"The University of Virginia is seldom shy about being in the news in new and intriguing ways.

Controversy resides at Madison Hall and is not being shown the door or threatened with sanctions for cohabiting in President John T. Casteen’s office.

A pair of debates flared again last week on separate but familiar fronts - the fight for what is being labeled a living wage and a socially conservative attack on university research.

The clash of symbols might even be keeping Casteen up at night.

In the first clash, Casteen heavily criticized UVa’s determined band of living wage student sit-in protesters in a letter to alumni.

His one-page letter in the Summer 2006 University of Virginia Magazine states: 'Our sitters-in had no proposal to put forward when they learned that their adult coaches had misled them.'

Outside adult agitators, Casteen wrote, were 'professional activists' from national labor unions who 'have found backers among some faculty members… .' These faculty members 'want a different economy [and] have made students their front line.'

Casteen goes on for nine paragraphs explaining how rude and how misled the other side was in the sit-in and discussing his proposal that the students 'with our help, get competent legal and economic advice.'

What were they getting from the faculty, one wonders.

After offering to help the protesters get some competent advice, Casteen said he also offered to help them 'seek changes in the law by persuading the General Assembly; [or] alternatively, find plausible grounds and sue. The sitters-in refused to discuss my proposal.'

The letter makes it plausible that Casteen would rewrite an old Cavalier drinking song so that 'the faculty’s afraid of us; they know we’re in the right' would be a reference to the administration, not the students.

He took a slap at the protesters by asserting, 'At least some students think that vandalizing Madison Hall’s furniture (even kicking a leg off a couch), and resisting arrest are forms of peaceful protest.'

But Casteen’s facts may have been a little off. A judge acquitted the 17 students on trespassing charges and prosecutors dropped a destruction of property charge against one student, acknowledging that police, and not the student, had damaged property.

The letter labels the sit-in protesters as seeming sick, embarrassed, confused or unable to follow the issues, and, in at least one case, less committed to the cause than other students outside the building.

Casteen wrote that a 'painfully telling remark was made to a university employee who offered to help one leave and avoid arrest. ‘I can’t leave,’ the student responded. ‘The people outside’ - the watchers and cell phone users on the porch - ‘won’t let me.’ '

Who is his letter appealing to by painting the determined sit-in protesters as having been led around by professional activists?

In making the case that UVa needs a smarter brand of protesters, Casteen seems to be almost daring the living-wage advocates to come back with more. His letter fans more flames than it puts out.

Some faculty members found the letter more combative and insulting than Casteen’s normal missives, indicating some folks might have gotten under his skin.

Casteen’s letter refers to legal advice he sought from Attorney General Robert F. McDonnell in which the Virginia Republican said UVa’s president and Board of Visitors lack the authority to 'change both our own base wage and our contractors’ wages' to a rate of $10.72 an hour plus benefits.

His letter makes no mention of McDonnell’s subsequent remark that universities have more freedom to pay their own employees with their own funds, as reported in this column on April 23. McDonnell said his 'agency advice' was not a formal opinion but stated that UVa must follow the state’s public procurement act for contract workers, meaning the university is required to hire 'the lowest responsive and responsible bidder.'

In the second clash, a top House of Delegates Democrat blasted a House GOP slap at institutions that do embryonic stem cell research.

UVa and Virginia Commonwealth University face a potential loss of state funding if House Republicans succeed in keeping budget language that states: 'No funding in this budget may be provided to any entity that conducts human stem cell research.'

Del. Brian J. Moran, the House Democratic Caucus chairman and an Alexandria Democrat looking at a 2009 bid for governor, blasted the GOP budget language last week as 'irresponsible.' Republicans said the language remains in the House budget.

This clash could derail promising medical research and threaten public funds to UVa and VCU, Moran said, if the Senate does not insist on knocking out the language he said was dictated by 'a religious conservative constituency that is now starting to entangle itself into the budget process.'

Professor of neurological surgery Roy C. Ogle said he and Gary K. Owens have conducted embryonic stem cell research at UVa during much of the past three years and have made good progress in the areas of bone regeneration and smooth muscle research.

Ogle is an expert in skull reconstructive surgery who says stem cell research, using both embryonic and adult stem cells, is a very promising field for medical research at UVa." (Bob Gibson, The Daily Progress, June 4, 2006)

Contact Bob Gibson at (434) 978-7243 or bgibson@dailyprogress.com.