UVa has just instituted additional fees for engineers this year. Both a straight fee as well as a per credit fee if I remember correctly. I wasn't surprised as it's a model used by many engineering schools.
Fair enough re Gather. See also the Slate and Hook articles posted elsewhere on this thread which discuss the "despised" Darden tax (10% of revenues rolled back to the University, which is a much smaller tax than at other universities like Michigan (closer to 25%); although evidently, per the Hook article, if UCLA's business school goes independent they would pay nothing; can't imagine why a university president would let that happen).
In any event, given that this putsch eminated from Darden, it is probably safe to say that Sullivan was not looking to increase the funding there.
Northwesty, re "eat what you kill," I do not think that is a fair reading of her proposal (although again it was very oblique and hard to decipher). But it is doubtful that a life-long academic like Sullivan, would want to foster that type of "entrepreneurial environment" and/or that Darden alums would oppose that. Instead, it is much more likely that an educator like Sullivan would want to re-allocate resources in favor of the College (especially at the second year and beyond level, which is where it appears she was focusing her attention).
It appears that UVA is at a cross roads. It used to be a Top 15 school across the board (save for med and eng'g) Now it seems that law and Darden, with the help of loads of money from their independence, are moving into the top 5 level of grad schools, while the University is slipping form the mid teens to the mid twenties again largely based on funding.
There is definitely a benefit to having a great business and law school at the university. But, in my view, there is an even larger benefit to the business and law school from their association with Mr. Jefferson's university. I simply do not believe Darden would be as good (or be able to attract faculty) without the ambiance of the grounds and if it were up to me and Darden gave the University an ultimatum about the tax, I would say the day you stop paying the tax is the day you can move to Staunton.
I hope at the end of all this UVA's leaders will come up with a program of resource allocation that helps the College get back to its Top 15 status and does not force it to gut prestige (albeit money losing) programs like Classics.
UVA has possibly joined the ranks of William and Mary in selling out a President, but it appears UVA may have sold out two if you count Thomas Jefferson. Of course, Jefferson would have started spinning when a woman was named President. A restraining order should be filed in his name to stop UVA from invoking his name. The push towards privatization is infiltrating public education from elementary through higher ed and Wall Street has unlimited money to see it through.
Perhaps a new book is in the offing - UVA: Becoming Darden's B -- ch.
oldUVAgrad. Several things really stood out to me about that Post article if the reporting is accurate:
1. Things can get nasty when two strong willed women don't see eye to eye and if one doesn't get her way.
2. Dragas and Kington really were downright mean in the way they handled this situation. (see the reference to "Mean Girls" above).
3. Dr. Sullivan is retaining counsel.
4. Professors at UVA may be leaving various departments. (very understandable but so sad)
5. I wonder how much Dragas is willing to allow the university to pay a public relations group to try bend the truth in this.
And if the things being reported are true, it is very embarassing for the University. How developers/hedge fund/Wall Street types have been allowed to gain this much power is amazing. Behind the scenes machinations, an interim President already potentially in the wings even before the "resignation", etc. Some of what is being reported is truly disturbing.
I had a very different reaction to the Post article. The board is responsible for the long term health of the university. The board requested that Sullivan identify ways to cut spending. If the article is to be believed her reaction was that there's no fat to cut. If so, that would definitely cause the board to think that she's excellent at running day to day affairs but not capable of dealing with the stategic issues facing the university.
All of the board members have a business background. If it's not working you make the change quickly and move on. In business when any employee (especially a high level one) is terminated they are escorted off the premises immediately. So there's nothing mean intended when they told her to vacate the UVA house.
Professors don't usually jump ship over a simple spat. They'll find that plum jobs are not so easy to replicate at other universities.
IMO the brouhaha from students, faculty and alumni is damaging UVA's reputation. How ludicrous for posters to say that "this is why I didn't want to send my kid to UVA".
I was looking up information on Paul Tudor Jones, reported by The Hook as being "one of the two important alums" that Dragas was working with to oust President Sullivan. By chankce came upon an interesting interview he gave a dozen years ago. Here is the question/answer that I found kind of telling when you think about how he may be involved in all of this:
Q: If you were writing a story about Paul Tudor Jones, what one question would you ask him?
Paul Tudor Jones: If you could do one thing differently, what would you do?
Q: And what's the answer?
Paul Tudor Jones: When you look at the wealth creation in the Internet in the past decade, it would have required me to literally completely change my stripes and move over in a different world from macro analysis and trading a whole variety of instruments to going into building a business in a brave new world in the Internet. So I look back and I see the wealth creation that we've seen the past three years of which we've fortunately, derivatively been able to enjoy here at Tudor because we have our whole Boston office that's dedicated towards private equity and that did an extraordinary job last year. But I guess, everyone that works on Wall Street today, particularly given our industry reliance on computers, knowing that that entire explosion occurred right under your nose, everyone has got to say, 'My gosh, what if eight or 10 years ago I had made a decision to completely focus and be in the middle of technology? Instead of sitting in front of a screen, what if I had gotten on a plane and gone and played the venture capital game out in California every day'? I'd argue that many of the people that benefited from it probably were in the right place at the right time and got very fortunate and there probably aren't but a handful of people that actually had the vision to go do it and the ones that actually did, I take my hat off to them and applaud. But I've always said, I'd just as soon be lucky as good and there are a whole variety of people that were just in the right place at the right time who did extraordinarily well and I'm happy for them. But I always do play the 'what if' game. What if you'd taken your full repertoire of talents and skills and been involved in that from day one? Could you have been Bill Gates or could you have been whatever empire builder there was?
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Strategic Dynamism...Dr. Sullivan wasn't willing. Whatever he and Dragas and Kiernan wanted to take advantage of quickly was being stonewalled. For profit online learning? Or something else that they felt could make a lot of money quickly.
In this article, he was asked if he could do something differently what would he do? I think he felt that if he didn't work to get Dr. Sullivan out, he/UVA may miss out on something very prosperous and he wanted action taken.
That is an interesting article about Casteen,oldUVAgrad. Not sure if another Hook article has been mentioned yet, but there is an article about the transition from O'Neil to Casteen that was handled quite differently than how this is playing out with Sullivan. The article is entitled "Bad form? BOV ignored own president replacing precedent. "
The board requested that Sullivan identify ways to cut spending. If the article is to be believed her reaction was that there's no fat to cut. If so, that would definitely cause the board to think that she's excellent at running day to day affairs but not capable of dealing with the stategic issues facing the university.
I don't believe for a minute that a President is unceremoniously hurled out the door because she wouldn't make cuts. Just like the country, UVA cannot cut themselves out of a hole. The only way is to increase revenue. I'd say it was a combination of her not meeting their fundraising goal and not being completely on board with whatever private opportunities the Darden crew see on the horizon.
"IMO the brouhaha from students, faculty and alumni is damaging UVA's reputation. How ludicrous for posters to say that "this is why I didn't want to send my kid to UVA".
You can thank the BOV for damaging UVA's reputation. They have handled this whole situation poorly.
