Editorials/Columns
The current push for a conduct policy at U.Va. follows dissension within the governing board, which forced President Teresa Sullivan to resign in 2012, then reversed itself amid public outcry. Helen Dragas, a Virginia Beach businesswoman and then-rector of the board, led that coup. After being reappointed to the board, she has correctly – and quite publicly – opposed changes to the school's financial aid program, among other policy decisions. Rather than fight speech with more speech, some board members appear intent on quashing dissent. That would transform the governing board into a monolith rather than highlight the diversity of leaders, each of whom carries unique expertise, perspective and life experiences. While that may burnish U.Va.'s image in the short-term, it would come at the expense of its far more important traditions and principles.
Virginian-Pilot
It appears that some people at the University of Virginia are in dire need of an education. That would start with the board of visitors. Today, we’ll take out our own metaphorical board of education – what used to be called the whipping stick — and try to beat some common sense into the visitors. Here goes: This isn’t the board of a private corporation, where any dissent might hurt stock values, or even a private college, which can pretty well do as it pleases up to a certain point. This is a public institution, and therefore what the board does is the public’s business. Put another way, the board is visitors of a state university isn’t like the board of directors of a business. It’s really a mini-legislature, and anyone accepting an appointment to the board should understand that. The draft “statement of expectations” is rooted in this faulty concept: “The Board of Visitors strives to function as a cohesive corporate entity … . No Visitor is or should be a free agent.” Yet that is exactly what each visitor should be, within the usual bounds of propriety (meaning, OK, one or two board members can’t fire the president on their own.)
Roanoke Times
Text messages sent on a private telephone between Maureen McDonnell, wife of Bob McDonnell, and businessman Johnnie Williams are key evidence in the corruption trial of the former Virginia governor, according to the Washington Post. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s aides also produced text messages in the “Bridgegate” investigation, again using private telephones. Just like email, text messages can be preserved and produced. Federal employees are required to preserve text messages concerning official business. It was in this context that I recently received a Friday afternoon document production under a FOIA lawsuit I and colleagues at the Competitive Enterprise Institute filed seeking nothing but text messages. After EPA claimed none existed, McCarthy admitted through the Department of Justice that she had in fact deleted each and every one of her many thousands of texts on her EPA-provided phone. The texts EPA produced on Friday prove that EPA's IT system does not automatically delete text messages; that is, for messages not to be there now, they had to be deleted from the system.
Christopher Horner, Washington Examiner |