Clarissa's Blog

This is what the people at the University of Virginia should have been protesting this entire time:

First let me outline a startling absence in the career backgrounds of the 16 members of the Board of Visitors at UVA.  Not one board member is employed, or has ever been employed, in the higher education sector. . .

The Rector, Helen Dragas, appointed buy Kaine in 2008, is a realter and Virginia Beach developer.  She comes from a family of successful real estate developers and is CEO of a successful Virginia Beach development company founded by her father. So she does not even earn the kudos of establishing her own company.  However, she surely has plenty of dollars to throw around on gubernatorial elections. . .

The remainder of the board, evidently, are spineless creatures – elsewise they would never have tolerated such a campaign of secrecy, without opening up board deliberations to the public arena. Their backgrounds are far removed from academia. . .

Not a single member of the board holds a doctoral degree in any discipline.

What a disgrace. And this is a well-known, prestigious university. Just think about it. A university is governed by people who have no inside knowledge of academia and who don’t even have a PhD. We, the academics, only have ourselves to blame if we allow this.