A University of Virginia official is facing calls to be publicly admonished for using his time at the podium during the school’s commencement ceremony to criticize Thomas Jefferson, who founded the institution.
Kenyon Bonner, UVA’s vice president and chief student affairs officer, said during his May remarks that Jefferson’s “ethically corrosive claims about human capacity reflected his ignorance and his hubris,” adding “ignorance precedes injustice.”
A petition now calls on President Scott Beardsley and the UVA Board to address Bonner’s “ignorant and historically intemperate remarks.”
“Given that you seem to harbor such vile feelings about Mr. Jefferson, you should resign. Immediately. Or be fired,” states the petition, signed by 238 people as of June 10.
Bonner did not respond to The College Fix’s requests for comment via email.
Bonner, a Washington and Jefferson College alumnus, told graduates in his address that “for all [Jefferson’s] brilliance, his unfounded and ethically corrosive claims about human capacity reflected his ignorance and his hubris,” while also emphasizing that Jefferson held “more than 600 in bondage during his 86 years of life.”
The Jefferson Council, an alumni network dedicated to preserving Jefferson’s legacy at UVA, condemned Bonner’s remarks.
Thomas Neale, a UVA history graduate, father of two UVA alumni, and president emeritus and co-founder of the Jefferson Council, started the petition.
Neale said he emailed Bonner on May 17, asserting that commencement speeches should be “apolitical and uplifting.” He copied President Scott C. Beardsley on the memo, which serves as the petition’s wording.
“Rather than extol the benefits of a UVA education and provide the graduates advice on how to utilize their lessons learned to lead a successful life, you chose the occasion to excoriate our founder, Thomas Jefferson,” Neale wrote.
If Bonner’s claims were true, Neale added, “do you truly believe the other Founding Fathers – Washington, Adams, Monroe, Madison, Franklin et al – would have chosen him to write our Declaration of Independence?
“Slavery in the 18th century was commonplace across the world,” Neale wrote.
“That fact in no way minimizes the rightful condemnation of slavery’s inherent immorality. However, a myopic analysis like yours completely ignores judging history’s leaders in the historical context of their times,” he added.
In a Zoom interview with The College Fix, Neale stated, “Frankly, I didn’t expect a response, and I didn’t get one, but I had to be courteous.”
“I waited a week and didn’t get anything,” he added.
After receiving no reply, Neale emailed the UVA Board of Visitors on May 28, urging them to, at the least, “initiate public disciplinary action condemning [Bonner’s] remarks.”
Neale told The Fix only one board member replied to his email.
“She just said, you know, free speech,” Neale said. “Obviously the board, implicitly or explicitly, doesn’t think what he said was wrong. If not, why wouldn’t they respond?”
UVA spokesperson Bethanie Glover told The College Fix via email that “the University’s commitment to the free and collegial exchange of ideas applies to major events and speeches.”
Glover did not directly address The Fix’s questions about whether university leaders plan to respond to or are aware of alumni concerns regarding Bonner’s remarks.
Neale also included his Change.org petition in his email to board members.
“Hopefully UVA’s future standards for faculty employment will be a bit more selective, requiring at least one hour of American history,” one signer wrote, while another said, “our country is losing its way.”
Criticism of Jefferson at UVA is not new, Neale said.
Neale asserted that this controversy reflects a broader pattern in how UVA treats its founder’s legacy.
In 2020, he wrote then-President Jim Ryan expressing concerns about efforts to “contextualize” the Thomas Jefferson statue on campus.
“They begrudgingly leave Jefferson’s name there because they knew they’d have a mass exodus if they really took down a statue,” Neale told The Fix. “But to say he’s honored anymore? Revered? No way.”
“You could see it coming,” he said.
“Now six years later… you have a keynote speaker and a senior official at UVA denigrating Jefferson, so it’s come full circle.”
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