2 Scholars Quit UVa Center Over Appointment of Former Trump Administration Official

Two historians said on Monday that they have resigned from the University of Virginia’s public-policy center to oppose the appointment of a former top official in the Trump administration, a decision they say shows an “appalling indifference to the civility of our own city and university.”

Marc Short, who was the White House legislative-affairs director, was appointed to a yearlong senior fellowship at the Miller Center, a nonpartisan affiliate of the university that specializes in political history, presidential history, and public policy. Short was also invited to be a guest lecturer.

The decision provoked widespread protest when it became public. Many faculty members have objected, including the history professors Melvyn P. Leffler and William I. Hitchcock, who left the center.

In response, William J. Antholis, the center’s director, has maintained that Short brings valuable expertise to the work of understanding the Trump presidency.

In their joint resignation letter, the historians said Short has long been “a partisan activist.” Recently, they wrote, he has associated himself with “rhetoric and policies that have empowered and emboldened white supremacists and that have led to spectacular increases in racist and misogynistic talk and behavior.”

Leffler and Hitchcock also said it seemed “especially egregious” to appoint Short as UVa approaches the one-year anniversary of neo-Nazi riots in Charlottesville, Va., that left one counterprotester dead.

“By not speaking out at the time, by not emphasizing the threats to human decency posed by the public display of Nazi symbols and racist diatribes in our own neighborhood, Mr. Short was complicit in the erosion of our civic discourse and showed an appalling indifference to the civility of our own city and university,” the professors’ letter says.

Short has told Politico that he believed the Trump administration could have done “a better job” at communicating its opposition to white-supremacist violence. But he maintained that the White House did offer an “unambiguous” denunciation of racism.

In a phone interview, Hitchcock said he originally envisioned the Miller Center as a kind of “conveyor belt of ideas between the academy and the public.” Now, he said, it wants to be a place where “current and former officials could come fresh from the battlefield and wash themselves.”

Both historians said they believe Short has a right to speak at the center, and should, in fact, do so. Leffler rejected the notion that the two professors were trying to silence ideological foes. Democratic and Republican firebrands alike have spoken at the UVa center, he noted.

“We certainly think Marc Short has a right to free speech,” Leffler said in a phone interview. “But we do not think an institution or a university should reward his actions and his rhetoric.”

Some professors associated with the Miller Center agree with Short’s appointment, Antholis said when reached by phone. In making the decision on Short, he said, a wider field of people than usual was consulted, and “I made a judgment on this individual that he falls within the legitimate band of political discourse in America.”

The Miller Center exists to examine the presidency, political polarization, and partisanship, Antholis said. To do that, he argued, participants in that system must provide their insights. “There is no one better placed to look at those issues,” he said, “than Marc Short.”

Both Leffler and Hitchcock will remain tenured faculty members at UVa.

Emma Pettit is a staff reporter at The Chronicle. Follow her on Twitter @EmmaJanePettit, or email her at emma.pettit@chronicle.com.