Not a good time for this kind of press…
Petula isn’t really a journalist. Her education pieces are usually lacking in depth and I don’t think she’s even considered part of the WaPo Education team.
Ms. Dvorak implies that UVA is “waxing nostalgic for the days when the university was all-white and all male.” This is so absurd it is almost funny that she wrote it, but sad in a way that some editor didn’t question making such a statement. I look forward to a follow up article from Ms. Dvorak in which she describes her sources for such an absurd statement. If she as a journalist learned anything from the Rolling Stone’s errors, it should have been that a reporter needs to check on their sources, and the credibility of those sources. I look forward to her attempt to locate an official UVA source that will express on or off the record that the University “wax[es] nostalgic” for such a time.
“Murderous love, epic power struggles, gang rapes/not-gang-rapes, kidnapping/killing and now, a bloody arrest for an alcohol infraction? No other university in the nation is producing more sensation and scandal right now.”
let’s see…
three murders, one by a student, two by a drifter (one a UVA student, one a VT student attending a concert): bad. even one murder associated with the school would be bad.
imaginary “gang rape” story in Rolling Stone: shoddy excuse for journalism, but the story was apparently not true, and publishing it was not the University’s fault.
power struggles: yes, that’s embarrassing. it certainly involves the University, although it’s questionable whether they brought it on themselves in any way or if it was simply BoV insanity.
“bloody arrest” by alcohol police (did you know there was such a thing?): not the University’s fault, and at this point it’s not even clear how he was injured; it’s being investigated.
“On top of all that? The Cavaliers were knocked out of the basketball playoffs this weekend…”
gee, how can we tolerate having a school that gets knocked out of the basketball playoffs? ON TOP OF ALL THAT?
Whether or not it’s good journalism, the Post is widely read by NOVA parents. This is a critical time when parents are making decisions about what admissions offers to accept. The admissions folks will need to be at the top of their game at this year’s Days on the Lawn.
I would hope that most people, like those who commented on the article, can discern real journalism from a sensational column more fit for a tabloid than the Post.
Days on the Lawn are the most important days of our year and our entire staff is always ready to talk with visitors about anything that is on their minds as they make their college decision. That’s true this year and every year.
^^^^ Glad to hear it. I’m an alum and 2x parent (both graduated). I suspect that these are challenging times for UVa leadership and I’m glad to hear that DTOL is such a high priority. Hope the weather cooperates…nothing like a beautiful spring day in Charlottesville to help sway those who might be on the fence!
Sorry…meant DOTL!
I would just add that most of the boardmembers who tried a coup against President Sullivan are gone from the Board - except for the former Rector who was re-appointed by a Governor who is facing federal prison time after his conviction for felony corruption.
Oh myyyy (as Mr. Takei would say)… that was a hit piece.
One week of evening news in Hampton Roads has more than a century or so of (often loosely or even not at all associated) UVA naughtiness? Sign my D up for Charlottesville. (if she wants…HER choice)
“UVA has gone Bravo”. What does that even mean? Should have clicked the X…
I think UVA has just been unlucky really. I don’t think they’ve done wrong in any of these cases.
IMO, your president and senior administrators are squarely to blame for caving to media hysteria and student demonstrations and not showing leadership by urging calm, restraint and reason. The board of trustees should fire the president for her incompetence. She violated the Greeks’ due process rights and sided with the yellow journalists with absolutely zero due diligence. She is doing the same by jumping to conclusions regarding the recent ABC incident. She is ruled by fear and not reason, and appears way over her head. UVA needs to retain a major law firm and PR firm and fight back. BUT she needs to go.
I am curious why @Dean J and others consider this a piece of “tabloid” journalism. Is it the penultimate paragraph? or the one preceeding it?
Because, other than that, the entire article (95%?) is literally just a compendium of facts about recent cases that put UVA in the news. There are no opinions about the incidents. It is literally one undeniable fact after another.
The only opinion is really her summary and you also have to realize that this is an opinion piece and is labelled as such. It is not a news article.
She claims the kid was “thrown to the ground.” Where did that “fact” come from? She’s contributing to the hysteria and misinformation. How irresponsible.
@SeattleTW The ABC said as much in its statement. I can’t find the written statement but I have found statements about what it contained.
The witnesses also described him as being tackled. Not a single person has come forward and said anything other than that. I think we can safely say that it is a fact that he was thrown down.
Edited to add: I found the actual ABC statement.
Unless they pistol whipped him it is impossible to suffer injuries like he did without being thrown to the ground. You can argue whether or not he did something to provoke the officers, but you can’t argue that the “facts” show he was thrown to the ground.
Tackling is much different than being thrown down, IMO, but again, the writer was sensationalizing the information publicly available, and that was her intent.
Are you serious? LOL You are right. Tackling is much different. It is much worse.
When you are thrown down you have the force of someone throwing you. When you are tackled you have the force of the person hitting you. Simple physics shows that the tackling is worse.
The kinetic energy of a person’s body plus the force of being thrown has to be less than the force of the person’s body plus the force of the tackler’s body plus the force behind the tackle (probably much higher individually than the force behind throwing someone)
Yes, I am. I was in the Army and also a security guard back in the day. I tried, with another guard, to restrain a thief and we tackled him and all of us went down. Then we were over him, in the same position as the ABC officers. These men are trained to restrain and apprehend, and they don’t “throw”’ the suspect because it’s not feasible and more importantly can break the hold you need to restrain the suspect. Ask any cop and they’ll explain.
In all likelyhood they used some sort of a close combat throw eg judo throw, or something similar. But I digress. In either case is doesn’t matter. The writer is not sensationalizing when she says the victim was “thrown” or “tackled” or “forced to the ground” or whatever. The point is that he didn’t injure himself and was hurt by the physical actions of the agents.
Your “logic” aside, law enforcement officers are not trained to throw their suspects, it simply doesn’t work, especially for a fleeing suspect.