The Ousting of University of Virginia President Sullivan Background

Some may ask what this has to do with someone in Oklahoma and I say a lot because it is giving us a look inside how the MBA wants to run things no matter who they are dealing with.  A public university is not a corporation and should not be treated like one.  It is also telling the rules don't apply to MBA's either which reminds of Presidential campaigns where rules don't apply.

Calling an emergency meeting when it looks like you already have someone in mind for the job and was against the rules doesn't seem very smart -- in fact it is downright stupid.

There’s one more wrinkle. Dragas said, in an interview, that “this decision [to force out Sullivan] should be judged after a new president is installed.” She’s saying that, when we compare Sullivan to the next president, then we’ll see that the next president is better. A reasonable inference is that Dragas already knows who the next president will be—that this isn’t a coup to eliminate Sullivan but, instead, to replace her with somebody specific. If that proves to be true, it seems vanishingly unlikely that the faculty will soon accept the legitimacy of that president, which will make his term awfully unpleasant.  

Is this an insight into what a Romney administration would be since MBA's are running everything around Romney?  They seem out of touch with ordinary Americans with some of their ideas.   People better think long and hard before they support an MBA for President.  The Corporate Board Room is not a stepping stone to the Presidency IMHO!

The Ousting of Sullivan: How We Got Here 

Published by Waldo Jaquith on June 14, 2012

You’d really have to put a lot of work into something to fuck it up as badly as the UVA Board of Visitors has with their removal of Teresa Sullivan from the presidency. 

Based on all of the latest evidence to come out, here’s what happened. Rector Helen Dragas spent months persuading a majority of the 16-member board to support ousting Sullivan. To circumvent Virginia’s open meetings law, Dragas and vice rector Mark Kington talked with them one by one, apparently only meeting with those members who she thought were most amenable to supporting her plan. (Macdonald Caputo, Heywood Fralin, and Vincent Mastracco—and perhaps others—were not contacted until the last minute.) 

Somewhere along the line the growing group brought in the chair of the Darden School Foundation, Peter Kiernan. In an e-mail to fellow Darden trustees on Sunday, Kiernan made the mistake of telling the truth, describing how he’d worked with “two important Virginia alums” on the “project” to oust Sullivan. 

Governor McDonnell’s spokesman says that the governor was notified only days beforehand that Sullivan was to be forced out, apparently once Dragas had obtained enough support from the board to get a majority supporting the coup. 

On Friday, Sullivan was apparently informed that she could quit or be fired. 

On Sunday morning the Board of Visitors announced that they’d hold an emergency executive session that afternoon, giving just a few hours’ notice. That “emergency” bit is important. Under § 2.2-3701 of the Virginia Freedom of Information Act, an “emergency” is “an unforeseen circumstance rendering the notice required by this chapter impossible or impracticable and which circumstance requires immediate action.” That’s what allowed them to meet without providing the three-day notice that’s legally required. The fact that this was planned for months makes clear that no such emergency could have existed. The meeting was illegal. The meeting involved just three members of the executive committee: Dragas, Kington, and Charlottesville developer Hunter Craig. Holding that meeting with little notice, on a Sunday, was advantageous to Dragas, since that prevented the attendance of executive committee members who opposed the coup against Sullivan. Macdonald Caputo was unable to travel, due to an injury. George Martin was out of the country, in South Africa. The vote was 3–0 to accept Sullivan’s “resignation.”

The story went public, and people immediately began to wonder why Sullivan had quit. Was she forced out? Was the board’s lack of explanation perhaps to spare her some humiliation?
Then that e-mail from Darden’s Kiernan got out. Today Kiernan resigned from the board, writing in a letter that his e-mail had been “confusing” (on the contrary, it was enlightening) and strained credulity with his claim that his work to toss the president was completely unrelated to the fact that he’s chairing Darden’s foundation. Kiernan’s e-mail was important, because it was the first piece of evidence that there was a long-term conspiracy, at the highest levels of the university—and perhaps the state—to force out the brand-new president.

(snip) 

How much damage? Rumor has it that members of the teaching faculty are talking about a boycott come fall semester, in two months’ time. It remains to be seen whether that will come to fruition, or what their specific demand is going to be. (An explanation? Re-hire Sullivan? Fire Dragas? Replace the whole Board of Visitors?) But if the Board of Visitors wants to play hardball, they may find that faculty are prepared to play, too. 

Despite everything that we know now, we still have no insight into the heart of the matter: why Sullivan was forced out. But we’ll know before long. There are too many people involved at this point, and there’s too much at stake. 

Excerpt:  Read More at http://cvillenews.com/2012/06/14/sullivan-story/

The following is a comment from the site that describes what is happening and what could be the consequences from a faculty perspective:

June 15, 2012 at 1:05 am 

The faculty senate is on this. I think there will be a faculty-wide meeting on Sunday and then they will meet with the BOV and the negotiations will begin. There could be a strike of sorts. I would participate. It is the public vs. the BOV at this point. The root problem is the way BOVs are appointed and the capturing of the University by corporate neoliberal (Dem and Rep) interests. Its about privatizing a public resource, thats what is behind these micro-political machinations. We need reform so tha the BOV looks more like the people of the Commonwealth and less like a corporate boardroom. That’s the heart of the matter. Do we want UVA turned into a diploma factory and a big business that merely prepares automatons for the global corporate economy? I think Sulivan stood up to this corporate bullying.Her allegiance is to the profession of education. 

I don’t think the MBA class thought much about pushback from the ranks, they are used to bullying thier employees in their corporations. This aint a corporation and I am hopeful the faculty won’t act like sheep. It is a line in the sand so to speak. On the other side of the line are the University of Phoenix model and is that what we want Jefferson’s university to become. We should go back to 1933 when the University was governed by the faculty. 

So that’s where this is not just about the BOV vs. the Faculty. Its is a public university and even those who never attend or don’t have arelative who attends have a dog in the fight. We need students, alums, and citizens weighing in and protesting. 

The legislature is the final authorizor of the BOV, even though the Gov. appoints. So that is why it is important that all citizens weigh in on this and protest going forward. Having David Toscano and Creigh Deeds involved is an imprtant first step. They need to convey to their colleagues the outrage and impropriety of this move. So its the fsuclty ,alums, students, and citizens vs. the elitist BOV and a small oligarichal cabal at that it turns out. 

What the Faculty Senate does next is important. They need to play hardball with these crooks and fascists. We all need to rally around the faculty as they may become a fulcrum of potential change. 

My demands would be: 

1. Dismiss the BOV
2. Reinstate Sullivan
3. Change the appointment process for BOVs 

If there is public action planned by the Faculty Senate, I urge all of you in the public to participate in that action, don’t lreave the faculty hanging. There is power in numbers. Its a public university and it belongs to the pubic, not a group of fat cat corporate types who have the morality which brought on the depression we are all in.