Press Conference with Representatives from UVA’s AAUP, United Campus Workers Union, Jewish Faculty, and Student Council
2 changes, most recent 3 months ago
[It would be good to add a general intro statement about what this press conference is about, i.e. complaints against the process followed by BOV in choosing an interim president.]
Prof. Ian Mullins
0:01 Thank you everyone for being here. My name is Ian Mullins. I'm a faculty member in Sociology. I'm also a member of United Campus Workers of Virginia, UVA chapter. I'm going to get us started today by reading a statement that was composed by the faculty committee of United Campus Workers here at UVA.
[Statement as written]
0:19 On Monday August 4, 2025, the University of Virginia (UVA) Board of Visitors (BOV) appointed Paul G. Mahoney, professor and former dean of the UVA School of Law, to serve as Interim President for the University of Virginia.
0:35 This appointment was not an example of shared governance but the result of a closed and exclusionary process masquerading as inclusion. It was designed to pre-screen participation, silence dissent, and provide the appearance — not the reality — of democratic input. Monday, the BOV patted itself on the back for welcoming community feedback, which consisted of setting up a nomination website and hosting several, small listening sessions. However, no information was provided on how feedback was considered — or even if it was, or who was in attendance in those listening sessions or why those individuals were invited. When the process operates without transparency, with haste, and listening session participation is by invitation only and held behind closed doors, it’s not community engagement —it’s gatekeeping, legitimacy laundering, and message management. Faculty, staff, students, and community members were not involved in this process as decision-makers but as props in what seems like a predetermined outcome. This is an unethical betrayal of UVA’s public mission and its longstanding norms of shared-governance.
2:00 Let us be clear: this is not a legitimate process. It is a backroom consolidation of power by a politicized Board of Visitors, installed and emboldened by Governor Youngkin’s partisan agenda. At a time when UVA needs visionary, democratic, and community-rooted leadership, the BOV has chosen secrecy and control.
We Refuse to Be Governed Without Decision-Making Authority
2:29 Our union — the UVA chapter of UCWVA — joins students, faculty, staff, alumni, and community members in rejecting the idea that the University’s future can or should be decided by a handful of unaccountable political appointees. We call on all members of the UVA community to:
- Denounce this appointment as the outcome of an illegitimate process.
- Withhold cooperation from any administrative process not grounded in democratic practices.
- Join the growing movement for real shared governance among faculty, students, staff, and community members in all major decisions.
3:44 The University of Virginia is a world-class public university. It collectively belongs to the people of Virginia and to those who teach here, clean here, study here, heal here, and build here, (to name a few) — not to a partisan Board.
4:02 We will not be silent while this University is reshaped in the service of personal, political, and corporate agendas. We will continue to resist illegitimate power grabs and make sure that UVA is a public institution that serves the public good.
4:17 Any group you are part of, whether affiliated with UVA or not, can declare No Confidence in the BOV. Let us know you are participating with this form, and you can find sample No Confidence language here.
[as delivered]
4:27 You can visit our website, ucwva.org, and select the “Faculty Committee” option in the about us tab and find more information on how.
[as written]
4:44 UVA’s crisis is not over, but a new movement is rising.
We invite all workers, students, and allies to stand with us in making a democratic, just, and public future for this University.
5:00 I'd like to invite Adam Barnes, Electrical and Computer Engineering faculty and member of the Executive Committee for AAUP at UVA to speak next.
Prof. Adam Barnes
[as delivered]
5:12 Thank you.
So, I'm here representing the American Association of University Professors. We advocate for shared governance, transparency, and academic freedom. We've been very concerned about the actions of the Board up to this point and the Department of Justice which have violated those norms, specifically the lack of transparency of the Board of Visitors in the ouster of our previous president Jim Ryan.
5:45 They have given us very little information about how this was conducted, and this gives us pause as to what constraints, either real or perceived, will fall upon the incoming president. The shared governance is going to require all concerned parties be involved. That includes the faculty, not only the ones that are involved in the process but in the process-making itself. These best practices demand a preponderance of faculty in that process, on the selection committee, and those members should be selected by the faculty themselves and not appointed by outside people. This was not done with the interim president, and there's no evidence that it will be done with the incoming president, which leads us to be very concerned for the shared governance and lack of transparency the Board of Visitors is showing.
6:33 We're also very concerned about pressure from the DOJ to dismantle UVA's DEI programs and restrict our curriculum, which flies in the face of academic freedom. Other universities have been forced to sign compliance agreements due to coercion from the federal government. We believe that no compliance agreement should be signed without input from the Faculty Senate, and we cannot agree to any federal overreach that is going to compromise our academic freedom.
7:00 We're also alarmed at the compliance reviews that are currently being conducted by in the School of Nursing and Medicine in a manner that is both secretive and coercive. We need more information about who is funding this, who requested it, why it is being conducted, and why the interviewees have been forced to sign gag orders during the interviews. We would like to emphasize that all faculty members have a right to legal counsel during these interviews, if requested.
7:27 So what have we been doing about this? The AAUP has communicated with the Board of Visitors, the Faculty Senate, and the General Assembly about what the best practices are that need to be followed in order to ensure shared governance, academic freedom and transparency, and what actions need to be followed. For that we have retained legal counsel and are pursuing legal action in order to ensure that those principles are being upheld. And we will continue to do this despite the tactics being taken by the government, because if we don't stand for academic freedom now we will lose it altogether.
8:08 With that, I would like to introduce Manuel Lerdau who is a professor in the Environmental Sciences in biology and who arrived in Charlottesville in 2007.
Prof. Manuel Lerdau
8:25 Thank you very much for coming today.
[remarks as written]
I have been a professor of Environmental Sciences here for eighteen years.
I do not usually talk about my personal life or my religious practices in public.
But these are not usual times.
Today I speak as a Jewish member of the faculty, as a former board member of the one synagogue in this city, and as the father of three children whose college experiences have been affected by the weaponization of antisemitism.
I join my Jewish colleagues here and across the country in standing against using the pretext of protecting Jewish members of the University community from antisemitism as a way to encroach on academic freedom, cause harm to our students and colleagues, and target international students in particular.
9:12 It is said that, if you seek five different opinions, ask three different Jewish people. One of the core Jewish values is to engage with disagreement and protect dissent. On its surface, the Talmud is a commentary on Jewish Law. Beneath the surface, however, it embodies the Jewish commitment to encouraging discussion and respecting the beliefs and words of others. We may not all like the words of students protesting against the ongoing war in Gaza, and they may make us uncomfortable. But there is nothing in the Talmud that says we must be comfortable. We will not, in the name of protecting Jews, stand for the policies and practices that silence dissent and punish disagreement. We will not, in the name of creating a safe space for Jewish members of our community, stand by while criticism of Israel and the Netanyahu government is conflated with antisemitism.
10:04 And let me be very clear. I know from experience that antisemitism is real, it is dangerous, and it is rearing its ugly head now. My father fled Hamburg, Germany, in 1938. He went first to Peru because the U.S. was not accepting Jewish refugees and came to this country in 1949 for graduate school. In 1987 I lived in Israel during the first Intifada, and 30 years later I was in Charlottesville with my children when modern Nazis, led by two UVa alumni, marched on this lawn chanting, “Blood and Soil” and “Jews will not replace us.” If the UVA Board of Visitors is committed to rooting out antisemitism, I implore the Board to support efforts aiming for a diverse, equitable, and inclusive university. Efforts to control universities through supposed concern for antisemitism, when the real effort is to suppress enquiry, exploration, and the independence of universities, should not be done in our name.
11:05 Thanks. I'm now happy to introduce part of the lifeblood of the university, a real student, Clay Dickerson, President of the Student Council.
Mr. Clay Dickerson, President of the UVA Student Council
[as delivered]
11:15 Thank you very much.
Hello.
I appreciate that introduction, thank you very much.
11:26 Students are concerned with how the Board of Visitors is navigating unprecedented threats to the university's autonomy. And quite frankly, student confidence is waning. We have tried to move on from the mystery of President Ryan's resignation.
11:40 In an effort to collaborate in good faith. Student Council representatives passed a resolution which was forwarded to the Director and Vice Director on July 17th, eight days before the public announcement of the Presidential Special Committee. The resolution included a variety of requests, but the spirit was to ensure the Board remains transparent, accountable, and consistent consistently communicative with the student body throughout the presidential transition process.
12:08 Eight days later, without communication, students learned that many of our reasonable requests were not honored, nor were they discussed. We can and we will live with less. And this message is not about remediating what is done, but rather calling for a new path forward.
12:25 Let this serve as a reminder that there are consequences to actions big and small, public and private, and particularly those in the coming days and weeks for the Board of Visitors. My organization and I speak on behalf of the students. The messages we and I convey are reflective of our exceedingly diverse yet unified constituency. I do not as an individual succumb to the political whims of state politicians nor the feelings and desires of faculty or staff… but I will always speak on behalf of the students.
13:04 The student council and Board of Visitors shared the responsibility to improve the rights, opportunities, and quality of life for every student at the University of Virginia. Further, the Board has expressed in its statement of visitor responsibilities its commitment to effective governance defined by a culture of, and I quote, “dedication, diligence, collaboration, teamwork, candor, transparency, and accountability.”
13:28 In the previous weeks, the Board has failed our community of trust by not adhering to these visitor responsibilities. If nothing changes in the time to come, a sustained lack of trust will certifiably lead to further irreparable damage to their relationship with the students.
13:45 On a personal note, when I first assumed my position, I was offered the chance to present to the Board of Visitors my plans for the student council. This was super exciting. It was so meaningful for me, my organization, and the students who saw this as a bridge being built. I mean, I wish I could fully convey the degree of excitement that we all felt from this opportunity… excitement which has since turned to anxiety, and the initial hope which is now materializing as doubt resulting from the Board 's recent conduct.
14:21 The presentation was a staunch reminder that we students aren't alone, or at least that we don't have to be. Let us move forward as one, uniting students of governance with the Board 's shared governance efforts, all while striving to keep the magic alive that makes our university so special.
14:38 Will we stand united, or fall divided? A lifelong question. Right now we find ourselves facing it and the choice is the Board ’s, and we're all watching closely.
14:49 Thank you. Thank you for your time.
[Applause]
Short Q&A with Media
14:56 I think we're going to do a question or two. and then I know some folks here have asked to do interviews separately. If anyone has any questions...
Media 1: I wonder if one of you could comment on the makeup of the speakers [who] just happen to be all white men, and what that indicates perhaps of our current moment?
15:24 Prof. Mullins: So I think the past few years have been very difficult for the UVA community a lot of members who feel more vulnerable are not comfortable speaking out in public. They feel like they will be persecuted, that they will face negative consequences. And those of us that have chosen to show up today, while we share their concerns, we feel like it's our responsibility to be able to stand up here and say the things that other people are finding it difficult to say.
Media 1: Thank you.
15:57 Media 2: You guys spoke a lot about wanting to have shared governance and being kind of in the decision making process for the interim selection and also I’m guessing the permanent selection of the next president. How has it worked in the past? Have faculty and students been more involved, when it came to electing Jim Ryan or previous presidents?
16:20 Prof. Lerdau: I don't have exact numbers, but I have heard discussion that during the that led to President Ryan, the search committee rather than being 28, which it is now, was much smaller, and the faculty representation was much higher. From my reading of the list of 28, there is only one person on that committee who is a faculty member who does not have also an administrative position. One out of 28 is very low representation. That I think is one of the most obvious changes we've seen.
16:56 Media 3: I think too from the outside, obviously the BOV and a lot of most of UVA's leadership has denied comments or time for comments from media. Have you guys from the inside gotten any response to your request from the Board of Visitors or any leadership team at UVA kind of stating how and if you guys will be able to help with this next process?
17:18 Prof. Mullins: So the answer is no. In my various capacities at UVA, I have reached out to the Board of Visitors on numerous occasions and never received a response. I was on the executive committee in June when Jim Ryan, the executive committee of the faculty senate when Jim Ryan resigned. They also did not receive full like participation or were not able to readily communicate with the Board about the process until after the no confidence vote was passed. This Board has largely shut us out of discussion and that's why we demand transparency. We still want to know more about the circumstances that led to Jim Ryan's resignation, and that includes individual Board members involvement in that process. We demand to know what happened in the interim consideration process, and what the information they collected was used for.
And we demand much more transparency in the search for UVA's 10th president. And I know that, in the past, Boards that seek presidents may look like this one, but this is not the past. This is unique set of circumstances where a federal agency has interfered with our independence and the integrity of this institution. We need transparency, and we're demanding more transparency now because of those circumstances than we probably would have in the past.
18:37 Media 4: There's a new class of First Years that had orientation when this saga was unfolding and they'll be here for the semester in a few weeks. Does anyone have a comment on the new UVA that these first years are walking into, and what role they have in figuring out the future together?
18:53 Mr. Dickerson: Yeah, sure. My first thought, and I mentioned this in my statement, but I think there's a unique magic about this place that supersedes any turbulence. I think that, at the end of the day, these students are still coming to a place that is a world-class institution. It is a magical place to be, to live, and to learn. All I would ask of them is to do what they would do what they would have anyways. I feel really optimistic despite the circumstances, but that is simply because I can see the light at the end of the tunnel and I believe in our collective bargaining power. And… as long as those students follow their hearts, and trust their guts, at the end of the day no matter which way they get involved, even if that's just sharing a smile as they're walking down the Lawn… I think spreading positive energy, in an organizing space or in an individual space, I think that they have a part to play in this as well. But you know, it's up to each individual to do so.
19:50 Prof. Lerdau: If I could add to that… I've taught at several different institutions over my career, and UVA students bring something that I haven't seen at the other ones, which is this deep deep concern and care for the institution itself. that institutional concern, when they act on it, and they often do, is incredibly powerful, and I think what I would say to the first years is be aware of how much power you have.
20:24 I think that we might stop with [that]…
20:29 Prof. Michelle Kisliuk: I heard that there will be a teach-in on Labor Day at Noon, to help get the students aware of what's going on. Can you say anything more about that?
20:40 Prof. Mullins: Clay, would you also like to announce the march for the first day?
Mr. Dickerson: Sure.
Prof. Mullins: Okay. Why don't you start with that and then we'll get to Michelle's question.
Paragraph 65 changes
20:47 Mr. Dickerson: Okay.
On the first day of class, there will be a march, a show of unity, at 4:30 [on August 26th] beginning at the Amphitheater… a really exciting opportunity for everyone to get together, to invite these first years, to grad students, to faculty, to staff, [to] anyone and everyone who has a shared love for this place… to come together as one and reignite the flame that was lost over the summer.
So yeah, that'll be 26, 4:30 beginning at the amphitheater.
21:22 Prof. Mullins: There is a coalition that has organized an event for Labor Day that will both connect us and our current struggles to the civil rights movement… as an extension of the civil rights movement… [and] help us understand better the role of labor in this moment. But also call upon the students to help keep this place the place they envisioned attending.
21:46 And relating to the last questions, I know no first year student has asked to come into UVA under these circumstances. It is incredibly unfortunate that these are the circumstances that they have to enter this institution through. But they will be called upon to do great things if they want to preserve the history of this place. And Labor Day will be a great opportunity for those students that want to do just that to show up and figure out how to get involved, and how to meet the moment.
22:12 Prof. Kisliuk: And other Virginia Public [universities] too.
Prof. Mullins: We're hoping that the Labor Day action will be statewide.
Thank you.
Paragraph 71 changes
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The document Ian is referencing is here: https://ucwva.org/who-we-are/university-of-virginia/university-of-virginia-faculty-committee/
To get more UVA information you can:
1. go to “Who We Are” at the top navigation strip
2. click on the “Chapters” option
3. choose UVA
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