UVA: State your business
I write in response to your article “UVA to stiff-arm State?” [7 Days, The Week, August 3]. I agree with UVA President John Casteen when he said that “Virginia has failed to kick in its fair share of funds since 1989.” True enough. What I don’t agree with is the plan for these schools to become independent from the state of Virginia—to become “political subdivisions.” I fear that once UVA, William & Mary and Virginia Tech break away from the State, JMU, George Mason, VCU et al won’t be far behind. Eventually there won’t be any “public institutions” in Virginia. I don’t believe the citizens of Virginia want that. I imagine if it were put to a vote, it wouldn’t pass. The UVA Medical Center decentralized in 1996 and things aren’t so good over on Hospital Drive, no matter what UVA says. I listen to and hear the employees.
My biggest concern—really my only concern—is the 50,000-plus classified staff this initiative will effect. There have been no town meetings, no community forums discussing this somewhat radical move by these three schools. I believe in the beginning of this last year, the administration said input from staff would be “critical.” If all they are talking to is the management-driven employee councils, then they aren’t getting the real story. Staff Union at the University of Virginia wants to see the plan of action. How will personnel policies change? Will they become Nazi-like as they are at the hospital? Will new hires have fewer benefits than the current employees? Will UVA still be required to provide the same quality of health insurance that the State provides? How will retirement be affected? Even Governor Warner has questions about this initiative. Glad someone high up is watching out for the workers!
There was a legislative committee appointed to study this issue. A committee made up of one Democrat and the rest Republicans. They have yet to have the first meeting. This tells me this committee was appointed only to silence those of us that demanded it. No one ever intended to study this issue seriously.
Once more, I call for this bill to be tabled for another year. Until someone can stand up, be honest, and tell the employees what this means for them and how it will affect them.
Jan Cornell
President
Staff Union at the University of Virginia
Communications Workers of America
The 411 on 751
I wanted to drop you a note and thank you for your continued coverage of H.B. 751 and Equality Virginia, and the latest story, “Altared states” [The Week, August 3], and add some commentary. H.B. 751 can represent a lot of different things to the different sides of the gay marriage debate. But there is one thing that is quite certain—gays and lesbians in Virginia now live under a dark cloud of uncertainty. Will our families be protected in an emergency? This question truly represents the heart of what H.B. 751 means to those of us living in the Commonwealth. If my partner’s child needs to go to the hospital, will the charge nurse respect my partnership contract and treat me as the child’s parent? If I leave my estate to my partner, if someone should contest this in court, will a Virginia court honor my will? Even now, H.B. 751 is being used in court to void a custody contract. Unlike most citizens, gays and lesbians in Virginia now must weigh these additional questions when considering the safety and future of our families. For some, the weight is pressing down right now.
Wendy Repass
Charlottesville
Creative direction
Kudos to C-VILLE for publishing Ted Turner’s excellent article on the dangers posed to America’s democracy and culture when ownership of our nation’s media is concentrated in too few hands [“Distressed signals,” August 10]. At the Center for Creative Voices in Media, located here in Charlottesville, we’re proud of our leadership role on this issue that ultimately resulted in a rollback of last year’s Federal Communications Commission decision that would have launched an even more extreme and dangerous consolidation of our nation’s media.
We encourage residents of Charlottesville to educate themselves on these critical media issues at both the local and national levels. Should our national media remain as concentrated as it is today, students in local school media programs, as well as at such laudatory local programs as Light House and the Music Resource Center, who want to make challenging and important media for a living will encounter mega-conglomerates churning out corporatized and homogenized products that serve only one interest—the bottom line. That’s not good for our culture or our democracy.
In terms of local media, the FCC’s proposed rules posed yet another highly troubling threat to the Charlottesville community. The Commission wanted to allow newspapers and television stations in a single market to combine under common ownership, even in a market as small as Charlottesville. Had these new rules not been overturned, Media General, which already owns The Daily Progress, Charlottesville’s lone daily newspaper, could also purchase WVIR-TV, Channel 29, Charlottesville’s primary source for local news on television. They also would have been allowed to own a good chunk of the area’s radio stations and its cable system. And that would be in addition to Media General’s television station and newspaper holdings in Richmond, Roanoke, Lynchburg, Waynesboro, Culpeper and other nearby localities. Good idea? We don’t think so.
As a nation, America has always valued what the Supreme Court has termed “a wide diversity of viewpoints from a multiplicity of sources.” We believe such a concentration of media power in too few hands is antithetical to these values and poses a significant threat to political and civic debate, not only in Charlottesville, but statewide and ultimately nationwide. We’re pleased that the U.S. Court of Appeals agreed and threw out these ill-considered FCC rules.
Again, thanks to C-VILLE for covering this issue, because we don’t seem to find much coverage of it from the media conglomerates. Could it be that they just hope it will quietly go away, and they can go on more buying binges?
Jonathan Rintels
Paul Wagner
Executive Directors
Center for Creative Voices in Media
Charlottesville