UVA names veteran law professor Paul Mahoney new interim president

UVA now has an interim president, Paul G. Mahoney, who will replace the acting president, Jennifer “J.J.” Wagner Davis, on Aug. 11, after Davis replaced Jim Ryan, who stepped down in June at the point of a Trump administration bayonet.

Not sure if we’re supposed to stand and applaud the MAGAs on the UVA Board of Visitors who made all of this happen or not.

I’d say not.

Mahoney has been a professor at the law school at UVA since 1990.

How you can tell he won’t be a candidate for the job full time: he clerked for the late Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall (liberal justice, strike one), and he’s a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (Deep State, strikes two and three).

That’s probably a good thing, because whoever would get the job now certainly won’t be there this time next year, with the politics about to change.

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ICYMI

• Jim Ryan explains decision to step down as UVA president: ‘Real and direct harm’
• UVA leaders lay out how things will proceed with Jim Ryan’s pending departure
• UVA Board of Visitors seems intent on hiring a lame-duck new president

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“In the spirit of UVA’s shared governance model, we took these qualities and characteristics to heart in identifying the right person to shepherd UVA forward during this time,” Rachel Sheridan, the current BOV rector, said in a statement released on Monday. “We are confident that Paul’s longstanding connection to the University as a faculty member and dean of the Law School, as well as his extensive achievements as a lawyer, professor and public servant, make him the right leader to guide this institution as the search for a 10th UVA president gets underway. The board extends our heartfelt thanks to Paul for accepting this role, as well as to J.J. Davis for the stability and leadership she provided over the past several weeks.”

As interim president, Mahoney will, we are told, in a UVA news release, have the full authority of the presidency.

Wonder how much he’ll feel the need to do the bidding of the MAGAs on the BOV over the next few months.

“I am honored and humbled to serve as the interim president of the University of Virginia and to support the extraordinary students, faculty, staff, alumni and parents who make this institution great,” Mahoney said. “I thank the board for the trust they have placed in me, and for arriving at this decision in a manner consistent with the University’s core values of shared governance, academic freedom and student self-governance. As a longtime member of this community, I care deeply about UVA’s education, research and patient-care mission and look forward to continuing that important work together.”