Ramadan: Hostility To Dissent, Lack Of Seriousness Demands Housecleaning At UVA
Former Delegate David I. Ramadan kicks down the door with his latest op-ed regarding the UVA Slush Fund scandal, courtesy of the Richmond-Times Dispatch:
Two years ago, the head of the University of Virginia’s Board of Visitors was the face of a policy designed to punish those board members who might dare to express an opinion that dissented from the carefully crafted public relations image of exceptionalism and tranquility in Charlottesville.
As someone who came to America with little money but an overwhelming desire for freedom and the chance to live the American dream, this immigrant hit the roof. As a member of Virginia’s General Assembly, I told George Martin I would be watching carefully. Since then, I have, and now I’m completely certain we need a fresh start.
Those two paragraphs alone constitute an entirely new scandal in and of themselves. While Ramadan plays this ace (while holding a hand of other cards), the real aim isn’t the problem with Title IX, or transparency, or a culture that punishes those who pierce the veil of tranquility… but rather a culture that consistently selects facts and drives narratives at the expense of honesty and transparency.
Ramadan pulls no punches in a carefully thought out op-ed that virtually puts every problem on the table:
For example, last year U.Va. did everything it could to undermine and rewrite an Office of Civil Rights report about sexual abuse and rapes. And it would have succeeded were it not for a pesky little thing called the free press that unearthed the un-sanitized, original findings showing a university administration more interested in image than integrity.
Image over integrity? Ouch… and it’s not just Title IX, slush funds, underage drinking, the refusal to modernize, 74% tuition hikes over the last decade, or violence against students. There’s a culture that protects its own, where the light is artificial rather than authentic, that treats outsiders as enemies and insiders as nobles — and entirely resistant to change.
In the words of George Carlin, “it’s a big club, and you ain’t in it.”
Legislators of both parties are asking tough questions. Responsibly, they want to know where this huge stash of cash came from, why it was kept from them and the public and why it isn’t being spent to make high-quality education for Virginians actually affordable.
Instead, answers from current and former leaders have been spit in the face of lawmakers representing the folks who own the University of Virginia — that’s us and it’s our money.
My questions are more direct: What did University President Terry Sullivan know, and when did she know it?
My sense here — and I have absolutely no means of verifying this — is that Sullivan, though a good person, is probably not the architect of the grand schematic to build the slush fund. UVA certainly misses President John Casteen… and it is openly discussed that Sullivan simply did not have the chops to fill in those shoes.
That having been said, Ramadan hits the nail on the head with regards to UVA’s default condition vis a vis the General Assembly — a perception that, quite frankly, is unhealthy for any institution.
Next week the Board of Visitors will gather at a luxury retreat called the Boar’s Head Inn. Instead of voting to roll back tuition, new members will receive insider training. And instead of someone explaining in public session why they hid behind closed doors in June to keep $2.3 billion secret, there will be another closed-door session to deal with “personnel matters.”
In any other place and at any other time, that would be fine. But that’s what they said the topic was the last time.
As documents produced to legislators show — and state Sen. Bill DeSteph has confirmed through conversations with people in the room — now we know that isn’t at all what happened. And I have no reason to believe anything will change.
For the sake of the university and those paying the bills, we need change, and we need it now.
Ramadan concludes with a call to remove Sullivan as president of the University. Such a move would perhaps be more scapegoating than solutions oriented, though the call itself demonstrates openly the bi-partisan frustration many in Richmond share regarding the current climate in Charlottesville.
It really has to be repeated: Charlottesville is treating this entire episode as a “nothing to see here” moment. Richmond is treating this as a deadly serious scandal and an abuse of the public trust.
In the end? It really boils down to whom the Board of Visitors (or as Ramadan has argued in the past, what ought to be a Board of Trustees) answer to. It is worthwhile to note that while UVA’s Board of Visitors represents “the institution and not the people” in Ramadan’s words, the General Assembly are the custodians of the public trust — and so long as Virginia’s name is on the University, the Board of Visitors owes the General Assembly a great deal more than obfuscation and a careful presentation of facts to press home a narrative.
That might work in Charlottesville. It does not suffice in Richmond.
UPDATE: A number of people have remarked to me that I am writing this at notable personal exposure, especially if I intend to apply for graduate programs at UVA.
That’s fine. There’s a great deal I love about the University of Virginia, and a great deal of the people here — administrators, faculty, and the students themselves — are absolutely exceptional. I refuse to believe that sort of vindictiveness exists anywhere. C’est la fin.
My primary observations here are threefold: (1) the outward contempt the UVA Board of Visitors and their public affairs staff hold for Richmond right out of the gate — the “important constituency” line the very definition of obtuse, (2) the secretive way the fund was aggregated, and (3) the only-recently-discovered feeling that maybe raising tuition 74% over the last 10 years and aggregating a slush fund might (just now) best be used to lower tuition rates… something that wasn’t even on the agenda until Helen Dragas rung the bell.
UVA should not misread the sentiment from Richmond. Moreover, those watching this from the outside should note: this is UVA. This is how the Charlottesville-area operates. “It’s a big club, and you ain’t in it” is perhaps the symptom of every college town… hence the total resistance to outside interference, and the hope that time will fade opinions at the General Assembly.
That would be a misplaced hope at this stage. Responsiveness before the General Assembly acts with heavy-handed oversight would be a better plan.
DISCLAIMER: The author is a 4th year BIS student at the University of Virginia
