Graduate Students for a Better UVa and No Confidence in GSAS Council

Leave a reply

Hoos University is teaming up with Graduate Students for a Better UVa to advocate for the interests and needs of graduate students in the wake of GSAS tuition increases, health insurance premium and deductible increases, and the elimination of dissertation year fellowship funding. Please visit change.org and sign the petition, which reads as follows:

In March 2013 graduate student tuition was increased for advanced doctoral candidates by 434 percent, and for masters students by 7.5 (in-state) and 4.5 (out of-state) percent, without GSAS Council holding a single open meeting or town hall to discuss these changes. By their own admission, GSASC knew these changes were coming for over a year.

In the same month adjustments to health insurance were made that mean a 5.8 percent premium increase during the 2013-2014 academic year, with a number of other changes to the policy which will result in significantly higher out-of-pocket expenses for students who seek medical care. In response, GSASC sent out a survey to certain graduate students asking which of the less comprehensive and more expensive healthcare options they preferred. Again, no meeting nor town hall was held. In fact, graduate students were notified of this survey by GSASC approximately 12 hours before the council’s deadline for comments.

In May 2011 GSAS eliminated both the Faculty Senate and GSAS dissertation-year fellowships, thereby ending the only University-wide fellowship support for graduate students beyond their funded years. GSASC did not respond to these changes.

Sign the petition at Change.org.

You Can Help Defeat Confirmation of Helen Dragas for Another Term on The Board of Visitors

1 Reply

You Can Help Defeat Confirmation of Helen Dragas for Another Term on The Board of Visitors

On Tuesday afternoon, January 15, at 4:00 pm, the Virginia Senate Privileges and Elections Committee meets in Richmond.  The committee will vote on whether to recommend confirmation of Helen Dragas for another term on UVa’s Board of Visitors.  (The link to the senate resolution is below.)

General Assembly members respond to voters in their districts.  Members of the UVa community have the capacity to deluge their senators with emails stating that Helen Dragas should not serve a second term on the Board of Visitors because she is harming UVa’s reputation, integrity, faculty recruiting, and essential working relationships.

Constituents’ views matter!

The University community has two opportunities between now and Tuesday to block Ms. Dragas’s confirmation in committee.

Therefore, please:

(1)   Circulate word that UVa students, their parents, and their friends WHO ARE VIRGINIA RESIDENTS should email their senators to oppose Ms. Dragas’s confirmation.

  • ·         The email to use is posted at hoosuniversity.org.  It’s designed to be downloaded and customized.
  • ·         Students can use the map and the link to the Virginia Senate (scroll down to see both) to identify their senator.
  • ·         Download the email form at hoosuniversity.org, customize it, and email it to your senator on Sunday or Monday.  We want the senators to have these emails by very early Tuesday morning.
  • ·         Then enlist your parents and friends WHO LIVE IN VIRGINIA to do likewise.

(2)   Encourage UVa students, faculty, and friends who are able (and do not have Tuesday afternoon classes) to travel to Richmond to attend the 4 pm meeting of the Senate Privileges and Elections Committee.

  • ·         Wear stickers or buttons opposing Helen Dragas’s confirmation.
  • ·         Support those who are allowed to speak against confirmation.
  • ·         Be sure to exercise decorum, but make your presence known.

Look for updates at hoosuniversity.org.

Time is short.  The cause is just, and very important to UVa’s success in the next four years.  “For here we are not afraid to follow truth wherever it may lead.”

Source materials:

Virginian-Pilot editorial urging that Helen Dragas’s confirmation be blocked (her hometown newspaper):  http://hamptonroads.com/2012/12/solution-uvas-woes

Times-Dispatch story on Sens. Howell’s and Favola’s opposition to confirmation:  http://www.timesdispatch.com/news/more-lawmakers-oppose-dragas/article_9f6addd7-89df-52d5-880f-5bf6ba1c2fb3.html

Times-Dispatch letter to the editor:  http://www.timesdispatch.com/opinion/your-opinion-letters/letters-to-the-editor/article_061c6e80-d2ed-54cd-ab4c-cc4faba2d65e.html

Washington Post op-ed:  http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/a-chance-to-turn-the-page-at-u-va/2012/12/28/3d243abc-505a-11e2-839d-d54cc6e49b63_story.html

Link to Senate Joint Resolution 324 (scroll down to find Helen Dragas’s name in the UVa appointments):  http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?131+ful+SJ324

Link to Senators’ contact information:  http://apps.lis.virginia.gov/sfb1/Senate/TelephoneList.aspx)

Map of Virginia Senatorial Districts:

VASenatePlan11

http://ballotpedia.org/wiki/images/VASenatePlan11.jpg

Senate Privileges and Elections Committee’s 15 Members

(Bios and of the senators and the areas they represent here: http://apps.lis.virginia.gov/sfb1/Senate/TelephoneList.aspx)

Mark Obenshain - committee chair - R -attorney (Washington & Lee; not sure of his position on Dragas):district26@senate.virginia.gov

Janet Howell – D -  strongly opposing Ms. Dragas - district32@senate.virginia.gov

Steve Martin – R – insurance and financial services (not sure of his position on Dragas) - district11@senate.virginia.gov

Creigh Deeds – D – strongly opposes Dragas - district25@senate.virginia.gov

Phillip Pucket – D – Bank VP of Business Development; has said he will support Dragas –  district38@senate.virginia.gov

John Edwards – D – attorney - district21@senate.virginia.gov  (not sure of his position on Dragas)

Donald McEachin – D – attorney (UVA Law) – Democratic Caucus Chair (not yet decided regarding Dragas) - district09@senate.virginia.gov

Chap Peterson – D – attorney (UVA Law) - district34@senate.virginia.gov (legislative assistant says he is undecided but he hasn’t heard from many of his constituents)

Ralph Smith – R – CEO of own firm – former mayor of Roanoke - district19@senate.virginia.gov (has said he will support Dragas)

Ralph Northam – D – Medical Dr. (child neurologist – Eastern VA Med. School) - district06@senate.virginia.gov  (has said he may support Dragas, but he is running for Lt. Gov and would like to hear from his constituents and voters around the Commonwealth)

Jill Vogel — R –  an attorney (her position on the Dragas confirmation is not yet known) -  district27@senate.virginia.gov

Jeffrey McWaters – R – businessman – former Vice Rector at Wm & Mary – strong supporter of Dragas (his district) -district08@senate.virginia.gov

Charles W. Carrico, Sr. – R – retired senior trooper, VA state Police (position on Dragas not known) -district40@senate.virginia.gov

Bryce Reeves – R – GMU – Public Administration , UVA Sorensen political leaders program (position on Dragas not known) -district17@senate.virginia.gov

Thomas Garrett, Jr. – R – attorney (U of Richmond; position on Dragas not known) - district22@senate.virginia.gov

Contact your VA senators and delegates!

Leave a reply
Governor McDonnell reappointed Helen Dragas for another term on the UVa Board of Visitors over the summer, but the Virginia Senate and House of Delegates must approve Governor McDonnell’s appointment during their short session in January. An increasing number of senators and delegates are opposed to the appointment, and many editorials around the state and the region ask Dragas to resign and/or ask the legislature not to approve her appointment. You can sign this change.org petition to the VA legislature, and even better, you can find your senator and delegate’s contact information on our site along with a form letter, and then you can contact them directly by phone, e-mail, or in person. Keep the pressure up– it is making a difference.

An open letter to the Board of Visitors regarding free speech and open meeting laws

1 Reply

December 19, 2012

Board of Visitors

c/o Susan G. Harris, Secretary to the Board
Board of Visitors Office
NW Wing, The Rotunda, PO Box 400222
University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA 22904-4222

Dear Members of the Board of Visitors:

I represent a group of students who were improperly denied admission to your November 8 meeting. They were then threatened with disciplinary action and arrest even though they were not engaged in any conduct that violated University rules or the law.

The students arrived at the Harrison Institute with the intention of attending the meeting but were barred from entering past the doorway.  University officials told them that only six seats were available in the meeting room, and that only those who could secure seats would be allowed in.  This action was contrary to a long-standing policy and custom allowing people to attend meetings and to stand so long as they are not disruptive, and provided that their numbers do not exceed the rated capacity of the room. A sign posted in the room rates the capacity at 307. Yet according to press reports, chairs were provided for only about 50 people.  Notwithstanding the assertion by University officials that all attendees be seated, one reporter noted that he was allowed to stand during the proceedings, and a freelance photographer attests that he could move freely about the room and take pictures at will.

As you know, the Virginia Freedom of Information Act, inter alia, requires that meetings of public bodies be open to the public. Virginia Code § 2.2-3707. Unreasonably restricting access, as was done on this occasion, violates that act and calls into question the validity of the Board’s actions at the meeting.

Further aggravating the University’s effort to silence student speech, officials treated students who tried to enter the building for the purpose of attending the meeting as lawbreakers, in what can only be characterized as an act of extreme intimidation. An associate dean of students read a statement to students who were denied entry saying that, should they not disperse, they would face disciplinary action including possible “termination from the University.”  While the University has claimed, as a justification for its conduct, that the students were blocking entry to the building, an independent journalist observer present at the time later wrote that he “never saw any attempt at blocking and did see people easily passing in and out of the structure.” See The Hook, Issue No. 1146, November 15, 2012 (available at http:// www. readthehook.com/108739/transparency-now-protestors-call-dragas-resignation.  Beyond the question of whether this kind of intimidation is appropriate at an institution of higher learning, the law is clear that arrests can be made only on probable cause, yet there was no probable cause to believe that the students were obstructing anyone.

It seems clear that the decision to deny entry to more than a handful of students and to intimidate many others was taken in retaliation against the opinions peacefully expressed in the signs the students held. The University’s conduct thus poses a grave threat to the First Amendment.  Its actions are all the more distressing given that the views the students wished to express relate directly to secretive actions taken by the Board over the summer, which have been the subject of widespread public scrutiny and controversy.

I write to insist that the Board of Visitors acknowledge that the conduct of University officials was improper and to ask for assurances that it will not be repeated.  Specifically, I ask the Board to review the conduct taken on its behalf on November 8, to publicly clarify policies on Board meeting attendance prior to its next public meeting, and to ensure that students and other members of the public — regardless of their views — be given adequate access to all future Board meetings.

Very truly yours,

Jeffrey E. Fogel