Put your money where your mouth is, or you ain't saying nothin'...

[Started this one when the storm hit, thought I'd go ahead and finish it up. - n42]

I am very heartened to see headlines like these touting the big donations that have come in since President Sullivan has been reinstated to UVa. A few million here and there won't change things too much in the long term, but if the University does manage to close out its capital campaign in the not-too-distant future, it might relieve some of the pressure that Sullivan's facing and silence some critics.

I doubt alumni will be super-pleased with McDonnell's decision to reinstate Dragas, however. More than anything else I find the decision baffling. Colleagues noted to me that McDonnell wants things to quiet down as quickly as possible, and while I agree with that, I fail to see how keeping Dragas on accomplishes that. McDonnell's weak justifications and use of the passive voice ignore that this was a manufactured crisis started by Dragas in the first place, so he either has no idea what's going on or doesn't care. I'm guessing the latter, and as far as that affects McDonnell's future political ambitions, well, maybe there aren't that many UVa alumni in the world.

Happy Independence Day!