Dear University President Scott Beardsley, congratulations on your ascension to the role of University President, and thank you for your eagerness to support our storied institution.
As we are sure you understand, this appointment occurs within a continued and unprecedented crisis — in the past year, the forces of federalization and politicization have risen to stand alongside a concerning corporatization that had already distracted from our educational mission. The University’s former president was ousted by a federal government equally capricious and corrupt, a government we later granted the prerogative of continual investigations. We have been warped into a political football thrown between by competing state political interests — resulting in an incomplete and impugned Board of Visitors and a spectre of dubious legitimacy surrounding their actions, including your appointment. And in the midst of this crisis came a concerning lack of top leadership — at one point, the positions of Chief Executive Officer of U.Va. Health, the University’s Provost and the University President were simultaneously vacant, and with this vacuum came a sense of distress at the thought of who would lead our community.
Most concerning of all — most devastating to those stakeholders experiencing these crises — was the utter lack of transparency with and empathy for our community shaken and disturbed by the circumstances forced upon them.
These are the same circumstances that we on the Editorial Boards have experienced with horror and unease, and these are likewise the conditions of the stormy present under which you assume the presidential office. This cloud of crisis necessitates clear-eyed, principled and empathetic leadership. Moreover, underlined in every action, these circumstances demand the reaffirmation of the educational mission that is at the core of our University — not the triumvirate of corporatization, politicization and federalization that threatens to uproot our institution.
As you declared in your introductory message to our University community, we are bonded by a shared love for this University, a devotion that imbues us all with a common determination to rehabilitate this attacked institution and reemphasize its central educational mission. To this end, we, as the 136th and 137th Editorial Boards, have composed suggestions as you begin your term as our president. We would greatly appreciate your consideration of them.
One facet of former University President Jim Ryan’s leadership that heartened us and other stakeholders was his commitment to caring for and connecting with those in the University community — it was the opening of Carr’s Hill to connect with students, the significant investments of time and money into student organizations and other actions which created an impression of genuine empathy and interest for the community he led. Since his resignation, we have been resoundingly dismayed by the sense that University leadership lacks a similar authentic desire to involve students, faculty and other stakeholders in their decisions and livelihoods. While your promises to listen to stakeholders are amiable, they risk misdiagnosing the community sentiments at hand — earnest engagement is not represented by scheduled listening opportunities, but by an unceasing and unreserved dedication to connecting with community members who presently feel ignored. Only with this genuine empathy and consistent cooperation can we ensure that all University stakeholders are motivated to commit to our educational mission’s ideal of a “collaborative, diverse community.”
Committing to our mission requires more than care for the community, however. Given the federal and state political attempts to exert influence on our University this past year, it demands defending our mission against external impeachments and attacks. For at least the next three years, your leadership must traverse a federal government willing to besmirch the core ideals of education and empowered to reopen investigations into our University at any time. You must also navigate a state government divided over appointments to the Board and funding for our operations. And so, while your pledge to not be a “politically-driven leader” is valuable, it is important to reflect on what this means. Prioritizing our educational mission over politics may mean avoiding internal community debates around political issues. But it also necessitates taking political stances at times, such as signing critical letters that defend our values and protest partisan bodies, when outside political forces threaten to destabilize our educational ideals.
Ensuring our University is protected from damaging attacks is a tall task for any leader — that is why defending our University also demands ensuring that institutional leadership structures are refortified. This year has shown how vacancies in key University positions can weaken both the defense of our University’s mission and the trust in institutional leadership. Therefore, it is important that you take measures, by emphasizing transparent appointment and operational processes like town halls that continually inform and involve the community, to ensure a leadership structure at our University that is simultaneously committed and trusted.
What these suggestions — reaffirming considerate collaboration, defining political engagement and refortifying institutional leadership — have in common is their centrality to ensuring that our educational mission is secured amidst the climate of corporatized, federalized and politicized circumstances polluting our University. Our educational mission stands at the core of our University and the center of our community values, clarifying the need to ensure that the concerning events of the past year do not produce a corrosive new status quo.
Your email to our community ended with a recommitment to our University’s mission — let our letter back to you, President Beardsley, help clarify what we hope this commitment will mean in practice.
Sincerely, the 136th and 137th Editorial Boards.
This has been a joint editorial from the 136th and 137th Editorial Boards. The Cavalier Daily Editorial Board is composed of the Executive Editor, the Editor-in-Chief, the two Opinion Editors, two Senior Associates and an Opinion Columnist. The board can be reached at eb@cavalierdaily.com.
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