Photo by @gmoomaw
As questions continue as to why the University of Virginia removed President Teresa Sullivan last week, the Charlottesville campus is showing more and more of its discontent over the move.
The letters in the photo above are faint, but spelled out in red on the pillars on the portico of Thomas Jefferson’s Rotunda is the word “greed.” The statement could be a reference to University Rector Helen E. Dragas, the head of the school’s Board of Visitors, who told Sullivan that she had enough votes on the 16-member panel to call for Sullivan’s dismissal, though an actual vote was never taken.
Dragas, a Virginia Beach-based developer, was appointed to her position in 2008 by then-Gov. Tim Kaine, who nominated half the current board. Her term is expiring later this year and Gov. Bob McDonnell has not yet indicated whether he will extend Dragas’ tenure. McDonnell has remained all but silent on the uproar at the university, saying only that he would like to see an interim president named quickly.
But other stakeholders in Charlottesville are making plenty of noise. Sullivan was tremendously popular with the faculty, which was furious with her removal. “We had all kinds of projects in the works, things we were trying to do to advance the university,” Virginia provost John Simon told the Post last week.
Perhaps more troubling for the university’s overseers, though, is a revolt by its top donors, several of whom are threatening to withhold funds over Sullivan’s sudden departure. The Post reports today that Hunter Smith, who along with her late husband, Carl, has given U.Va. more than $60 million, says that the school will not get another dime until the Board of Visitors makes some changes.
“I won’t condone what happened. It’s disgraceful,” Smith told the Post.
Jane Batten, whose family has given $170 million—including a $100 million gift in 2007, was a bit more reserved, telling the Post that Sullivan’s ouster, warranted or not, “was handled in the worst possible way that has caused damage to the university.”
Simon, the provost, upped his criticism in a meeting Sunday with 800 faculty members, saying the board’s decision has shaken U.Va. to its honor-bound core. The Post reports:
“I now find myself at a defining moment, confronting and questioning whether honor, integrity and trust are truly the foundational pillars of life at the University of Virginia,” he said, remarks that struck to the heart of the university’s fabled honor code.
And today, the the faculty senate asked Dragas to step down over the flap, Bloomberg Businessweek reports.
As for the vandalism on the fabled Rotunda, mischievous spray-painting is nothing new to the campus. The Beta Bridge, on Rugby Road, is the frequent target of rogue artists. In 2005, students who graffitied the bridge with an image of a woman’s breasts were the subject of a brief FBI investigation.
