Steps in the right direction
For some time now I have been following your campaign for a living wage at the University. I am a professor of American history at the University of Texas in Austin and an alumnus of the University of Virginia where I was an English major in the late sixties. I am writing to you today [...]
Read moreHelping out financial aid
The Board of Visitors Finance Committee’s proposal to reduce the amount of financial aid to out-of-state students would eliminate the minute specks of diversity already existing at the University. Coming from a socioeconomically disadvantaged community in New York City, I have helped shift the University’s student demographics, while also benefitting hugely from the financial aid [...]
Read moreGetting schooled
I am the School of Continuing and Professional Studies representative on Student Council, but let me emphasize that I do not speak for that body; rather, I speak to you as a full-time University employee, probably the only primary stakeholder in this entire discussion of a living wage. Jared Brown, in an email which I [...]
Read moreWho is a person?
The Virginia legislature’s House Bill 1 would define a fertilized egg as a person and House Bill 462 will force women to submit to an invasive, transvaginal ultrasound without their consent before seeking an abortion. A personhood law like HB1 was voted down by the citizens of Mississippi last fall because the law has far-reaching [...]
Read moreStaying on target
I want to respond to your column by Sam Carrigan on drone warfare (“Attack of the drones”) in the Friday, Feb. 10 issue of The Cavalier Daily. A bit of personal introduction beforehand: I graduated from the University in 1972 and served in the army until 1992 in Special Forces and intelligence assignments around the [...]
Read moreThe stars of track and field
I would like to point out to the writers of the Sports section that there are major Olympic sports currently underway at the University. There have been a couple track and field meets this season already, and there have been a multitude of great marks set on both sides, men’s and women’s. On the men’s [...]
Read moreLaid off
The nation has been abuzz of late concerning new legislation which would mandate employers fork over the cost for their employee’s contraception. Somehow, this debate has steered its way into the religious arena. It seems some employers — namely, certain Christians — are morally opposed to the use of contraceptives and have said this new [...]
Read moreForgivable debts
The idea that one has a moral obligation to demand a living wage for University workers is simply false. Jason Hickel made the argument (“A hard bargain,” Feb. 10) that to receive a University degree “in good conscience,” one must push for increased wages. What Hickel and many others in the Living Wage Campaign do [...]
Read moreAsking the wrong questions
The past few editions of The Cavalier Daily have been distressing to me, with all the stories surrounding the current crisis in higher education. Between the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s efforts to teach their courses online, the free online content of The Faculty Project, President Sullivan pressing against Gov. Bob McDonnell’s limit on using in-state [...]
Read moreA native history
Edward Rothstein’s Jan. 27 review in The New York Times of the new National Museum of American History’s exhibit, “Slavery at Jefferson’s Monticello: Paradox of Liberty,” notes that American Indians, indentured servants and women need a separate historical examination than that offered by the Smithsonian exhibit, which is also opening at Monticello. How I wish [...]
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