<p>Yes, the UVa board is mostly real estate and corporate law types who made large financial contributions to Va. politicians and/or the University. </p>
<p>One medical doctor is a non-voting member who helps oversee the health system - the legislature is now proposing he become a voting member.</p>
<p>Michigan’s board is elected by popular vote. That’s not a good way to do it.</p>
<p>UVA’s board is appointed by the Guv I believe. Not great but probably better than elections and what you get by being a state school. You are most likely to get people who are big contributors to the governor. Notice-ably absent from UVA’s board are the big contributors to the university. </p>
<p>The board itself typically appoints new directors at private colleges, which is best. They will usually make sure to appoint a broad diversity of people – big wallets who donate to the university, some academics, folks from different parts of the country, alums and non-alums, artists, lawyers, wall streeters, politicians, etc. </p>
<p>For a national university with one-third OOS enrollment, for example, only 3 of 18 are from outside VA and two of those are barely so (one DC, one MD). So not so diverse or reflective of the university’s stakeholders.</p>
<p>You can also have problems if too many boardmembers are from too far away - they skip meetings and don’t really know enough about what is happening to provide proper oversight. </p>
<p>The state law actually says that UVa’s Alumni Association is supposed to recommend prospective boardmembers to the Governor.</p>
<hr>
<p>Boardmember Nau is a major contributor to the University - hence Nau Hall.</p>
<hr>
<p>I thought this was interesting. Each of the deans and heads of major components of the University was asked to send out a communication to their own people recognizing that there is unhappiness, but telling everyone to join together, look forward and continue to support their school. Each dean was given a form letter to start with. Some deans threw the form letter away, and wrote their own text, while others used much of it verbatim. Here is the form letter paragraph that made it into some of those communications:</p>
<p>“In her announcement, Rector Helen Dragas spoke about significant challenges faced by the University, including financial pressures, faculty recruitment and retention, pressures on tuition, and the use and expenses of new technology. She also indicated that the pace of change needs to quicken to meet these complex challenges. The announcement referenced the need to make difficult resource allocation decisions in this time of great challenge and change for higher education, medical research, and health care in general.”</p>
<p>And Rector Dragas has brought us an excellent harvest this year!</p>
<p>Peter Kiernan resigned.</p>
<p>[Head</a> rolls: Kiernan out as UVA faculty condemn Sullivan ouster | The Hook - Charlottesville’s weekly newspaper, news magazine](<a href=“http://www.readthehook.com/104241/hell-breaks-loose-uva-faculty-condemn-sullivan-ouster#comment-280801]Head”>http://www.readthehook.com/104241/hell-breaks-loose-uva-faculty-condemn-sullivan-ouster#comment-280801)</p>
<p>The comments on that article are just as good as the article. Lol.</p>
<p>I think there are some serious shenanigans going on involving certain BOV members, Kiernan and maybe more; it is going to get ugly soon. Kiernan is now going to be pointing fingers at anyone he can (on a lighter note, seriously, with his email he hit the “all reply” and sent it to everyone, possibly incl Sullivan? I retract my earlier statement saying that Darden folks were brilliant) No wonder they wanted to keep all of this secretive. </p>
<p>Greed. It is a powerful thing. So powerful, that in the hands of a few idiots like these, can influence them to make horrific decisions, decisions which could negatively affect this wonderful school in ways that will be hard to reverse or surmount. Shame on them all.</p>
<p>LOL! I’m went hazelorb. </p>
<p>Oh, and it’s too much going on!!! Now Kiernan has resigned. My goodness. Something is rotten in the state of Virginia.</p>
<p>[Three</a> members of U-Va. board were kept in dark about effort to oust Sullivan - The Washington Post](<a href=“http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/three-members-of-u-va-board-were-kept-in-dark-about-effort-to-oust-sullivan/2012/06/14/gJQAXsBddV_story_1.html]Three”>http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/three-members-of-u-va-board-were-kept-in-dark-about-effort-to-oust-sullivan/2012/06/14/gJQAXsBddV_story_1.html)</p>
<p>^from that article:</p>
<p>“The board unanimously voted for Sullivan two years ago, but there were concerns that she was not a Virginian and had no prior connection to the university, unusual for a U-Va. president. There were also concerns among some older alumni that Sullivan was a woman.”</p>
<p>so greed wasn’t the only factor. Guess Dr. Sullivan was just too much fresh air for them to handle. I hope she takes legal action.</p>
<p>Everyone should read the new Washington Post piece that is two posts above. It has some real bombshells. It appears that Dragas may have lied to Governor McDonnell, in claiming that the move to force out Sullivan was unnanimous. Some boardmbers were shut out of the process. Dragas scheduled her emergency meeting with a “quorum of 3” while knowing that at least 3 boardmembers could not possibly attend.</p>
<p>It also looks like Darden officials quickly rose to the occasion and kicked out Kiernan. I guess they did learn something from all those ethics classes they teach.</p>
<p>“Michigan’s board is elected by popular vote. That’s not a good way to do it.”</p>
<p>Yeah right. So tell me, how do you plan on removing these BOV members? These types of shenanigans would surely not got unnoticed by the electorate and those in charge would be voted out.</p>
<p>If we surround the Rotunda with chanting people at 2:30 on Monday while they hold a secret meeting inside, maybe the boardmembers responsible will get the hint and resign quietly. If the Governor re-appoints Dragasfor another 4 years, in the next week, everyone will assume he was a coup-master.</p>
<p>Another perspective worth hearing, IMHO. It is a 13 min. interview of Tom Faulders, CEO of the UVa Alumni Association, by Coy Barefoot, a respected C’ville radio host. </p>
<p>[1070</a> WINA - Charlottesville Right Now: 6-14-12 Tom Faulders](<a href=“http://www.wina.com/play_window.php?audioType=Episode&audioId=5896802]1070”>http://www.wina.com/play_window.php?audioType=Episode&audioId=5896802)</p>
<p>Also, a caveat about the WaPo article linked above – a careful reading reveals that while the three named members of the BoV were let in on the move to unseat Sullivan late, they nevertheless acquiesced in it. The article is very squishy on the exact dates of when these three were informed there were sufficient votes on the board to remove President Sullivan, other than it was late last week. It is entirely possible that those calls were made before the Rector informed the Governor. Maybe that was not the case (or maybe the entire article, based only on anonymous sources, is bunk), but one can not reasonably conclude from the information in THIS article alone that the Governor was lied to here.</p>
<p>there is a facebook group named Students, Family & Friends United to Reinstate President Sullivan</p>
<p>It has grown to 920 members in a day. Unfortunately, I am not allowed to directly link to it.</p>
<p>There also is a funny twitter account named RectorDrago</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.cavalierdaily.com/2012/06/14/rectordrago-in-140-characters-or-less/[/url]”>http://www.cavalierdaily.com/2012/06/14/rectordrago-in-140-characters-or-less/</a></p>
<p>Why can’t I find the group?</p>
<p>“RectorDrago” tweeted a link to it earlier; not sure why it’s not searchable on Facebook though.</p>
<p>Roxane Gilbert wrote a compelling letter. She started a Facebook Page called:</p>
<p>Save Jefferson’s Academical Village</p>
<p>I am not allowed to link to it, but her letter is worth reading.</p>
<p>Northwesty “But that seems to be the hand that has been dealt to the BOV by VA taxpayers and VA politicians. Can’t raise tuition; can’t get more state money; can’t increase OOS enrollment at the expense of in-staters.”</p>
<p>Bingo! There are many universities that are trying to cope with the realities of financial contraints and the difficulty of adapting an old economic model of higher education. Sullivan appears to have been well liked by the faculty. Was she too close to them to make tough decisions that would threaten the old order? We aren’t privy to all of the discussions so we won’t know. But, throwing out wild theories of on-line degrees just to stir the pot seems pointless.</p>
<p>I believe you mean Roxane Gilmore, the former First Lady of Virginia and UVa alum. The fb page is not searchable. I have read the letter and agree, it is worth reading.</p>
<p>Thanks, blueiguana. My fingers are going too fast. I did mean Roxane Gilmore. Not sure why it isn’t searchable…that is how I found it. She mentioned it on her other facebook page, which I also found by searching after reading the letter in someone’s comment in The Hook.</p>