SOMEBODY MUST HAVE BEEN TELLING LIES ABOUT JAMES R., for one fine morning he was relieved of his deanship. (Via University Diaries. Developing.)

Remember, this is Virginia, where two years ago there was a massive diversity hue-and-cry based on a manufactured mugging of a student government candidate. The disaffected dean offers the following observation.

However, larger issues of process and procedure are at stake that could impact many others. At Mr. Jefferson's University, of all places, there can be no toleration for innuendo, rumor, hearsay, and anonymous threats of any nature to torpedo a career or to challenge the presumption of integrity that the Honor pledge implies. Such behavior strikes at the very core of the community of trust that binds us as an institution and in my opinion the precedent it establishes can only be described as chilling. Due process, accountability, and basic fairness are principles upon which I have attempted to live my life and about which I lecture in my classroom. To depart from them now and furtively slink away from the University under cover of official secrecy and suspicion would go against the very core of my being. As a dear friend recently told me, sunshine is the best disinfectant.

But perhaps it is too late: who else, less exalted than a dean, at Virginia has been offered the opportunity to take the knife and plunge it into his own heart?