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​Don’t just focus on Sullivan

When evaluating our administration, students should look closely at all administrators, not just the president

With discussion of whether University President Teresa Sullivan’s contract will be renewed and the plethora of issues that have received national attention this year, many at U.Va. have voiced disapproval of or support for Sullivan as our president. But this focus on Sullivan, while important, has overshadowed the importance and relevance of other administrators — administrators who directly impact issues like sexual assault, race relations and other problems facing our student body.

Earlier this month, University alumna Jenny Wilkinson penned an op-ed for The New York Times on her experience filing a complaint with the Sexual Misconduct Board in the late 1990s. At her University hearing, Wilkinson’s case came before “a five-person panel of faculty, university staff members and current students.” One has to wonder — how many of those faculty and staff members are still at our University? And what has their role been in facilitating needed change in our sexual misconduct policy?

Patricia Lampkin, vice president and chief student affairs officer, started her job in 2002; prior to that, she served as interim vice president for 15 months, and prior to that she served as associate vice president for student affairs for six years. Her work for the University dates back to 1979. Dean of Students Allen Groves started his position in 2007, and though he came into this position after spending 16 years as a lawyer, prior to that in the 1990s he worked as area coordinator for 11 first-year dorms under Lampkin, who was then the associate dean of students. Nicole Eramo, associate dean of students and chair of the SMB, has been involved with the board since 2004 and became chair in 2006. Deans in other areas have been in their positions for similar amounts of time, with deans in the Office of Diversity and Equity and the Office of African-American Affairs dating back to the early 2000s, and dating back in other positions at the University as far as the 1980s.

This is not to comment on the work of the administrators mentioned above. But the intense scrutiny of Sullivan — who has only been at the University since 2010 — begs an important question: where is that same scrutiny of other administrators who have been here much longer and whose impact is, in many ways, much more significant to the lives of students?

Certainly, the question of Sullivan’s contract renewal is incredibly significant and will have an impact on students’ lives. But, since the president of the University is, in many ways, beholden to the Board of Visitors, and since that role is much more geared toward fundraising, those whose work actually affects students are at other rungs of the University’s administration. How the vice president and chief student affairs officer interacts with student groups — and with the administrators below her — has a much more obvious impact. And if we have seen over time that University policies have not significantly improved, we should look to those who propose policy changes and inform the president’s decisions — not just the president herself.

Scrutiny is merited at all levels of the University bureaucracy, and it would be a disservice to the work of others to focus all of our frustration or praise on one specific administrator.

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