According to a new analysis by Vice News, the University of Virginia is the 19th most militarized university in the United States. Vice News lists the top 100 in order, based on “the greatest number of students who are employed by the Intelligence Community (IC), have the closest relationships with the national security state, and profit the most from American war-waging.” Vice provides a detailed account of its data sources and methodology, which itself reads like a damning critique of academia in a society maintaining an alleged preference for peace over war. An additional report looks at trends and patterns in the results.
According to William M. Arkin and Alexa O’Brien of Vice News:
“The prestigious University of Virginia is a lawyer’s paradise, feeding counsels to government agencies from the military to the CIA. The school has a National Criminal Justice Command College program, and graduates a fair share of Top Secret special agents, half of them working for the FBI. The largest portion of its graduates with Top Secret clearances, however, come from its school of continuing and professional studies, which teaches cybersecurity, human resources, “procurement,” and project management. If UVA’s Top Secret graduates aren’t working in the federal government, then they’re working for a large [military] contractor. UVA faculty have also participated in the IARPA STONESOUP program to develop a technology that securely executes software of uncertain provenance.”
UVA makes rank #17, in fact, for “Top Secret Employment,” while it’s only #30 for “National Security Funding.” It receives a whopping $27,426,000 in “DOD Research and Development Funding.” UVA conducts classified research inside its campus with its Jefferson quotes about free speech and flow of information.
“This institution [University of Virginia] will be based on the illimitable freedom of the human mind. For here we are not afraid to follow truth wherever it may lead, nor to tolerate any error so long as reason is left free to combat it.”
Hard to tolerate or reason your way out of plans and justifications for killing that are kept secret.
UVA works with “National Intelligence,” the NSA, and the Homeland “Security” Department. It also has a military ROTC program, as one can observe by visiting the campus around which killers-in-training jog chanting military chants.
UVA finds itself in the area of the country whose academia (and many other things) are most militarized. Nearby schools on the list include:
#1 University of Maryland
#2 American Military University
#4 George Washington University
#5 George Mason University
#7 Johns Hopkins University
#8 Strayer University
#10 Georgetown University
#16 Northern Virginia Community College
#17 Virginia Tech
#19 University of Virginia
#20 American University
In third place is the online “University of Phoenix.” That may change. This came out last month:
“The Department of Defense said today that it would suspend the University of Phoenix from its tuition assistance programs and bar school officials from recruiting at military facilities, including job fairs, after revelations of improper recruiting and marketing practices by the for-profit school.”
The above list of shame should trouble every UVA alumnus and every resident of Charlottesville, Virginia.
Rarely does this atheist quote the Pope, but here’s one from his speech to Congress in September:
“Why are deadly weapons being sold to those who plan to inflict untold suffering on individuals and society? Sadly, the answer, as we all know, is simply for money: money that is drenched in blood, often innocent blood. In the face of this shameful and culpable silence, it is our duty to confront the problem and to stop the arms trade.”