The University of Virginia, quietly, moved earlier this month to eliminate its DEI office; I say it was done “quietly” because we still haven’t seen the school acknowledge the move publicly.
UVA is now getting heat over the politically tinged move from the American Association of University Professors, which is pressing the school’s Board of Visitors to “immediately reverse course.”
“We further call on the Board to end its complicity in advancing Gov. Youngkin’s partisan agenda – an agenda that undermines the core values of higher education, including transparency, equal access, diversity, non-discrimination and free and open inquiry,” reads a letter, dated March 13, from Dr. Timothy Gibson, a professor at George Mason, who is the president of the Virginia Conference of the American Association of University Professors.
The letter from the AAUP hits at the core of what is really going on with the BOV vote ending DEI – that it’s about MAGA politics.
ICYMI
A press release from the office of Gov. Glenn Youngkin is still all we have on the record publicly commenting on the UVA Board vote, which came at the end of a March 7 Board meeting.
The AAUP letter makes note of the odd silence from UVA over the move
“In violation of AAUP principles, faculty at the University of Virginia were almost completely shut out of the decision-making process,” Gibson said. “In fact, this decision was made in a closed session, with little public notice, and no materials were provided to the university community before the vote was taken.
“It’s an outrage,” Gibson said. “We are looking into whether UVA’s Board of Visitors violated Virginia’s public-meeting laws when it made the decision to shut down the campus diversity, equity and inclusion office.”
It does appear that the BOV was in violation of the state’s Freedom of Information Act, which requires that an action item needs to included on the Board’s agenda “at least seven calendar days prior to the meeting.”
The only item that might relate to the DEI matter listed on the Board of Visitors schedule for its March 7 full meeting was a “Closed Meeting” scheduled to run from 3-4 p.m.
There was no notation on the schedule that the “Closed Meeting” would involve discussion of the DEI office; we only know, after the fact, that Board members discussed the closure of the office in that closed meeting.
So, the Board of Visitors appears to have violated state public-meeting laws, and did so to do the political bidding of the MAGA governor, who himself is acting at the behest of Donald Trump, who issued a Jan. 21 executive order that terms DEI programs as “dangerous, demeaning, and immoral.”
The BOV resolution, at least, makes an effort to tone down the sound and the fury, attempting to cast the move as merely ensuring that “all University programs, policies, practices, and actions in every regard comply with the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution, Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and other federal civil rights laws.”
The resolution requires UVA President Jim Ryan “to report back within 30 days to update the Board on the University’s progress in complying with this resolution and present any substantial policy changes for approval in compliance with Executive Order 14173, federal law, and any new guidance from federal authorities.”
Thirty days from March 7 is Sunday, April 6.
“The Board of Visitors voted for common sense, saying ‘no’ to illegal discrimination and ‘yes’ to merit-based opportunity,” said Youngkin, who added, with appropriate bombast, “DEI is done at the University of Virginia.”
“We stand for the universal truth that everyone is created equal, and opportunity is at the heart of Virginians’ and Americans’ future,” Youngkin said.
The counter from Gibson:
“For decades, university offices of diversity, equity and inclusion have been an indispensable means for eliminating discriminatory practices and opening the university to faculty and students who for generations were systematically excluded from American higher education,” Gibson said.
And then, there was this nice follow-up from our AAUP guy:
“Does the Board of Visitors want to wind back the clock to a time when racism, sexism and homophobia went unchallenged at UVA, and when the benefits of a UVA education were only available to a privileged few?” Gibson said.
The sad answer to that question is, unfortunately, abundantly obvious.
Video: UVA urged to reverse decision on DEI
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Chris Graham
