The inestimable Kenric Ward over at Virginia Watchdog has some insight as to what’s going on with Sweet Briar College:
Gov. Terry McAuliffe says he’s open to “any creative plan” to keep historic Sweet Briar College from closing this summer.
. . .
McAuliffe said, “I feel horrible. I feel for the students — you wake up one morning and find out your college is closing? If people want to come to me and get me personally involved, I’m all for it.”
Oh I’m sure he is. Volley… and serve… and there’s a point to this:
Pam Auble, a 1998 Sweet Briar grad, wasn’t satisfied with McAuliffe’s words.
“The governor prides himself on taking an aggressive stance when it comes to Virginia’s jobs, contacting CEOs each day to either bring to or keep jobs in Virginia. His laissez-faire approach in regard to Sweet Briar — the second largest employer in Amherst County — is baffling,” Auble told Watchdog.org.
But Auble said she and fellow alumnae aren’t giving up. She said experts from a variety of academic and business fields are developing plans for “Sweet Briar 2.0.”
“I have little doubt that Gov. McAuliffe will find these new strategies creative, exciting and — most importantly —sustainable for future generations of women.”
Random thought, ladies and gentlemen.
Governor McAuliffe has a nose for fundraising and political opportunity. Sweet Briar is a private college, with oodles of land, resources, and a baffling series of reasons why it is closing that no one can seem to figure out. Almost a replay of McAuliffe’s Obamacare expansion gambit in 2014 where dire consequences were predicted and then suddenly resolved by executive fiat (though what McAuliffe really resolved is missing).
I digress. Tuition for Sweet Briar College is in the mid to high $40K range per year. Students that attend this school have parents who can afford to attend this school. Those are fantastic donors, ones who have already rallied to the battle standard to save the institution.
So here we go to the call/answer part of this equation. “…creative, exciting… and sustainable for future generations of women.”
…what if McAuliffe were to offer Sweet Briar a deal?
…what if the governor proposed that Virginia buy some of their open land?
…what if the governor also proposed to make Sweet Briar a publicly-funded state school?
…what if McAuliffe comes up with a government-funded solution that earns the fevered support of Sweet Briar alumni?
…what if McAuliffe laid this on the backs of the General Assembly?
…what if McAuliffe really wanted to turn on the afterburners?
…what if McAuliffe arranged some sort of “privately raised match” to endow Sweet Briar?
…what if a narrative could be built where a candidate — a 2016 contender — swooped in and saved the day?
…what if this is all a ploy?
…and what if we see someone of national stature comes in and saves the day?
You read my mind.
Folks, perhaps I’m just cynical. Perhaps I’m merely seasoned enough to know that liberals see our government as a giant philanthropic association ready to just dole out cash whenever a crisis (real or manufactured) arises? And perhaps I see the play where anyone who opposes such a benign, enlightened, and clearly an effort to save a women‘s college would earn the opponents of such a deal the charge of sexism! (TM) or worse, denying opportunity! (TM) to future women leaders!
Yeah, that doesn’t fit into anyone’s narrative…
Folks will have to pardon the rest of us if we roll our eyes at McAuliffe’s sudden and manifest interest in the survival of Sweet Briar College. Saving the school is laudable in its own right, but politicizing it — which this governor inevitably seems to have a talent at doing — produces just the right amount of bile to depress any genuine sentiment that may exist among working class taxpaying Virginians.
