Youngkin appoints four new members to the UVa Board of Visitors

[mahatmakanejeeves]

News

Governor Youngkin appoints four new members to the Board of Visitors

Two alumni are among the four appointees

By Ava MacBlane and Lexi Baker
July 1, 2022

Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin announced the appointment of four new members to the Board of Visitors Thursday — College and Darden alumnus Bert Ellis, previous Board member Stephen Long, Abingdon Town Council member and Education alumna Amanda Pillion and College and Law alumnus Doug Wetmore. The four new members will take their seats for the first time during the Board’s retreat in August. ... Composed of 17 voting members appointed by the governor, the Board meets four times per year and is responsible for the long-term planning of the University. The new members replace previous Board members Dr. L.D. Britt, Frank Conner, Barbara Fried and C. Evans Poston.

Ellis is a business executive who holds leadership positions in three Atlanta based companies, Ellis Capital, Johnson Energy Storage and Ellis Communications. Additionally, Ellis is one of 15 University graduates who co-own White Spot, a restaurant located on the Corner. ... Ellis spoke to Youngkin’s role in appointing new Board members in a year-end update for the Jefferson Council at the end of 2021. ... “This is our only opportunity to change/reverse the path to ‘wokeness’ that has overtaken our entire University,” Ellis said.

Ellis also serves as the president of The Jefferson Council, a conservative group of University alumni and other stakeholders “dedicated to preserving the legacy of Thomas Jefferson.” Most recently, The Jefferson Council co-sponsored an event with former vice president Mike Pence, along with the student organization Young Americans for Freedom.

Following controversy over signage on Lawn room doors in fall 2020 that used expletives to critique the University’s history of enslavement and inaccessibility, Ellis traveled to the University to visit the Lawn room of the resident who posted the original sign. Per a message written by Ellis himself, he “prepared to use a small razor blade” to remove the explicit part of the sign, but two University ambassadors explained that this would be considered malicious damage and asked him to leave. ... Ellis has also previously noted his disapproval of the presence of diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives at the University — which he has characterized as “completely out of hand” — and is a fervent supporter of the University's Honor system, having previously expressed that “without Honor, there is no U.Va..”

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[mahatmakanejeeves]

1. "Nothing says defending free speech like bringing a box cutter to cut someone's sign down."

YesterdayIsAHardWordForHat Retweeted

Nothing says defending free speech like bringing a box cutter to cut someone's sign down. ⬆️ is ⬇️. https://washingtonpost.com/education/2022/07/24/college-alumni-free-speech-groups/

Link to tweet

HIGHER EDUCATION

College alumni groups spread nationally to counter ‘cancel culture’

Independent groups are forming to promote free speech on some university campuses

By Susan Svrluga
July 24, 2022 at 7:00 a.m. EDT



Bert Ellis leads the Jefferson Council at University of Virginia to protect several traditions. (Jason Lappa for The Washington Post)

Alumni groups pressing free-speech issues are popping up at colleges in many states, as debates over academic freedom, “cancel culture” and changes on campus intensify. ... More than a dozen groups have joined the Alumni Free Speech Alliance, a group announced last fall that now includes graduates from schools including Harvard, Bucknell, Yale and Cornell universities, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Wofford and Davidson colleges. Organizers say hundreds of people from schools all across the country have contacted them, all graduates who have questions they say their traditional alumni associations are not asking. ... To join, the groups must hold freedom of speech, academic freedom and viewpoint diversity as primary missions, said Edward Yingling, president of the alliance and a founder of Princetonians for Free Speech. “There is a feeling that a lot of universities are losing their way,” Yingling said. “There is very little diversity of thought.”

The alumni groups vary in size, character and sophistication. Some have distinctly conservative roots, even if they are now seeking to ensure that all viewpoints are represented. One of the first to organize, the Generals Redoubt, has been fighting to preserve the traditions of Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Va., an idea echoed by graduates at some nearby colleges with long and complicated histories, such as the Virginia Military Institute and the University of Virginia. ... Tom Rideout, president of Generals Redoubt, said while preserving Gen. Robert E. Lee’s legacy at the school is one of the group’s priorities, free speech is “the big ongoing issue where we will be spending more and more time as we go along.”

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At U-Va., the president of such an alumni group, the Jefferson Council, was recently appointed by Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) to join the university’s board of visitors, significantly amplifying the group’s voice and clout. “The pendulum,” said Bert Ellis, the new board appointee and an entrepreneur, “is swinging back.” {snip} Ellis, the Jefferson Council president, said he was shocked by a sign cursing the University of Virginia that a student posted nearly two years ago on her door to one of the rooms on the school’s historic Lawn. After trying to talk with the student, and bringing a box cutter to take down the sign if she had not been home, he and other alumni later formed the council to preserve some of the school’s history and to fight for free-speech issues. ... Ellis has said the Jefferson Council supports the student’s right to say or post anything, but not on the Lawn that Thomas Jefferson designed, a part of U-Va. designated as a World Heritage Site. But not all are convinced. “What they seem to actually be protecting is a version of right-wing ideology that is framed as free speech and framed as neutral when it is not neutral,” Woolfork said.

“If there is one thing that is common to every university in the world, it is alumni who believe their school started going downhill after they graduated,” Larry Sabato, a professor of politics at U-Va., wrote in an email. But he said the facts belie that, as the highly regarded university attracts “diverse and talented students from all over the globe” and continues to lead on important issues through education and research. After more than 50 years in the U-Va. community, he said he is “incredibly proud of the progress we have made during that time and excited about what the future holds.”

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Gift Article
https://wapo.st/3PxEdND

By Susan Svrluga
Susan Svrluga is a reporter covering higher education for The Washington Post. Before that, she covered education and local news at The Post. Twitter https://twitter.com/SusanSvrluga

[spooky3]

2. Radical right wingers are determined to reduce the quality of fine universities. Nt

[Martin68]

5. They see universities as a breeding ground for progressivism. Which, in the tradition of higher

education, they indeed are. Educated people tend to be progressive. That's what the liberal arts always were about.

[underpants]

3. Independent my butt

They are being funded to kick up dust.

[Martin68]

4. Youngkin wants to become president following a path that will attract Trump voters.

He's not the only one. It's the damage he can do while he is governor that bothers me.