Op-Ed: Paul Mahoney is the Man for the Moment

I’m not the most conservative law student, and Interim President Paul Mahoney is a card-carrying Republican. However, despite our diametrically opposed views on most political issues, I believe that President Mahoney should be offered a full-term as President of UVA. Having spent time learning from President Mahoney during my time at UVA, both as his student and as a community member, I have come to know him to be a man of integrity. He is a gifted scholar and experienced academic leader, and as Dean of the Law School from 2008-2017, he took our institution to new heights. He did so despite facing a crisis and tumult not seen in decades, as just a few months before he became Dean of the Law School, the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression hit. Despite that, he managed to grow the endowment, and UVA surged in the law school rankings. He built the foundation for many of the scholarships and opportunities we currently enjoy, including the Program in Law and Public Service, during one of the most difficult times in American history. Like before, President Mahoney can guide us through what will surely be tumultuous years under the Trump Administration. His recent decision to reject the “Compact for Excellence” offered by the Trump Administration proves that he can and will do the right thing. While in a vacuum I might prefer to have someone more aligned with me politically, there is great value in having a reasonable conservative occupy Carr’s Hill during at this time: when we have a Board of Visitors that is almost entirely appointed by Governor Youngkin, a federal government with a hostile stance towards our University, and radical alternative candidates like Ken Cuccinelli lurking at the door. Folks on both sides recognize that President Mahoney is a man of character and a great leader. He is the man for the moment.

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Written by Guest Contributor Kirk Wolff ’26, Vice President of the Law Democrats

wzw8mp@virginia.edu