Sullivan: 'It seemed fine to me'

This whole UVA scene is repulsive. Let the board and president move forward. You are all a bunch of people with nothing better to do. You got your president back. Now get over yourselves before you ruin the University completely.

Agree! About time someone said something nice about Helen Dragas. I'm from Va. Beach and she is well loved here. Known to be fair and trustworthy. I guarantee you that Sullivan wasn't doing her job properly and everyone in the know wanted her out. I'm sure that Dragas was just trying to save Sullivan the embarrassment of a full vote and there was nothing secretive about it. They are all willing to move on, if all the idiots in c-ville would let them.

My bet is he was a good guy doing his job well. Honest. Probably too honest to save his neck.

Logan my instincts tell me you are a family member of Helen , that would explain your lack of perspective. Suullivan survived because tens of thousands of UVA affiliated folks spoke out .
Where have you been ?

All the hype about UVA is overrated anyway.

Please take a moment to look at the letter written by 14 prominent UVA Alums requesting a Corporate Governance Review of the events this past June. Members of the UVA community are adding their signatures as a show of support on this petition: http://www.change.org/petitions/board-of-visitors-university-of-virginia...

Logan, it is "incremental," not "incrimental." I enjoy spotting spelling errors that are not the result of typing mistakes. And please squelch the Mrs. Dragas--Mother Teresa comparison. They have similar necks, that's about it.

R.I.P.: Ron Pallilo

Please! Whatever sharp, angry retort you are tempted to make, please walk away from your keyboard until you are calm. Your "smart" remarks do not add insight or intelligence but simply contribute to division. Regardless of how you feel about either party, both are trying to be civil. Please follow their examples.

I don't understand this piece. Is Sullivan quoted as saying,"information flowed like drinking water from a fire hose" and being described as dominating the meeting? So she was the fire hose? In what way did she dominate the resignation of Michael Strine? There was no meeting. Explain, Hawes.

Hill & Knowlton in da house yo!

@Logan: "You are all pitiful. And the whole problem with your school is the tenured faculty that wants to sit on their behind and do nothing in an incrimental fashion"

Incremental -- yes -- and proud of collective, consistent success for the past 900 years. What other industry can boast that?

@ Logan (Anderson with Hill & Knowlton PR firm representing Dragas) - oops 'id' should be IP address! sheesh!

@ Logan - Dear, you need professional help and meds.

The above comments are a clear indication of why Helen Dragas must be removed from the BOV. Every time her name appears with UVa in the vicinity tempers flare. She has created an atmosphere of distrust and vitriol that not even the star PR firm of Hill and Knowlton can remedy.

@Kind Campaign, the views of the 14 alumni are shared by many more. Dragas and Co. were trying to undermine the foundation of the university. In the business world, they would have been fired. They need to display some honor and integrity and resign so the University can truly move forward.

Dragas has undermined the UVA leadership repeatedly and yet won't resign. Why?

Why doesn't Dragas hold an open press conference and explain her actions regarding President Sullivan so that we can all understand?

Understanding is the stepping stone to progression. Today, UVA stands still with so many questions regarding Dragas' decisions. If the UVA's prominent professor's intelligence is worth its weight, the vetting of truth will continue.

Carry on professors, and side with truth & transparency; otherwise, what is to be believed at the UVA?

Censure is what Dragas represents. Please release emails that support you or talk live via press conference to the faculty, friends, alumni and students. Have some UVA pride. You make us look foolish.

H. Dragas, please look back to when you were a student. Is this the outcome you would have wanted?

@ Logan - Why would anyone consider these posts "worthless"? I have learned that serious debate (at times, sidelined by PR posts) rests here. Thank you UVA!

I applaud the Hook for not censuring comments! Well done Hook!

Please continue...

@blinky I think the facts reveal the opposite. Without a balance of power ( tenured faculty) the University would be run like Enron.

"that not even the star PR firm of Hill and Knowlton can remedy."

Aheh...IF - and I think there's a good chance this person isn't - today's troll(s) are from H&K, they definitely aren't the star talent.

@ Nancy Drew. Tens of thousands of people????? Now I know you must be an Obama supporter to exaggerate your figures like that. We had a couple of thousand people on the lawn (maybe) and only a few people actually spoke out. Tons of people have commented on why Sullivan should not have been forced out. What I have not heard is why she should stay.

Sullivan is also "the Elite"-just the kinder, gentler brand.

After all this time I don't care what the Rector or the rest of the BOV has to say. It is time for the BOV to listen to the Alumni and the faculty. Dragas should be long gone. No I am not an employee of UVA, I am a Grad and a member of the Alumni assoc. and a former donor.

@outragedalumna - clearly you have missed the point. Why should Sullivan stay? What has she done? Again, all I hear is why Dragas should be forced to leave because her beliefs are not the same as yours. The argument for Sullivan to stay focuses on the WAY she resigned, not that she resigned.

@outragedalumna - yes I graduated from a University with a much better reputation than UVA. Again, you have failed to answer the question "Why should Sullivan stay?" and instead resorted to the typical response from Liberals to evade the question and resort to personal attacks. Bravo and thank you for proving my point.

FAT cats, all of them,granted some fat cats are better than others-nor can we all be mice

Why should Sullivan stay? Because an overwhelming majority want her to stay and she does have the experience and know how to run an academic institution. Dregas as it has been pointed out asked her to resign claiming she had the majority of the BOV to vote her out - it was a claim with no vote, no fact to it at all. Not unlike George W's claim of Iraq having "chemicals of mass destruction" which there were none then. (I only mention that because it is a fact - not to state anything political here at all.)

And Logan, since I will quote you: "The intelligent don't get on these sights. I have learned my lesson. A worthless bunch you all are."

And that makes you?

BTW - Intelligence has nothing to do with education or the degree or where you received the degree if any, you obtained. I've known PhDs who couldn't verbalize a coherent sentence much more write them. I've known MBAs who are clueless too. I've seen resumes from graduates from Ivy League schools that appeared to be written by 10 year olds. I've seen people who graduated from schools I attended, I'm embarrassed they did. I've seen people who graduated from schools elsewhere - they should be embarrassed they did.

Point - Jobs, Gates and Zuckerberg never obtained degrees but I venture to guess all of us here would love to have their wealth. Degree or not, if I met any of those three, I would pay very close attention to every thing they stated.

@outragedalumna - Once again you fail to give any performance reasons why Sullivan should stay, you fail to mention one single achievement, and like a true liberal, you begin with an insult. However, if you would like to have a debate on any issue, name the time and place.

I'm not faculty. Strine was not a good guy. Dragas is just a puppet. Sullivan?!?
What a stage? Oscar winning performance.
I'm trying to get over myself but this Greek tragedy prevents me from doing so.

LOL - mort de rire

Again, no issues are discussed. No mention of students or patients.

Dragas, please throw in the towel for the greater good and not your ego.

Dragas must resign. Dragas is a drain on UVA resources. Dragas has not proven to be an effective leader. Her actions wer covert at best. This is not the way for the leader of BoV to behave. Dragas has been the source of the demise and negativity at UVA.

Proven leaders stand on merit. I see no merit with regard to Dragas. Helen Dragas needs to throw in the towel and understand that her actions are frowned upon by the majority at UVA.

President Sullivan is completely aware of student, faculty, patient, alumni, and citizen needs. She has a comprehensive plan involving many non-voting members at the BoV. Miller, for one, is completely on President Sullivan's side.

President Sullivan was BULLIED by Dragas to resign. Facts are facts. President Sullivan is the UVA.

Rector Dragas cannot be trusted.

Dragas is not who I want representing one of the best universities in the nation. Who is allowing this miscarriage of justice? The majority of people in the state of Virginia want Rector Dragas gone. Why is she still remaining on the secretive BoV at UVA?

If Hellen Dragas cared about the UVA, she would resign. Why does she think anything will change with her on the board of visitors? It won't. Everyone on the BoV for UVA is walking on eggshells. Everyone.

Dragas is of grave concern to me, and will continue to be under the microscope because she cannot be trusted.

Non-Resident Taxpayor wrote: "Online classes have been in the works for nearly 2 decades."

Change doesn't always occur overnight, but, really, don't you think that is just a little slow? Let's get on with it!

I posted the link to the live stream incorrectly. It is streaming live at http://ustre.am/NuU5

@Logan and Kind Campaign

In acknowledging your interest in focusing on the actual issues, consider the full text of President Sullivan's May 3 memo, full text here:

http://www2.dailyprogress.com/mgmedia/file/782/sullivan-strategy-memo/

Remember, Sullivan had been President for fewer than 2 years. However, under her leadership, U.Va. posted its second highest fundraising month in history in December 2011.

Regarding discussing the issues and what President Sullivan has done, please consider the following, as recounted by the Daily Progress (and also covered by the Washington Post and Richmond Times-Dispatch):

As controversy about the “philosophical differences” that led to Teresa A. Sullivan’s ouster as president at the University of Virginia continued to swirl Wednesday, a memo written by Sullivan in May appeared to shed some light, at least, on what her philosophy was.

In the memo, Sullivan provides blunt talk about the state of the university and what she thinks needs to be done, strategically. She notes that there are already reviews of the UVa Health System and the financial aid program AccessUVa underway. And while there’s been much faculty criticism of comments from Rector Helen E. Dragas, her words do touch on some topics that Sullivan also covers in the May 3 memo to Dragas and Vice Rector Mark Kington.

“At the time of my appointment, I was explicitly instructed not to do a strategic plan for the academic program,” she wrote. “The university had already conducted a series of strategic plans, and the faculty were said to be fatigued and discouraged by the lack of follow-through on those plans.”

The university had plans created in 2002 and 2008, she wrote.

She identified five “strategically important” issues: the budgetary model, faculty hiring, a reputation gap, fragile “top-ten” standing of some schools and departments, and curricular issues. She also wrote that, while it was not a “strategic” issue, there was a lot of “routine organizational maintenance” to be done, revamping and streamlining policies to cut red tape and improve efficiency.

In remarks made to a collection of university officials and released to the public, Dragas said the board is facing a variety of challenges. Among the issues she brought up: resource allocation, faculty compensation, fundraising (“development efforts”), online education and rankings.

Dragas had this to say about how the university handles its money: “The pace of change in higher education and in health care has accelerated greatly in the last two years. We have calls internally for resolution of tough financial issues that require hard decisions on resource allocation.”

Sullivan wrote that the University of Virginia needed a new budgetary model. (She and her top lieutenants had been implementing a new model in the months leading up to her unseating.)

“The highly-centralized decision-making fostered by the current model frustrates planning, innovation, and collaboration, while hardening silos,” Sullivan wrote.

She added, “If we do not get the resources aligned appropriately with the academic vision, then we will lose our competitive edge in the years to come.”

Dragas identified faculty recruitment and compensation as another “existential threat” to the school.

“The compensation of our valued faculty and staff has continued to decline in real terms, and we acknowledge the tremendous task ahead of making star hires to fill the many spots that will be vacated over the next few years as our eminent faculty members retire in great numbers.

Sullivan viewed faculty hiring, recruitment, retention, the reputation gap and the fragile status of some programs’ rankings as inter-related problems.

“It is true that we have some international ‘star’ quality faculty, but many fewer than most of our peer institutions,” Sullivan wrote. “Rather than relying on a star system, Virginia has achieved its rankings through strong teams of faculty, and the whole has been greater than the sum of its parts.”

She added, “This is a financial problem, but it cannot be reduced to only a financial problem. Making the right hires is critical.”

A wave of retirements is coming at UVa and at other schools, and competition for talent will be intense, she wrote. The search and recruitment processes needed to be improved, she wrote.

“We face a special challenge in hiring new faculty,” she wrote. “Every institution says that it prizes teaching, but the university really does. Virginia’s unique undergraduate experience cannot be maintained with the average PhD being produced in American universities.”

She proposed the university search for innovative ways of encouraging teaching abilities for young academics.

Sullivan referred to a “reputation gap.”

“In a number of critical areas we are reputed to be better than we actually are,” she wrote.

Traditionally, the strength of the university has been in the humanities and the professional schools, she wrote.

“The more recent emphasis on science and engineering is interpreted in some quarters as a sign that we will no longer cherish our traditional strengths, and recent political attacks on universities reinforce this fear. Meanwhile, our need to improve [science, technology, engineering and math] fields persists,” she wrote.

Those departments with fragile top-ten statuses have seen their situation weakened by the university’s inability to keep faculty salaries for the best academics competitive with those offered at peer institutions, Sullivan’s memo states.

“It must be candidly admitted that some of the fields that bring us the greatest distinction are not those in which most people would today invest (e.g., Spanish, English, Religious Studies),” Sullivan wrote. “In some of these units, our reputation is derived from a small number of faculty, rending the reputation of those units particularly vulnerable to the outside recruitment of a single person or a few departures of senior leaders.”

Sullivan wrote that UVa’s choice to remain small meant it would have to push collaboration to stay competitive.

Dragas also mentioned the university’s stature in the world of academia.

“We want UVa to remain in that top echelon of universities well into the 21st century and beyond,” she said.

She said the board wants a “bold leader who can help develop, articulate, and implement a concrete and achievable strategic plan to re-elevate the university to its highest potential.”

Dragas was direct in approach to online education: “We also believe that higher education is on the brink of a transformation now that online delivery has been legitimized by some of the elite institutions.”

Sullivan also thought the curriculum had some issues. This was where she addressed the idea of technology in the classroom. Such problems are usually for the faculty to resolve, but there was room for the administration to “be helpful,” she wrote.

“We currently lavish many resources on first-year and second-year courses, even though increasingly our students come to us having already completed substantial portions of the traditional lower-division curriculum.”

Students often arrive at the school with credits from various advanced high school classes or dual enrollment programs with community colleges.

Sullivan advocated shifting faculty attention more heavily to upper-level courses.

She thought lower-level courses would be a good place to use “hybrid courses and problem-based approaches.”

“Hybrid courses will be common for introductory courses, providing online resources for students to review material (such as math modules) and also providing asynchronous means to complete the introductory courses that other students will have completed in high school,” she wrote in a section in which she imagined the university of the future.

And she wanted to get more specific about what fields the university tried to add or strengthen.

Dragas also addressed fundraising, though Sullivan did not directly address it at any length.

“We need a leader who is able to passionately convey a vision to our community, and effectively obtain gifts and buy-in towards our collective goals,” Dragas said.

As you note, Dragas may be a respected and revered business person and philanthropist in the Hampton Roads region. It is a very different ballgame, though, in Charlottesville and at the University of Virginia.

Sullivan vs. Dragas is a non-comparison, non-competition. It's not even close. This is Sullivan's stock and trade, and she does extraordinarily well at it.

Dragas is out of her element in her role as Rector, and while it is no crime for someone to be in over-her-head as is Dragas, her woeful performance is problematic at best.

You could also reference Helen Dragas's 10 point statement from June. Look it up. It is amazing.

@ Logan - Not amazing. Let me know when Dragas resigns.

Today, Dragas got her term extended to 3 years instead of 2. I hope the General Assembly will vote her out.

Dragas would not visit the question about adding a faculty BoV with voting rights. I thought Dragas was going to resign?

Unfortunately you are all a bunch of frustrated miserables bent on hurling insults at fine, upstanding leaders. I will not be posting again or be any part of such a sad affair. Best of luck to you all.

@Logan I believe you are a bit histrionic in calling a large community frustrated miserables. Perhaps you know a different Dragas than the one who arranged a coup that failed. Fine, but you do not seem to be a Charlottesville resident so stop generalizing about people here. Dragas has provided no answers and hollow platitudes. UVa is a public institutition and in that spirit many members of the UVa community are seeking a genuine statement from her.

@Citizen Party - Dragas' decisions are not about faculty retention and recruitment. Dragas' decisions today are about Dragas. Further, the President of UVA is responsible for retention and recruitment. What a terrible position Dragas has placed Dr. Sullivan.

Dragas is the obstacle in terms of retention and recruitment.

Dragas' actions have proven the board of visitors secretive and untrustworthy.

Further, the president's hands are tied. She must comply with Dragas' demands, yet, retain and recruit the best of the best in faculty. Really? Reality is that the quality of faculty will diminish because of the rector. The cost of diminishing returns is upon us.

If I were faculty, I would seek employment elsewhere. Dr. Sullivan will be fired because she will not be able to retain and recruit based on Dragas' performance requirements and the fact that most intelligent profs in the country will not work under a BoV governed by Dragas.

Dragas won't give up on getting rid of President Sullivan. Dragas won't resign even if she brings down the UVA with her. That would be too risky for me. No transparency, no explanation...just a "let's move forward"? I think not.

Dragas must resign or she is risking a better future for UVA.

@Dragas - Spanier may need a job. He is good at keeping secrets too! You two would work well together.

Could this be a former rector speaking?? Rumor has it....

Rumor turning to fact. Gathering information...

According to Forbes, Aug. 1, 2012, University of Virginia is ranked #1! And Dragas wanted Dr. Sullivan's resignation because were #1 according to Forbes ranking report published 8/1/2012? Karma Dragas. Dragas needs to resign.

Forbes, America's Top Colleges
August 1, 2012
By Michael Noer

more from the Forbes Ranking by Michael Noer, Aug.1, 2012:

..."Rounding out the top ten are the University of Chicago (#4), a place where undergraduates say “fun comes to die,” West Point (#7), whose cadets pay no tuition, although they must serve on active duty in the U.S. Army post-graduation, Pomona College (#9), one of the seven Claremont Colleges in Southern California and Swarthmore (#10). Excluding service academies, there are five public schools in the top 50,

with the University of Virginia (#36) being the highest ranked."

Dragas increased her term as rector for a 3rd year, but cannot increase UVA BoV to include ONE voting member from the faculty? Is this true? This is not the way to manage a U.

From: WashingtonPost.com
Posted at 03:34 PM ET, 08/12/2012
At peak of crisis, calls for Helen Dragas to resign
By Jenna Johnson and Donna St. George

"The University of Virginia released more than 1,200 pages of e-mails and other documents Friday that contained hundreds of calls from alumni, faculty and others for the leader of the governing board, Rector Helen E. Dragas, to resign."

My ip address is not linked to hill and knowlton. Another untruth in a long line .

Dragas must resign. Dragas is out of her league. She has placed the UVA President in a very awkward position. Why should Dr. Sullivan be subjected to watching her back because of some ill-advised person? Why should Dr. Sullivan have to mince words and require Dragas' approval for anything and everything she says, writes, ...? That's right, Dr. Sullivan must have Dragas' approval before she can do anything on behalf of UVA. Why? It should be the other way around...Dragas is the catalyst for failure.

@Chris & EM - Who cares? Why are you defending yourselves? Pretty stupid! IMO...if you have nothing to contribute to this posting, why do you subject yourselves to scrutiny?

UVA Fan2 is a complete nutcase who goes by the name of Michael Sutton, S Jones and a host of other complete'y transparent aliases . He/she should be disregarded. The claim of being able to see ip address is one that although completely ridiculous, is a trick he had tried to pull several times. That said, there were several posters early on in this fiasco who made comments to the Washington Post's site that were obviously being paid to make them and more than a few on this site that were suspicious to say the least. Elizabeth Mendenhall is one whose posts have always been questionable.

Logan Anderson is definitely working for Helen Dragas. She/he does not criticize Dragas but has posts where she takes cheap shots at BOV members who were known to stand up to Dragas.

Fact : there are Real individuals that feel Sullivan should be replaced
Fact: there are Real individuals ( not many ) who admire Dragas . Probably family members .

If the posts involve personal attacks the Logan Anderson is an alum who lives in Lynchburg.

There are larger issues than Dragas personally resigning. How did she get appointed? Who does she represent? Who is not represented on the BOV? How come the BOV is dominated by 1%ers? Why is the Legislature not funding UVA and other public institutions fully and fairly?

How can we make these things happen?

correction: Dragas, remove "an incompetent leader"