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Subscribe to RSSUpdated at 5:42 p.m. ET: The Associated Press reports the University of Virginia Board of Visitors says it will discuss possibly reinstating its ousted president Teresa Sullivan.
The board on Thursday sent an email notice that it will meet Tuesday afternoon "to discuss possible changes in the terms of employment of the President," according to the AP.
The University of Virginia is in turmoil over the governing board’s ouster of Sullivan, with even the new interim president saying he disagreed with the decision and the Faculty Senate pushing hard to get her reinstated.
Board Secretary Susan Harris said board members A. Macdonald Caputo, Hunter E. Craig and Timothy B. Robertson called for the special session. She said that the full board would vote on whether to undo its demand that Sullivan resign.
The Board of Visitors stunned university staff and students on June 10 by announcing in a university-wide email that they accepted Sullivan’s resignation, effective Aug. 15. Sullivan, the first woman to hold the post, was in the middle of a five-year contract.
The ouster of Sullivan, who took the job in January 2010 and was popular on campus, ignited a furor at Virginia's flagship university, founded by Thomas Jefferson in 1819.
On Monday, the board moved to name McIntyre School of Commerce Dean Carl Zeithaml as interim president.
Zeithaml said he agreed to take the interim post because he wanted to move the university in a "very positive way" but “did not agree with the decision to remove” Sullivan.
“We have had a major problem and it is an issue that needs to be addressed and resolved at multiple levels,” said Zeithaml, the longtime dean of the McIntire School of Commerce. He spoke with faculty and reporters during a press conference on Wednesday.
“I view my responsibility as starting to work with my colleagues, students and friends to develop an agenda that can take us forward,” Zeithaml said. He will assume the position effective Aug. 16.
The Board of Visitors serves as the corporate board for the University of Virginia, and its 16 members are responsible for long-term planning for the university. Members are appointed by the governor to serve terms of four years, according to the university.
Board of Visitors Rector Helen Dragas, in a press conference with Vice Rector Mark Kington on June 10, called Sullivan’s resignation a “difficult decision that was mutually reached by President Sullivan and the Board of Visitors.”
Dragas, who is head of the board, cited a “philosophical difference” between Sullivan and the governing board about the “vision of the future of the university.” Kington stood by Dragas’ side and did not say a word during the public address. (The Washington Post has a profile of Dragas, posted Thursday.)
The board said it had discussions over the past year with Sullivan about developing and acting on a "clear and concrete strategic vision."
Read the full text of the email sent by Dragas on NBCWashington.com
The Washington Post reported that the board believed Sullivan was unwilling to consider big program cuts and reluctant “to approach the school with the bottom-line mentality of a corporate chief executive.”
Here’s the Post’s take on the source of the friction between Dragas and Sullivan:
Dragas had reservations about Sullivan from the start, the sources said. By the time she took the reins as rector, Dragas was becoming convinced that Sullivan would not make the hard spending decisions necessary to keep U-Va. competitive in a volatile higher education marketplace. In conversations before and since the ouster, Dragas has portrayed Sullivan as an adequate day-to-day caretaker but someone incapable of long-term vision.
On Monday during a rally on campus supporting her, Sullivan defended her performance and leadership approach, saying, "Corporate-style, top-down leadership does not work in a great university. Sustained change with buy-in does work,” according to NBCWashington.com.
View more videos at: http://nbcwashington.com.
Sullivan refused reporter questions and left the university through a gantlet of cheering -- and some tearful – supporters, NBCWashington.com reported.
“I want to thank you for what you do and for making this such a great university,” Sullivan said. “At the end of the day, that’s the most important thing. University of Virginia must remain a great university.”
Read full text of Sullivan’s statement (pdf.) provided by NBCWashington.com
Sullivan was elected to her position in January 2010, having previously served as the provost and executive vice president for academic affairs at the University of Michigan, according to NBCWashington.com.
More resignations follow
The University of Virginia's Faculty Senate and other groups called for Kington and Dragas to step down as they severely criticized the board's handling of Sullivan's removal.
On Monday, Kington said in a letter to Gov. Bob McDonnell that he was stepping down immediately as vice rector and also would quit the board, nearly two years before the end of his term.
"I believe that this is the right thing to do and I hope that it will begin a needed healing process at the university," Kington said in the letter. A call to Kington's office in Alexandria on Wednesday wasn't immediately returned.
Last week, 33 department chairs and program directors signed a letter protesting the resignation, Reuters reported. They described Sullivan, the university's first female president, as "an extraordinary academic leader, with superb administrative abilities, the heart of a faculty member, and evident strength of character," according to Reuters.
Computer science professor William A. Wulf said he was among those leaving the university, effective immediately, to show his support of Sullivan.
"I want no part of this ongoing fiasco," Wulf said.
Wulf and his wife, University of Virginia computer science professor Anita Jones, hold the prestigious university professor designation, which only a handful of university faculty members hold.
A board "that so poorly understands U.Va., and academic culture more generally, is going to make a lot more dumb decisions, so the University is headed for disaster, and I don't want to be any part of that," Wulf said in a letter Tuesday.
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This is what happens when you put political appointees in charge. If businesses were operated that way, they would be bankrupt in a week.
Large spending cuts are coming. What do you do with an administration that refuses to make needed cuts? They have to go. It makes no difference whether you are taking about a university or a state or even the nation. Bad fiscal administration is just another name for bad administration.
The Mr. or Ms. that leads and makes the needed cuts is not going to be liked. So UVA, ask yourself this question. Do you want someone that will make the cuts when needed, or do you want an administration that will try to be liked by everyone and just kick the can? The job is not to be head of PR. The job here was to lead and make difficult decisions. Can kicking has repercussions too such as tuition being raised again and again to make up for the cuts that were not made, resulting in students being unnecessarily loaded with debt. So, which do you want?
As to the coming elections - Fire Them All - never vote for an incumbent because they are mostly proverbial can kickers that failed to manage. Whether or not they are liked is immaterial to me.
Jerry King
and we know that no business have ever gone bankrupt that didn't have political appointees in charge, right?
The single qualification to be on the board of regents for a state university is to give large sums to the governor's election campaign. You don't have to have a high school education, or know what the word regent means, or have any interest in education. If you are in with the governor you get a low license plate number and a seat on the board of regents. Then you get to fire somebody who is considered among the best at their job in the world. It is time to take the management of our universities out of the hands of the politicians. It is no surprise that the private universities are ranked so much higher than the public ones.
Another Koch brothers?
I think the people in charge will regret removing Teresa Sullivan. It may to a lot of damage to the reputation of the school.
This sort of thing is going to become more and more typical as more right-wing loonies are appointed to the Board of Governors of universities across the United States. Learning should NOT be a commodity where the students are pushed through as quickly as possible to become good little corporate drones; college should be a place where critical thinking, knowledge, and skills at research are taught.
Unfortunately, due to massive and overwhelming ignorance in the United States and among most Americans, this sad trend isn't likely to end anytime soon.
Pushed through universities asap ? I thought the trend was towards more than 4 so the universities can keep collecting tuition.
The dropout rates for American universities is so high that it's a national disaster.
I think the line from the article says it all, "She was reluctant to have a bottom-line attitude of a chief executive". There you go...she placed the students and their education above corporate profit and greed and she was canned for it. God forbid she actually care about the students education - universities after all are supposed to be nothing but profit generating centers for the trustees!
The Maitre,
The two are not mutually exclusive. Sometimes, you have to make hard decisions in order to do what is best for the students and their education. Especially in times like these when funds are running out for most everything. Should the state of VA confiscate more from its citizens to make up for the cuts this person refused to make? Where do you draw the line when spending someone elses money? Or do you?
@Glenn-974637 - the line from your post pretty much sums up your way of thinking - "Should the state of VA confiscate more from its citizens to make up for the cuts this person refused to make?" In other words, any form of taxation for anything - including education - is "confiscation" - and "cuts" just HAVE to be made.
Wrong on both counts, Glenn. Here's why:
1) In the United States, universal public education - available for everyone who has the ability to do so - has been presumed to be a necessity for a free society since the time of the Founding Fathers. The classic quote is Thomas Jefferson's statement that "if a nation expects to be uneducated and free, in a state of civilization - it expects what never was, and never will be." THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A CIVILIZED NATION OF UNEDUCATED PEOPLE. If you want a free, civilized society - EDUCATION IS AN ABSOLUTE NECESSITY.
2) That being the case, yes - Virginia, and every other state in the United States, can and should tax its citizens whatever is necessary to provide education for all their citizens. Such taxation is NOT "confiscation" - whatever right-wing nutcases may happen to think - because education is a pillar every free and civilized society must have to exist.
So with all due respect, Glenn - and any other readers of this board who happen to think education is a luxury we can hack away at - education for all our citizens needs to be untouchable. And quite frankly, the reason so many of our corporate and government leaders - of ALL political leanings - want to see education "cut" is because the ignorant are easy to control. When you hear ANYONE - OF ANY POLITICAL PARTY OR PERSUASION - argue for "cutting" education, you're hearing words from a would-be tyrant and dictator.
"Knowledge is power" - and far too many people want to take that kind of power away from most of our citizens - on BOTH sides of the political spectrum.
Bravo, Publius!
Sorry, Publius, entirely too much drama.
Well said, Publius! Pale of ignorance is covering the land.
Publius, I still have to disagree with you. Your line of thinking was clearly stated by you as :
"2) That being the case, yes - Virginia, and every other state in the United States, can and should tax its citizens whatever is necessary to provide education for all their citizens. "
To which I reply:
What absolute ignorance of the way an economy needs to function. It is that "whatever is necessary" and the "for all their citizens" that is the loaded line of your thinking as that line of thinking takes everyone down the path of the delusion that unlimited resources can exist, which leads to no incentives to spend more wisely, and no cuts in spending ever. Just more and more and more spending without controls, more confiscation of discretionary income which is the true source of all economic demand.
Higher education does not exist in a vacuum even though you obviously wish it did. All education has to compete for resources with infrastructure, health care, and other governmental needs and services. Higher education has to compete with community college, elementary, middle and high school costs and needs. A state can not just tax whatever is necessary for education at the expense of its other budgetary limitations anymore than a university can spend what it wants without limits. Anyone that can't see that is a fool.
Your beliefs end with costly and bloated bureaucracies, and in the specific case of higher education, bloated costs.
These costs are then passed on to the students as higher tuition costs to be prepaid prior to being admitted which closes the door to many unnecessarily, or, these cost get passed on to the student in the form of higher student loan debt that opens the previously closed door but economically cripples the students for the first decade or more of their working careers. Either way, your line of thinking ends with needlessly harming those you think you are helping. I have seen this movie before. I don't like it.
The point I was trying to make without the added drama you seem to relish was simply that there are always decisions that will allocate the limited resources more wisely. There are always more efficient ways to do things. Old guys like Dr. Deming rightly preached the process of making improvements constantly and making the process more and more efficient as to material, labor and process. However all of this "constant improvement" line of thinking, and all of this "spending more wisely" line of thinking is based in the belief that resources are in fact finite.
Your thinking is resources are infinite because the state can and should tax as needed. When you succumb (word chosen not just used) to the delusion that the government can tax without end as necessary for anything, then you cross over to the dark side in my opinion. Your line of thinking results in no incentive to ever do anything more efficiently or to ever cut anything whether or not it is economically justified. Everything remains, therefore all professors are happy. All students love the administrator that never makes any hard decisions, so all classes are offered whether there is a viable economic benefit to the state (the conduit to those actually paying the bill) for the resources spent or not. So long as an administration can continue to give from the false pool of unlimited funds to those that have not earned anything, then those on the receiving end will be "happy", and why should they not be? This applies to higher education, to municipalities, to states, to nations, and even to national unions such as the EU.
No sir. I totally reject the tax as necessary without limits line of thinking and and will always stand and fight your ilk in this regard, becasue if your ilk wins, we all lose.
I fear for the freedoms of the citizens in the state of VA, from the Governor's agenda (women's rights, required ultrasounds, supressing the vote...to name just a few) through all the other bullies who are taking over state institutions, including the board of UV. This is America! Can all this really be happening?
Well this 'is' the America the Tea Party and the GOP have been pushing for all along. You mean you don't like that you got what you wished for?
I agree with the decision, totally. I think she would make a great leader for the police academy, or even the Navy, we need a cop, and a soldier to stand at our desk!
Totally agree with this decision, the navy, or the police academy could use her, we all need a cop, and a soilder at our buisness.
Wow. UVa is such a great school in so many fields. It seems that the "Board of Visitors" or whatever they call themselves should take some time to learn about academia, the academic stars at their institution, the history of UVa and what inspired it, and the like before rushing to coerce it to fit their idea of "long-term vision."
I've been tied to various schools which are wrestling with where the future of education is going - how to reduce student debt, increase student job placement, and the like. As a half-academic, half-business person, I agree that universities have some bloat that can stand trimming, that tuition & costs are too high and that some attempt to adapt majors (especially those aiming to be more practical) to better fit our job market is needed. But, I say that after 5 years of undergrad to achieve a BS in engineering and 6 more years in grad school to complete an MA and PhD in English. This means that I also understand the beauty, privilege and necessity of many intangibles of the university system and would be very careful in creating or partaking of changes to it.
Among schools wrestling with these issues in a positive manner, with sustained change and buy-in from faculty, SNHU and its president seem to be leading the charge with their on-line program. While I don't 100% agree with SNHU's president's long-term vision, it is a vision he has created after being invested in academia - with all its strengths and weaknesses - for many years. This board at UVa and many others from outside academia who feel they have a right to weigh in on these discussions should consider and study such models first.
Well, i'm not privy to their financials, but I will tell you that I work on a campus in Denver that has three schools on it, University of Colorado at Denver, Metropolitan State University (just changed the name) of Denver, and Community College of Denver. And let me tell you...things are BOOMING here on Auraria Campus.
Metro has just built two brand new buildings, CCD just started one, and UCD is about to start one.
If one thing is true in a BAD ECONOMY...people go back to school! Enrollment is UP UP UP. I don't buy this "Hard fiscal decisions" BS...this is POLITICS. Righties fighting their way into the system so they can TEAR IT DOWN! Just like they do in Gov't.
As a outsider reading this article I notice one thing this is strictly driven by the right side of Virginia Goverment and these kind of decisions can be costly over the long run and irreversible, but I don't think Bob McDonald is capable of handling this kind of a problem after watching his handling women's rights this past year also you can see the hand print of Eric Cantor on this fiasco, I am just damm glad I don't live in Va. where I live in Texas we have have people like the brothers Louie Ghomert and Lamar Smith.
For your information, he is to be referred to as Governor Robert McDonald. Show a little respect, ok?
He is doing a wonderful job as governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia. In the future, "Eric" Cantor is to be referred to as Representative Eric Cantor.
Just as well that you do not live here, we would probably not like you.............lol
Is Bob your boss, John? He'll get respect when he earns it, which he certainly hasn't done by sabotaging the university.
This story is tragic at so many levels. Post secondary education is one of the precious few categories in which the United States retains a position as #1. The U.S. has become an also-ran in just about every other field -- even though it enjoyed unquestioned superiority in just about all of them only a few, short, decades ago. The University of Virginia is, and has been one of the premier universities in the country and its graduates populate positions of excellence and importance in vitually every field of endeavor -- worldwide. It also holds a very special place in the pantheon of America's most excellent universities as a result of its having been the passionate brainchild of Thomas Jefferson, whose other major, truly beloved project was America, itself. Now, the forces of lame-brained incompetence bound together with foolish arrogance and hubris, aparently embodied in the person of the Rector, Helen Dragas, either acting on her own wrongheaded initiative or as a compliant tool of the very people who have prospered the most in betting against America's economic strength and abilities, have struck a major blow to our last remaining strength. It is obvious, in watching this fiasco from a distance, that we are all being compromised, yet again, by the people like Ms. Dragas, who do great damage to our world at just about every opportunity. I only know about Dr. Sullivan what I have read since the Universiy's Board of Visitors went public with their damaging scheme. Nevertheless, it is apparent that she is a beacon of what has made the American post-secondary education system the envy of the world, and the University of Virginia, one of its most fundamental lynchpins.