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UVA Computer Science professor resigns over incompetence of board

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Re: UVA Computer Science professor resigns over incompetence of board

#41

Post by dhimes »

tomasien wrote: post #9
tomasien wrote: post #5

Brief description of what's happening: a bit over 2 years ago, Teressa Sullivan was appointed the first woman president in the history of UVa, a school that was all male until the 70's. Suddenly, last week she was forced to resign because of a "philosophical difference" with the Board of Visitors, a group that is appointed by the state of oversee University Affairs and top level hirings. It was later revealed this wa…

I'll add that by all accounts she was beloved and was doing what was widely considered a great job. NOBODY was openly complaining, it was very sudden.

Also alum, and I concur with your view. This is a high caliber guy who is resigning; he is (from his letter) married to a high caliber woman also on the faculty.

This is huge. This will cause a loss of confidence in UVA if they don't take effective action to recover.

Re: UVA Computer Science professor resigns over incompetence of board

#42

Post by jmduke »

SpikeDad wrote: post #22

I guess being a women in Virgina is an endangered species. Seems all they're good for is government forced medical examinations. Guess you get what you vote for in a guy like McDonald.

The Rector of the Board of Visitors, Helen Dragas, is also a female.

Gender had nothing to do with this.

Re: UVA Computer Science professor resigns over incompetence of board

#43

Post by 0xABADC0DA »

scott_s wrote: post #27
0xABADC0DA wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

http://www.baconsrebellion.com/Issues05/10-03/Haskins.php "The university has a troubling history when it comes to matter race..." "UVa's racial problem is larger than simply a few isolated incidents of bigotry. ... There is still a discernable "Good Ol' Boy" network that heavily influences the Commonwealth's social, economic and political life and holds UVA up as a crown jewel." What I posted was not just my opinion…

Forget offense, it didn't make sense - it was a non-sequitur. I have not heard race or gender to be a factor in the current problem at UVA. (Yes, the fired president is a woman, but I have not heard anyone mention her gender as part of the firing.)

UVA is a crown jewel of Virginia's old boy network. The first woman president, well-liked and not an old boy, is fired by the business college for no legitimate reason. This couldn't be any more blatant.

Re: UVA Computer Science professor resigns over incompetence of board

#44

Post by scott_s »

0xABADC0DA wrote: post #43
scott_s wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Forget offense, it didn't make sense - it was a non-sequitur. I have not heard race or gender to be a factor in the current problem at UVA. (Yes, the fired president is a woman, but I have not heard anyone mention her gender as part of the firing.)

UVA is a crown jewel of Virginia's old boy network. The first woman president, well-liked and not an old boy, is fired by the business college for no legitimate reason. This couldn't be any more blatant.

The difficulty with that "blatant" narrative is that the chair of the Board of Visitors is a woman.

Just because a theory is possible does not mean it happened. As I stated before, I have heard no one, on any side, allege discrimination.

Re: UVA Computer Science professor resigns over incompetence of board

#45

Post by _delirium »

kmfrk wrote: post #29
tomasien wrote: post #5

Brief description of what's happening: a bit over 2 years ago, Teressa Sullivan was appointed the first woman president in the history of UVa, a school that was all male until the 70's. Suddenly, last week she was forced to resign because of a "philosophical difference" with the Board of Visitors, a group that is appointed by the state of oversee University Affairs and top level hirings. It was later revealed this wa…

It was later revealed this was the result of a coup by a bunch of Darden MBA's because they wanted "radical" change to the future plans of the University, not incremental change. Which, as I recall, was revealed in some seriously mustache-twirling e-mails that the main orchestrator had used the Reply All feature for or something to that extent. I can't remember which article I read this in, but this has all the eleme…

I'm not sure if it's the original source, but the reply-all mishap from the hedge-fund guy, re: "confidential project", is mentioned in this article: http://www.readthehook.com/104250/important-alums-did-they-t...

Re: UVA Computer Science professor resigns over incompetence of board

#46

Post by gantz »

I know this letter was written for a UVA audience but there is almost no actual rhetoric about why he believes the administration to be wrong. I understand the power of losing every title and honor on your own,..but why not put more Ome into drafting a concise and powerful argument?

Re: UVA Computer Science professor resigns over incompetence of board

#48

Post by rayiner »

Additional backstory: the revolt of the faculty is due to the Board wanting to close marginal academic departments at the University.

Further backstory: the expenditures of the academic division at UVA have increased about 80% since 2001. Enrollment has only increased 9%. In-state tuition has increased about 275%.

I'm not a UVA alum, but I grew up in Virginia, so I care about what happens at UVA. UVA's faculty can wax philosophical all they want about academic freedom and the like, but at the end of the day the explosion in university expenses cannot be ignored. Expenditures on faculty salaries have risen 4-5% per year over the last decade even though enrollment has only grown 0.7% per year and salaries in other sectors have been stagnant.

It's insane that there are 3,300 faculty for a school that has only 21,000 FTE students. I'm a strong supporter of public education and public research, but facilitating this faculty growth at the expense of students is absolutely ridiculous and it's high-time the Board made some cuts.

Re: UVA Computer Science professor resigns over incompetence of board

#49

Post by tryitnow »

chrismealy wrote: post #16

The lack of "strategic dynamism" part is hilarious: http://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/confessions-community-co...

This article is the most unbiased I've read. As a UVA alum I tend to side with the BOV in this case. Virginia is a notoriously stingy state and it's inevitable that big changes have to be made to keep UVA competitive.

The current leader of any organization is rarely the best choice for making big changes. Unfortunately, it seems Sullivan was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. My guess is the BOV wanted to bring in a hatchet man to make some big cuts of entire departments as opposed to taking a shared sacrifice approach.

I can tell you from my experience in the corporate world "shared sacrifice" rarely works for big organizations facing significant budget cuts. It's usually best to ruthlessly triage the weak parts and leave the strong parts intact instead of trying to cut the strong and weak equally.

However, the BOV handled it poorly.

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