Letters to the Editor: Summer 2026

Congratulations to Dean Beardsley. Best of luck, sir.

A very interesting article. I dined at Newcomb Hall for two years: during my first year at Dobie dorm and my second year at the Monroe Hill dorms. I remember on occasion they would serve fried rabbit (not my favorite). Contract dining was a great way to initiate, build and maintain relationships with peers.

Regarding Newcomb Hall’s history, I remember in November 1975 when Hubert Humphrey came to UVA to speak at Newcomb Hall’s ballroom. The crowd built slowly but was very thickly packed inside as he was of great interest to the students during the Vietnam War. When he finished, the crowd dispersed very quickly as there were refreshments available outside, and the effect on the structure was one of the ballroom floor fracturing and erupting, lifting up due to both the slowly accumulated great and unprecedented weight of the load, and the speed of removal of same. In the following week in my civil engineering classes, professors had a field day with such a perfect (and familiar) structural example.

Newcomb Hall was an important part of my growing up and of my student experience. I enjoyed reading the article about the history of Newcomb Hall and anxiously awaited mention of the Newcomb Hall barbershop, which my father opened in 1958.

Elvin Lee Booker was 30 years old when he moved his young family from Richmond, Virginia, to Charlottesville to open the new shop. Until this writing, I had not thought about what an opportunity this was for such a young man. He was so proud of the shop. It was a gathering place for conversation and haircuts not just for students but for professors, deans, colonels, administrators, coaches and a variety of employees. The Cavalier Daily published a picture of my father cutting a student’s hair in a new fad: the flat top.

I transferred to UVA in 1970 with 100 other women. My future husband and I enjoyed good times with other students in Newcomb Hall. When I enter Newcomb Hall, I always think of my father and his place in its history.

I remember studying at Newcomb as an undergraduate. The plush chairs and couches made it easy to study. I remember going to the back area where there were newspapers from around the country. I also enjoyed the snack bar area. Wonderful memories of a wonderful place. I was so fortunate to attend undergraduate school and get my MD from the medical school. I tell people I was born in Richmond but grew up at UVA.

I read the correspondence in the Fall 2025 and Spring 2026 editions to find a dissenting opinion to the outrage over the DOJ agreement. There was none. I submit the alternative view that there was good reason for the DOJ to investigate public institutions that misrepresent the truth with the goal of undermining foundational beliefs and subjecting one group to harassment. I deny that Thomas Jefferson would have supported the tyranny of thought brought by the new progressive institutions of “higher learning.”

Thanks for your explanation of the events of a traumatic year at UVA and in particular for the timeline. It has been difficult, here in faraway Australia, to follow what happened, and the article and timeline provide insight and context. Well done.

You quote The Washington Post, a publication devoid of journalistic integrity and steeped in bias. Do better. Spanberger is doing what she accuses her predecessor of doing, and needs to stop interfering with higher education, and my school.

Thank you for the excellent articles regarding President Ryan’s resignation. It should be disturbing to everyone that a few members of the BOV could decide to represent themselves to the government as the sole source for resolving a legal dispute, and that those members felt no need to inform the rector, much less any other BOV members, of their actions. Nor did they include the university president in any discussions with the government. That the government’s claim of complaints from a few people could trigger a far-reaching investigation of the university seems to be a disproportionate response. (If, in fact, there ever was an actual “investigation,” since just the threat of one was all that was needed to get the government’s desired outcome.) A more sobering fact is that polls in recent months indicate that the Trump administration still has the approval of over 80 percent of Republicans.

Jim Ryan deftly navigated the “prevailing political winds” for most of his tenure. He resisted the pressure to remove Jefferson’s statue at the Rotunda in the fall of 2020; in the spring of 2024, he refused to allow protesters to occupy portions of the Grounds and had them forcibly removed. But a year later, President Ryan finally found a needle he couldn’t thread: how to maintain some semblance of the university’s “core value” of outreach to, and inclusion of, students who would otherwise not be able to enjoy a Jeffersonian education in the face of anti-DEI political pressure.

Interestingly, many who had decried Ryan’s earlier such stances cried foul on his forced resignation; others who had cheered his earlier stances gave him a quick “good riddance” epitaph. On Jim’s behalf, one bright spot in all of this is that he now has more time to be a better distance runner than he already is.

Raised in Charlottesville, my first job was waiting tables at the University Diner for a dollar an hour and all the cheeseburgers I could eat. I was 14 and worked from 11 p.m. to 4 a.m. on Friday and Saturday. Had to get a special work permit from the juvenile judge for this. I remember working with Elwood and Ethel and Quinn Shiflett. Always admired the way Elwood could crack eggs with one hand while working with other items on his grill. Quite a fond memory. Thanks for bringing it back.