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UVa’s Student Council seeks the resignation of Board of Visitor member Bert Ellis, appointed by Gov. Youngkin.

The University of Virginia’s Student Council is calling for the resignation of Bert Ellis, an outspoken UVa alumnus and recently appointed member of the Board of Visitors who is a vocal critic of the school’s diversity and inclusion efforts.

In a statement posted on the Council’s Twitter account, the organization said it rejects Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s appointment of Ellis, CEO and Chairman of consulting and investment firm Ellis Capital, an entrepreneurial empire that owns KDOC-TV in Los Angeles.

Youngkin replaced all four visitors who reached the end of their terms less than one month ago, but Ellis’ appointment has garnered the most attention and controversy.

The Council, in its statement, said that Ellis’ actions do not align with UVa’s inclusive ideas. It cited a 2020 incident when Ellis traveled to Grounds equipped with a razor blade to remove a sign that read “F—k UVA” that had been posted on a Lawn room door. The sign also read: “KKKcops, genocide, slavery, disability and Black and brown life are operating costs of the University.”

“This event reveals the hypocrisy, and thus false pretense, by which Ellis selectively leverages free speech discourse to advance his own political agenda against students,” wrote the Council.

The statement goes on to explain that Ellis created a student safety issue by using his position of power to “further attack students of color and other marginalized students who did not fit into Jefferson’s vision for UVa and do not fit into Ellis’ [vision].”

Ellis could not be reached for comment before deadline.

According to Ellis’ account of the event, which was posted on the Bacon’s Rebellion blog, he planned to use the razor blade to remove the profanity from the student’s sign. Instead, he knocked on the student’s door and asked her to defend her position. He admits that he continued speaking to the door once the student closed it in front of him.

Ellis holds a master’s of business administration from the Darden Graduate School of Business Administration at UVa and a bachelor’s degree in economics, also from UVa. He is also is president and co-founder of the Jefferson Council, an alumni organization “dedicated to preserving the legacy of Thomas Jefferson, the Lawn, the Honor Code, and the intellectual diversity one would expect from Mr. Jefferson’s university.”

The Jefferson Council is a founding group in the Alumni Free Speech Alliance, an organization of similar groups across the country that have formed to counteract what they see as cancel-culture and to support “to support free speech, academic freedom, and viewpoint diversity at their institutions.”

Those viewpoints tend to be conservative and right-leaning in opposition to what the groups believe is left-leaning and liberal college atmospheres. They believe faculty and students cancel opposing views, making those who think differently afraid to speak freely.

“The Alliance brings together alumni groups that have a focus on supporting free speech, academic freedom, and viewpoint diversity at their colleges and universities,” the group states on its website.

The groups have been formed at colleges from Harvard and Yale to the University of North Carolina and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Critics say some of the groups use the issue of free speech to thwart overdue change in terms of race and identity.

As president of the Jefferson Council, Ellis has used the online platform to influence institutional changes. He made headlines last December for claiming that UVa was suffering from “wokism,” saying former BOV members focused too much on diversity, equity, and inclusion and not enough of teaching.

In a December blog post, he called for Youngkin to replace all four visitors.

The Student Council’s statement was intended to speak out against Ellis’ appointment, draw attention to Ellis and his behavior “toward marginalized students” and call out Youngkin for politicizing education through his appointment of board of visitors members.

“We pretty quickly knew we as soon as we heard the announcement of the appointment we knew that we were going to speak out against it,” said Jaden Evans, Student Council Vice President for Administration and fourth-year student.

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UVa’s Student Council seeks the resignation of Board of Visitor member Bert Ellis, appointed by Gov. Youngkin.

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