After serving two terms as president, Thomas Jefferson turned his attention to academics. In 1819, he helped found the University of Virginia so that students could “drink of the cup of knowledge.”
Almost two centuries later, that cup has soured.
Many professors are now demanding in a letter that University President Teresa Sullivan stop quoting Jefferson for fear the memory of third president would offend some students. The outrage follows Sullivan’s attempt to unify the campus after a divisive Election Day. The first female president in university history, she had encouraged students to look to Jefferson’s example.
“Thomas Jefferson wrote to a friend that University of Virginia students ‘are not of ordinary significance only: They are exactly the persons who are to succeed to the government of our country, and to rule its future enmities, its friendships and fortunes,'” Sullivan wrote, the Cavalier Daily reported. “I encourage today’s U.Va. students to embrace that responsibility.”
But this quotation of the father of the University of Virginia was too much for 469 faculty and students, who drafted a letter in protest.
“We would like for our administration to understand that although some members of this community may have come to this university because of Thomas Jefferson’s legacy, others of us came here in spite of it,” the letter reads.
“For many of us,” the letter continues, “the inclusion of Jefferson quotations in these emails undermines the message of unity, equality and civility that you are attempting to convey.”
Initial reaction to the news wasn’t positive. Ed Gillespie, a former George W. Bush administration aide and current Republican candidate for Virginia governor next year, didn’t have much patience for U.Va.’s intolerance of Jefferson.
“Really?! Don’t mention Mr. Jefferson at Mr. Jefferson’s U…? C’mon!” an indignant Gillespie tweeted shortly after news of the incident broke.
Indeed, outside the academy, the episode seems mind-boggling.
It is worth noting that the university’s Board of Visitors attempted to depose Sullivan in 2012, citing her failure to offer a more compelling vision for U.Va. Weighing in on the coup attempt, Republican Gov. Bob McDonnell warned the board’s members that he’d depose them all if they didn’t reinstate Sullivan.
Philip Wegmann is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
