As Grim Anniversary Nears, UVa Faculty Members Protest Appointment of Former Trump Official

Faculty members and students at the University of Virginia are protesting the appointment of a former high-level official in the Trump administration to a fellowship position at the university. The uproar comes almost a year after white nationalists assembled on the Charlottesville campus, drawing protesters and prompting President Trump to comment that there were “very fine people on both sides.”

Heather Heyer, a 32-year-old protester, died that weekend when James Alex Fields, one of the people who had come to Charlottesville for the rally, rammed his car into a crowd, prosecutors say.

Alex Wong, Getty Images

As of 2 p.m. on Friday, more than 500 faculty, students, and alumni had signed a petition protesting the appointment of Marc Short, Trump’s former legislative-affairs director, to the Miller Center, a “nonpartisan affiliate” of the institution that focuses on studying the presidency.

“We are a community still in the process of healing,” reads the petition, in part. “And someone who defended the president’s remarks after the violence here is a barrier to that process, a source of trauma in a still-traumatized community.”

Academe is a frequent destination for departing staff members of presidential administrations. But former members of the Trump administration appointed to university positions have faced a heavy backlash, most notably in Harvard University’s Institute of Politics.

Short told Politico that he feels a “closeness” to the campus and city, and that the university had a history of welcoming diverse opinions.

“I hope that the message isn’t that anyone who worked in the administration can’t work at a university,” Short said.

‘The Forces of Illiberalism’

Howard Witt, a spokesman for the Miller Center, defended the appointment in an emailed statement to The Chronicle. Witt acknowledged that some people in the community had disagreed with the center’s decision to appoint Short, and said that the program also included former staff members in the Obama and Bush administrations. He added that Short would offer insights on the Trump presidency that would otherwise be unavailable.

“The addition of Marc Short, a senior Trump administration official with intimate knowledge of interactions between the White House and Congress,” Witt wrote, “deepens our scholarly inquiries into the workings of the American presidency.”

Short often made appearances on news programs to defend the Trump administration.

He previously told Politico that the administration could have done a better job “expressing sympathy for the victims” in Charlottesville “and outrage at those who perpetrated this evil.”

Short has also said the president was “clear and outspoken” in his denunciation of the violence.

Nicole Hemmer, an assistant professor at the Miller Center and a writer with Vox and The Washington Post, signed the petition. She said bringing Short to the center would be contrary to the nonpartisan work the center is trying to accomplish.

Hemmer said that the university has thought of politics in terms of conservative versus liberal, but that that frame isn’t applicable in this scenario. Rather, Hemmer said, Short represents an “illiberal” influence. It’s one thing to talk to people, she said, but “it’s quite another thing to hire them and have them through your university when they spent the last 18 months defending the forces of illiberalism.”

Siva Vaidhyanathan, a professor in the media-studies department, is another of the petition signers. He said he expects the Miller Center to bring in political leaders from the left and the right. But Short’s views on immigration, especially his defense of a former policy on the separation of children from their parents at the border, was beyond the pale for Vaidhyanathan. He added that there’s a difference between people who work for the administration and those who work directly for the White House.

Here is new @UVA @Miller_Center fellow Marc Short defending family separation and telling a lie. He is immoral and dishonorable and thus unworthy of working at this university. https://t.co/XH2chLKVFA

— Siva Vaidhyanathan (@sivavaid) July 20, 2018

William Hitchcock, a professor in the history department who also has a chair in the Miller Center, was the first signer of the petition. He said he opposes Short’s appointment because he doesn’t live up to the nonpartisan mission of the institution, given his active defense of the Trump administration. Hitchcock said that he did not oppose a campus speech by Short, but that it’s another matter to offer him a paid position. And while the looming anniversary of the white-nationalist rally wasn’t what had prompted him to sign the petition, he said it makes sense that the community has galvanized around the issue.

“This very much is a community on edge,” Hitchcock said. “And we’re anticipating a very difficult anniversary coming up. It’s a remarkable act of negligence to appoint such a prominent Trump spokesman who is on the record as having obfuscated the realities of August 12 at this very moment of anniversary reflection on these events.”

Chris Quintana is a staff reporter. Follow him on Twitter @cquintanadc or email him at chris.quintana@chronicle.com.

Correction (7/20/2018, 4:27 p.m.): This article originally reported that, as stated in the petition, Marc Short had been appointed to a position at UVa’s business school as well as at the Miller Center. A spokesperson for the business school says he has no formal appointment there. The text has been updated.