Brian Kirwin (Reagan’s GOP) is outraged that the University of Mary Washington (Obama’s campaign stop for tomorrow) is selling Obama T-shirt with the school logo on them:
An Obama t-shirt with the school logo?????????????
UMV is a public university. Selling t-shirts with the school logo and a political candidate is way WAY over the line.
Unless, of course, if the political candidate is a Democrat.
Hirons at VV is on this, too, but I think they’re both missing an opportunity here.
Last I checked, we have a mammoth government shortfall this year, thanks to the brilliant revenue forecasting of Jody Wagner and a budget bloated from last year’s $10 billion increase (VA Budget). UMW is scheduled to get $93 million this year (VA Budget again).
So we can get started by saving roughly 3-4% of the current budget gap, and let UMW sell whatever T-shirts it wants, by letting the school go private. Works for me!
Nearly ninety percent of University faculty and administrators, when surveyed, identify with the Left. It should come as no surprise when they use their positions to push their agenda on campus, whether the school is private or public. Take the “University” of Richmond, for example. The administration has turned that place into a Leftist indoctrination center, where students are banned from campus for supporting Republican candidates and the few remaining conservative employees fear for their jobs and have been cowed into silence.
A University should be a place where all ideas are discussed in the public square and where each idea is allowed to stand or fall on their own merit. Where the Leftists reign, opposing views are always censored, however. Such places should no longer be honored with the term, “University” as part of their name. It should be, Richmond Leftist Indoctrination Center, or Mary Washington Lesbian Leftist Indoctrination Center. Places such as these no longer pursue truth, they are all about indoctrination.
I’m just a bit confused on your math here. Given the numbers you presented, how is $93 million “3-4%” of 10 Billion? 1% of ten billion is 100 million, so by math then $93 million would be .93%.
The Federal deficit is more to the tune of several hundred billion, making this university’s share of it closer to 0.01%.
I’m not trying to say that a public university should be allowed to directly participate in party politics, but I don’t think your rationale holds true. Additionally, it should be noted that academia in general tends toward the left, in part because the left tends to prioritize education more than the right does, but also because more educated people tend generally to be more left-leaning.
Please delete my prior comment, I was misunderstood about which budget deficit you were talking about… I’m not from Virginia, and thusly have no business talking about how it should govern itself.
“Nearly ninety percent of University faculty and administrators, when surveyed, identify with the Left.”
I disagree with your assessment, but mind you, I go to a community college.
The vast majority of my professors have been conservative.
Don’t be so hard on yourself, J. I could have been a bit clearer about the acutal budget shortfall (you know, like actually given the shortfal number, which is expected to be anywhere from $2 to $2.9B).
Furthermore, while we Virginians will of course make our own decisions, we’re not so provincial as cover our ears and not listen to advice from outside . . .
[...] DJ thought this was an opportunity though. He advocated that the sales of the shirts should go forward, since we’re facing massive budget shortfalls. We can get started by saving roughly 3-4% of the current budget gap, and let UMW sell whatever T-shirts it wants, by letting the school go private. [...]