In the most exciting academic standoff since the Noam Chomsky-Christopher Hitchens cage match of ’02 (Chomsky felled the sodden neo-con with a folding chair), residents of UVA’s venerated Lawn are at an impasse with President John T. Casteen III and the Board of Visitors over a potential new neighbor.
Bob Sweeney, UVA’s senior vice president for development and public affairs, is fixing to move into the Lawn’s Pavilion VI, soon to be vacated by Robert Carey, former dean of the School of Medicine. Sweeney’s position as a fundraiser doesn’t sit well with Lawn residents who argue that the whole point of Pavilion living is to make the University’s best and brightest professors available to students as an on-Grounds academic resource.
 Politics prof Larry Sabato is more than just a talking head for the news media—he’s also the archetypal Lawn-dwelling academic for some student activists who think UVA would be stooping to cronyism by giving development VP Bob Sweeney a Pavilion palace. |
All the same, Casteen and the BOV remain unconcerned with the grumblings of a few Lawnies and have indicated that they will decide independent of student lobbying, which has included students posting “For Sale” signs on their Lawn room doors. We reckon the whole ordeal might be a good life lesson for Lawn kids as they watch, apparently for the first time, their ivory tower shaken by the winds of big money.
C-VILLE welcomes news tips from readers. Send them to news@c-ville.com.
