The PR flunkies at the University of Virginia are doing the bidding of the current MAGA majority on the UVA Board of Visitors, trying their best to sell the guy about to be the shortest-tenured president in school history, Scott Beardsley.
I’ve been advising Mr. Beardsley to not get too comfortable in Madison Hall.
I might also now advise the PR folks to start working on their resumes.
I know you’re just doing your jobs, but that excuse didn’t play well at Nuremberg back in the day.
“I look forward to meeting faculty, staff and students, going to some games, meeting the stakeholders in Richmond, all the alumni … basically channeling the love of UVA toward good things,” Beardsley was quoted as saying in a puff piece on the UVA website that ran on Monday.
On Tuesday, the flaks took to Facebook with a photo collage titled “President Beardsley’s first day,” which, nice touch here, included a shot of a dog looking on approvingly.
I mean, who’s going to take issue with a guy whose first day includes getting a smile from a dog, amirite?
The problem for Beardsley, the obvious inside guy in the sham of a search process initiated in July, following the coup that led to the forced resignation of his predecessor, Jim Ryan, is that Beardsley either let himself be co-opted by the MAGA politics at play, or he was an active participant in it.
ICYMI
- Jim Ryan explains decision to step down as UVA president: ‘Real and direct harm’
- Jim Ryan tells all: ‘What did the Governor know, when did he know it?’
The idea was that Beardsley was squeaky-clean – the dean of the Darden School, no obvious political entanglements.
Nice try: Beardsley’s LinkedIn bio lists him as a consultant to the Carlyle Group, the disgusting private-equity firm whose co-CEO, until 2020, was a guy named Glenn Youngkin, who stepped down from that job to run for governor, and who, as governor, appointed the majority on the BOV that did his bidding in getting rid of Jim Ryan.
ICYMI
The notion that Beardsley’s appointment was a MAGA inside job becomes more clear when you factor in that he was named the chair of the search committee tasked with coming up with names for the position of provost/executive vice president, a position characterized as second in rank to the president, in September.
That move, putting Beardsley in charge of the provost search, presaged the direction of the search for the #1 job – in essence, the BOV directed its interim president, Paul Mahoney, to appoint the guy who was going to get the top job, Beardsley, in the position of leading the search for his #2.
The incoming governor, Abigail Spanberger, had made clear in a letter to the BOV in November that she expected Board members to “refrain from rushing this search process and from selecting the finalists for the presidency or a president until the Board is at full complement and in statutory compliance, meaning that I have appointed and the General Assembly has confirmed new Board members.”
ICYMI
Spanberger, who will take office on Jan. 17, has not commented publicly on the BOV’s move to appoint Beardsley to the president job.
The safe bet is, this is going to get real ugly, real soon.
That’s why the MAGAs on the Board of Visitors, facing their final days in charge, are trying to play the PR game.
The photo of the dog, yes, it’s a nice touch from the PR folks.
Maybe Liberty University is hiring.
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Chris Graham
