.  Faced with Gov. Bob McDonnell's ultimatum that they fix the mess by Tuesday or be removed the members of the Board of Visitors who thought so highly of themselves have certainly reaped a well deserved whirlwind.  While state financial support of the University of Virginia has dwindled to a pittance give the GOP controlled Virginia General Assembly's anti-tax and ant-knowledge agenda, Ms. Dragas and her fellow conspirators forgot that UVA is still nevertheless a PUBLIC university.  Actions that one can get away with in a privately owned corporation - like the one Dragas inherited from her far more diplomatic father - simply do not fly in a public university context.  Adding to the uproar is the Richmond Times-Dispatch report that the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools’ Commission on Colleges will be contacting the University to ensure that it is in compliance and can remain accredited.  Ms. Dragas and her henchmen truly need to go NOW.  An article in the Washington Post looks at the continued controversy.  Here are highlights:

While the leadership limbo continues at the University of Virginia, the verdict from students on the ouster of President Teresa A. Sullivan is clear: They feel angry, bewildered and betrayed.

Most of the university’s 21,000-plus students have dispersed across the state and the globe for summer break. But they have made their collective frustrations heard here loud and clear. What’s driving them is more than just admiration for a popular president.

News of Sullivan’s ouster, which reached most students via mass e-mail nearly two weeks ago, has prompted strongly worded Facebook posts, chiding tweets, trips back to campus to protest and lobbying campaigns.

A student-led “Rally for Honor” is scheduled for Sunday afternoon on the university’s iconic Lawn.

Why such intensity?  .   .   .   .  the actions this month of the governing Board of Visitors don’t square with how decisions are typically made at U-Va., several student leaders said. They say they are not accustomed to being caught off guard by major university changes. This is a school where admissions tour guides rave about the “community of trust,” where students refer to founder Thomas Jefferson as if the third U.S. president were a close friend and where those caught cheating on homework face the judgment of their peers, not administrators.

“It seemed that almost everyone kept going back to this notion that what had unfolded just doesn’t happen at U-Va.,” said Stephen Nash, chairman of the Honor Committee, a 170-year-old student-run judiciary system that upholds the university’s code of honor. All students pledge not to lie, cheat or steal, and the committee holds them to that.

The Honor Committee issued a statement last Sunday that chastised the governing board for creating “an environment that is inconsistent with the value of trust that runs through the very fabric of our University.”

The words “trust,” “integrity,” “honor” and “community” have been used repeatedly as students have tried to pinpoint why this situation has struck a nerve.

At other times when controversy has struck at U-Va. — such as the case of former student George Huguely V, convicted this year of murder in the death of his ex-girlfriend, classmate Yeardley Love — most students and faculty have refused to talk to reporters.  Not this time.

“When there’s one entity that isn’t part of the community of trust, that hurts that community. People begin to talk about it,” Vroom said. “It’s logical to me that there would be such an outcry.”