I saw this post by William Leighty (among other things, former Chief of Staff to Governors Mark Warner and Tim Kaine; also Senior Advisor to the Dean at the L. Douglas Wilder School of Government at Virginia Commonwealth University) when it was first posted a few days ago, but it was marked as “private” so I didn’t do anything with it. Now, it’s been changed to public, so…here you go. Note: this is all VERY revealing about a bunch of things, but the bottom line is it’s seems over-the-top, at the minimum, to fire Leighty over this.
At noon today, March 21, 2025, Dean Gooden of the VCU School of Government and Public Affairs called me and terminated my employment effective immediately. I was given no reason, nor offered an explanation, only told that “your services are no longer needed.” It saddens me that my 44 graduate (Masters of Public Administration) students in two separate classes will be left abandoned mid-semester with graduation only weeks away.
With no explanation at all, I can only offer the following information that you can use to form your own opinion as to why this action might have been taken. Let me start, however, by saying how much I respect and admire Dean Gooden. She is an exceptional leader. Although the fact that she terminated me over the phone without being willing to look at me face to face may impact on that view.
On Wednesday March 19th, at Dean Gooden’s request, I moderated a “Lunch and Learn” session with nearly 200 Wilder alums, faculty, students and supporters. The session was a Q&A session with the new Mayor of Richmond, Danny Avula, to focus on his “Vision for the City of Richmond.” Participants submitted questions when they registered for the event or via the “chat” box on Zoom. Staff also put questions in a live Google doc to assist me in simultaneously moderating the session and queuing up questions for the mayor.
Scores of questions were being sent into the “chat” box on Zoom. The staff for the event were simultaneously directing me via a group text, emailing me directions, and providing guidance in the “chat” box. You can probably imagine how much concentration it takes to moderate such an event while receiving multiple sensory inputs. The first question on the document was a question about the City’s relationship with VCU. It dealt with an ongoing issue in legislation/litigation/discussions between the General Assembly, the City, and VCU. Feeling it would be rude to trap our esteemed guest with a “gotcha” question I ignored it. Multiple, staff using multiple communication methods, began urging me to “ask the VCU question.”
As the session began to come to a close, I received a direct request from the Dean asking that I “ask the VCU” question. Then the manager for the event also asked me to raise the question anonymously but that the ”Governor” (Doug Wilder) wanted me to ask the question. I refused again and closed out the event.
Today I was fired. I leave it to you to decide if these events are related. I feel deeply sorry for the students that are being impacted by this action. Completing a graduate degree is stressful enough without the introduction of avoidable and unnecessary distractions.
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