Monthly Archive for June, 2012

Page 4 of 6

Kluge Dismissed from Her Own Winery

Published by Waldo Jaquith on June 18, 2012 in In Brief. 2 Comments

Billionaire Wants Us to “Aspire to Greatness”

Published by Waldo Jaquith on June 17, 2012 in In Brief. 5 Comments

Billionaire UVA donor Paul Jones is doubling down on his jackassery with an editorial in today’s Progress. Fun fact: Jefferson would have fired Sullivan, too. #

Casteen Angry with BOV

Published by Waldo Jaquith on June 16, 2012 in In Brief. 3 Comments

Former UVA president John Casteen is pissed off at the Board of Visitors. #

Post: Sullivan Canned for Not Cutting Spending

Published by Waldo Jaquith on June 16, 2012 in UVa. 28 Comments

Just a week after Teresa Sullivan abruptly announced her resignation, details are tumbling out now. The latest dump of information comes from Daniel de Vise and Anita Kumar at the Washington Post, from which we learn:

Rector Helen Dragas wanted to see Sullivan make big cuts, eliminating some programs entirely, which Sullivan would not do. In the big-picture sense, Dragas thinks UVA needs a president who is more like a Fortune 500 CEO.
Dragas’ campaign to push out Sullivan began last October, working with vice rector Mark Kington and Darden’s Peter Kiernan.
Sullivan was given a verbal performance evaluation by Dragas and Kington in November, in which she was told that she was doing a good job, but needed to do better.
When Sullivan was forced to quit, a week ago Friday, it was by Dragas and Kington making a surprise visit to Madison Hall, where they told her that they had fifteen votes (all but one member of the Board of Visitors) to remove her; Sullivan was speechless.
Dragas instructed Sullivan to move out of Carr’s Hill by the end of July, rather than by her last day, August 15.
Sullivan has lawyered up.
Sullivan will be addressing the BOV on Monday, but they’re only willing to hear from her if the meeting is private.

Many people (myself included) assumed that Sullivan was being brought in precisely for the purpose of cutting spending. That, in the face of a bad economy, her role would be to eliminate departments, lay people off, and generally make enemies for the sake of financial stability. Then, after a few years went by and the economy rebounded, she’d move on, and the BOV could hire a long-term president. Obviously, that proved to be the opposite of Sullivan’s plan.

Major Donor Responsible for Sullivan’s Dismissal?

Published by Waldo Jaquith on June 16, 2012 in UVa. 25 Comments

Further to the question of the identity of the “two important Virginia alums” who Darden’s Peter Kiernan says he worked with on the “project” of ousting President Teresa Sullivan, The Hook’s Courteney Stuart has done some digging. Her sources and the available evidence point to UVA donors and billionaires Paul and Sonia Jones as the two in question. You’ll know his name for the John Paul Jones Arena, for which he donated $35M. (Remember when UVA really wanted us to call the JPJ “the Jack”? I’m glad that didn’t pan out.) The university recently announced that Jones gave $12M to establish a “contemplative center”—which proposes to solving world problems through yoga, or some such new-age nonsense. With UVA’s capital campaign having fallen $400M of its $3B goal, Jones was seen as a potential $100M donor, money that he may well not have given as long as Sullivan remained at the helm.

There’s neither a confession nor a smoking gun at this point, but Stuart may well have broken through to the cause of Sullivan’s dismissal.