UVa Ex-president:UVa is overrated

[barrons]

Maybe this was what got her fired

"Sullivan’s Academic Strategy memo, obtained by The Washington Post, was written in comparatively candid terms and identified five areas of broad concern.

First, a siloed budgeting model that frustrates innovation and collaboration. Second, a projection that fully half of the U-Va. faculty will depart by 2020, mainly because of retirement. Third, a “reputation gap”: In many academic areas, Sullivan suggests, the university is “reputed to be better than we actually are.” Fourth, the “fragile” Top 10 stature of many university departments and professional schools, driven by a precariously small number of actual academic stars."

U-Va. board: President Teresa Sullivan’s removal came after an “extended” talk over school’s health - The Washington Post

[JHS]

“This is the most egregious case I have ever seen of mismanagement by a governing board,” said Hunter R. Rawlings III, president of the prestigious Association of American Universities and former president of Cornell. “It’s secretive, it’s misguided and based on the public statements, there’s no clear rationale.”

That is hilarious, given that Rawlings' well-regarded successor was removed in a manner that was even more secretive and lacking a comprehensible rationale. (The public statements then make Dragas look like an over-sharer. The most complete attempt at an explanation was when the ousted president said, "It's like flying to the other side of the world. We all agreed on where we wanted the university to go, but we disagreed on whether to start flying east or west to get there.") Even today, seven years later, there's never been anything like an explanation. Everyone moved on, and Cornell is still a great university, but that remains a clownish episode in its history.

[rjkofnovi]

I wonder how comments like these, made by a university official that basically just got fired, affect the perception of the University of Virginia by future students. It should at least give pause to those who are considering attending UVA.

[coase]

In my field, UVa's decline has been slow but inexorable. Over the years they have lost prominent young faculty members to places like BU, Caltech, Dartmouth, Duke, UC San Diego, etc., but they have had a hard time attracting comparable individuals. Low salaries are certainly part of the problem. It sounds like the president was concerned about the decline in many departments and wanted to address it.

[mommusic]

Misleading headling--Sullivan was voicing a concern while she was president, not criticizing after she was fired, as it seems to state.

[dadx]

UVa is pretty strong if you look at the stats of the out of state students they admit. In our high school, you have to be in the 1450 ish range to have a chance at admissions, and they tend to only accept 1 or 2 student out of those who are in a competitive range.

[rjkofnovi]

"In my field, UVa's decline has been slow but inexorable."

"UVa is pretty strong if you look at the stats of the out of state students they admit."

If things continue as they are the decline in academics, as stated by the x president Sullivan, could also affect a decline in student quality. Universities, like any large businesses, can only live off past reputations for so long.

[blueiguana]

mommusic is absolutely right! Barrons title is misleading. The memo that is now being made public is from May. President Sullivan was speaking very frankly about some issues where she saw concerns and what she thought needed to be done strategically. The quote taken out of context indeed makes President Sullivan look controversial. That's not the case at all.

The following is another article on the subject that I believe gives a bit more original text of her memo:
Sullivan saw 'reputation gap' at UVa | Daily Progress

[dadx]

I was trying to edit to add to the above, but got timed out.

If you read the actual report linked to in the Wash Post article, it has some interesting things. She doesn't talk about raising external funds, (except for getting better at sourcing government grants). She does seem to be suggesting some type of austerity, with faculty spending less time with first and second year students. Unfortunately, to a trustee, this has a ring of "we need to allow the faculty to do what it prefers".

She also adds:

Transcripts will record not only the courses and grades taken, but also badges to indicate whether a student has had an international experience, has participated in community service, has held a leadership position, or has produced creative work. Students will eagerly work to have as many of these badges on their transcripts as possible, and employers will find the enhanced transcripts a better guide than traditional transcripts for predicting how graduates will perform on the job.

Although this is a hypothetical vision, this strikes me as naive. More like what you hear from your high school guidance counselors as opposed to a college president.

[barrons]

I called her the ex-Prez because that is her current status. In my intro is is clear that the memo that might have alienated the BOV was presented prior to the firing. As to what the memo says, if this does not say overrated, well it is hard to say what else would.

“In a number of critical areas we are reputed to be better than we actually are,” she wrote."

[JHS]

This paragraph from the report maybe gives a little hint of what could be a substantial dispute between Sullivan and the Board:

At the time of my appointment, I was explicitly instructed not to do a strategic plan for the academic program. The University had already conducted a series of strategic plans, and the faculty were said to be fatigued and discouraged by the lack of follow-through on those plans. For the last several years, the University of Virginia has been guided by the strategic plans, Virginia 2020 and the Commission on the Future of the University (COFU). These documents have served as a roadmap for the advancement of the University. The central strategies of Virginia 2020 (developed in 2002) focused on four themes: fine and performing arts, science and technology, international activities, and public service and outreach. COFU (developed in 2008) narrowed the focus to three immediate priorities: the student experience, advancing education and research in STEMH fields, and global education. The Board has been provided several updates on COFU and the University has made limited strides forward in implementing the aspirations expressed by these plans.

Basically, what the rest of the memo is saying is there needs to be a strategic plan for the Academic Division, and the existing efforts miss the point of the main challenges facing the university's academic mission.

There is also a somewhat defensive passage later in the report. Talking about the need for administrative reforms in some areas, she anticipates and attempts to refute the argument that these are mere "blocking and tackling", and therefore presumably not of great moment. I suspect that she had heard the "blocking and tackling" line before, and that it came from one of the addressees of the memo (i.e., the Rector and Vice Rector).

So it does look like she was insisting on addressing things that at least some members of the Board felt need not be addressed. And the timing of the memo (May 3) seems to match up with the timing of the secret discussions about firing her. Still, all of this seems like awfully thin grounds for instant termination with no transition plan in place.

ADDING: Technically, I think she is not the Ex-President, since her resignation does not take effect until August. But since she seems to have been relieved of all of her duties and reports, "ex" is clearly accurate in every non-technical sense.

[padad]

Barrons, what is your agenda? As someone who bleeds orange and blue, I find your posts simply offensive.

[cptofthehouse]

The sentence alone is not a a flag. Many administrators make that comment in various forms. I've heard it about companies, businesses, school and it was not a problem. I guess we'll never know what specific things got the board's hackles up.

[rjkofnovi]

It seems that since BOV members at Virginia are appointed by the governor and not elected by the public, they don't feel the need to answer to anyone.

[xiggi]

UVa is pretty strong if you look at the stats of the out of state students they admit. In our high school, you have to be in the 1450 ish range to have a chance at admissions, and they tend to only accept 1 or 2 student out of those who are in a competitive range.

While it is entirely possible that students have to be very competitive, it does not require to have 1450ish range to have a chance, unless you meant 1450/2400. Otherwise, 1450 is just below the 75th percentile at UVA. With 71% instate from a competitive state such as Virginia, it is doubtful that the OOS stats would be drastically different from the average.

SAT Critical Reading 610 720
SAT Math 630 740
SAT Writing 620 720

For all intents and purposes, UVA is a school that attracts and admits the type of student described by the loving dad in his Book CrazyU.

For what it is worth, the Sullivan statement about UVA being overrated has been "documented" more than once at the University of Texas in direct comparisons of departments. Could it be that she did in fact look at the data to support the "reputation" without an insider bias, and was able to form an opinion starting in 2002?