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So Sullivan convened a dinner at her home with professors of religion, medicine and other disciplines. Despite this and other successes, though, Sullivan was not considered an inspirational figure. People love the tradition, and they would not react well to sudden change. It was not until the early 20th century that the university bowed to practicality and hired a president. Democrats and Republicans alike tend to allot the seats to major campaign contributors.
Because of rapid turnover in the wake of the election of Gov. Bob McDonnell, a Republican, it included only four members of the search committee that picked Sullivan two years before. One of them was Helen Dragas, but she seemed less than enthusiastic about the choice. Her own business experience is in the Virginia Beach real estate firm founded by her father, George, a hard-driving child of Greek immigrants.
By all accounts, Dragas inherited much from her father, who himself headed the board of a university, Old Dominion, some two decades earlier. What had the board so worried? In the last year, Harvard, Stanford, M. While many veteran professors roll their eyes at predictions that online learning will transform the structure of universities, to certain segments of the donor community — the Wall Street and Aspen Institute types — higher education looks like another hidebound industry awaiting creative destruction.
This discussion has been influenced by the ideas of Clayton M. She and other board members emphasized, however, that online education was merely a proxy for a deeper concern about the pace of change in higher education. Dragas was equally worried about the hospital, which was competing for market share and facing changes in financing, and a decline in federal research funding.
Sullivan contends she was given contradictory instructions by Wynne, the rector who hired her, and later by Dragas. Was she supposed to be implementing the many plans the university had devised over the years, or coming up with new ones? Sullivan worked to strengthen her strategic thinking with a pair of business professors, but her dutiful efforts left some board members unimpressed.
Kirk, a pharmaceutical billionaire and board member, told me. She is in her 60s and has the fashion sense of an academic. In a personnel review process last year, Dragas, who is immaculately tailored, told Sullivan that she received comments from several board colleagues, questioning whether her wardrobe was occasionally too informal.
The president was at times visibly frustrated in her interactions with the board. Sometime last fall, Dragas asked Sullivan to prepare a written strategy for the university. In mid-May, Dragas received a warning from yet another quarter — a letter signed by about faculty members. Virginia law requires any meeting of more than two board members to be publicly announced. Dragas lobbied board members in one-on-one phone calls, a tactic that critics suggest she used to avoid scrutiny.
She also briefed Governor McDonnell. While many, including McDonnell, have since denied participation in the decision, at the time they said nothing that dissuaded Dragas from acting. In her back-channel conversations, Dragas also approached some key donors and alumni, including Paul Tudor Jones. Dragas told Jones that UVA needed strategic thinking, and she discussed a position for him advising the board. After thinking about the board position for a week, though, Jones decided he had too many other philanthropic commitments and recommended his neighbor in Greenwich, Conn.
Ligon, a former board member and a successful entrepreneur himself — he was a founder of CarMax, a used-car chain — said he thought the board members had fallen under the influence of high-finance mentality. Dragas appears to have presumed that opposition would be fleeting. When Sullivan was reluctant or refused to agree to the venture, key members of the Board threatened litigation related to her performance as a fundraiser for the University.
What is the Education Management Corporation? Angelo provides a link within her article to a Huffington Post story , which is a bit long but well worth reading, particularly tidbits like the following:.
For instance:. When Sullivan resisted this venture, the Board found fault with her performance as a fundraiser and made moves to oust her. Justice Department detailed a business bent on recruiting students at all costs The article noted in particular Kiernan's role as a former partner at Goldman Sachs and that Goldman Sachs 'recently took a major ownership position in a group of online universities.
Angelo concludes As an independent entity who invested its profits back into the University, EMC's involvement wouldn't have made the University in and of itself private. Essentially it would have been selling the UVA 'brand name' for the opportunity to receive major gifts for the University.
When Sullivan resisted this venture, the Board found fault with her performance as a fundraiser and made moves to oust her. Now, I'm not one who's normally ever, actually into conspiracy theories. In this case, though, the strange and sudden nature of Teresa Sullivan's firing raises suspicions, and the near silence of the people who fired her raises even more.
Add in the scumbag, for-profit "education" industry angle, and the huge amount of money at stake, and I'm actually starting to feel a bit conspiratorially-minded for once. How about you? Any better theories than this one?
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