Thank you! I agree that it's a good statement focused on UVA's institutional interests rather than, say, geopolitics (about which a university president would not have any particular insight, unless that was their area of scholarship).
I still think it's fair to debate whether even well-done statements should be issued, though. Sometimes it's less about a particular statement and more about the precedent or expectations it sets.
In a perfect world, I agree with you completely. In the world in which university presidents find themselves, the challenge is to respect his line if possible. I remember the spring of my freshman year (May 1970) when Kingman Brewster, the president of Yale and a former law professor, professed to be "appalled and ashamed that things should have come to such a pass in this country that I am skeptical of the ability of black revolutionaries to achieve a fair trial anywhere in the United States." It was both the most and the least that he could do.
Thanks—would you happen to have a link (or be able to post the full text here)? My quick searching didn't immediately locate it.
https://news.virginia.edu/content/ryan-appeals-compassion-offers-support-aftermath-attacks-israel
Thank you! I agree that it's a good statement focused on UVA's institutional interests rather than, say, geopolitics (about which a university president would not have any particular insight, unless that was their area of scholarship).
I still think it's fair to debate whether even well-done statements should be issued, though. Sometimes it's less about a particular statement and more about the precedent or expectations it sets.
In a perfect world, I agree with you completely. In the world in which university presidents find themselves, the challenge is to respect his line if possible. I remember the spring of my freshman year (May 1970) when Kingman Brewster, the president of Yale and a former law professor, professed to be "appalled and ashamed that things should have come to such a pass in this country that I am skeptical of the ability of black revolutionaries to achieve a fair trial anywhere in the United States." It was both the most and the least that he could do.