The I Love CVille Show With Jerry Miller! - Pres Ryan Pens Letter: Hiring & Pay Raises On Ice; Is Overall UVA Employee Morale At All-Time Low?

Episode Date: March 26, 2025

The I Love CVille Show headlines: Pres Ryan Pens Letter: Hiring & Pay Raises On Ice Is Overall UVA Employee Morale At An All-Time Low? Roleplay: Jerry Is Jim Ryan, Judah Is Jim’s Therapist Will Lee Enterprises Shareholder Buy Daily Progress? The Worst Intersections In CVille & AlbCo Family Dollar Sold To Private Equity For $1B Media Reports Link Isaac McKneely To UNC Tim Shropshire Comedy Night, Pro Re Nata, 3/27 Read Viewer & Listener Comments Live On Air The I Love CVille Show airs live Monday – Friday from 12:30 pm – 1:30 pm on The I Love CVille Network. Watch and listen to The I Love CVille Show on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, iTunes, Apple Podcast, YouTube, Spotify, Fountain, Amazon Music, Audible, Rumble and iLoveCVille.com.

Why does the set need to be quiet right now? I can't wait to see Judah Wickhauer role play Jim Ryan's therapist. Can't wait to see you role play Jim Bo's therapist. Good Wednesday afternoon guys. I'm Jerry Miller and thank you kindly for joining us on the I Love Seville Show. A pleasure to connect with you guys through our network, the Isle of Seville Network where Monday through Friday at 1230 p.m. we try to localize, personalize, and humanize Charlottesville, Elmoral County, and Central Virginia through content that

we think will be appealing and compelling for you, the viewer and listener. Today's show embodies those qualities. Jim Ryan has authored a letter. It's been co-signed by three of his colleagues. Interesting, two of those three colleagues that co-signed the letter, Judah, have the interim title associated with their professional tag, their professional moniker.

So probably not much of a choice in assigning. People are leaving quickly from University of Virginia and I'm not laughing. This is not a laughing matter. This is not a laughing matter. Federal funding is being cut. It's no secret. I mean, Musk and Trump, the Department of Government Efficiency, federal funding is on the chopping block, and it is being sliced and diced. Like, is it a head of onion? Is an onion a head?

Is it a ball of onion? What's the circle of an onion called? Is it a bulb? Is of an onion called Is it a bulb is an onion ball, I know onions and garlic are usually grow in bulbs so what I'm cutting what my what my better half for I are cutting at dinnertime and slicing into Slices is an onion ball Federal funding is being sliced and diced like an onion bulb, Judah Wichera says.

And this is impacting Charlottesville. Look, this is no laughing matter. This is starting to impact Charlottesville, Alamaro County, and Central Virginia. This is impacting the most influential machine in Charlottesville, Alamaro, and Central Virginia, and of course that's the University of Virginia.

Yesterday Jim Ryan wrote a letter to the University of Virginia, people employed by UVA. I'm not talking about the arts and science, I'm not talking about the engineering school, Darden, the McIntyre School of Commerce, UVA Health, I'm talking the University of Virginia. He wrote this letter to everyone. And folks, in 2025, nothing is a secret anymore. And if Jim Ryan's writing a letter to, how many employees are employed by the University of Virginia, Judith?

Can you give me that number? How many total employees at UVA? If Jim Ryan is emailing a letter to every employee at the University of Virginia, that's going to make its way onto the interwebs and into social media. And it did yesterday. And this letter spells doom and gloom,

at least in the short term. Approximately 30,000. 30,000 people received this letter from Jimbo. 30,000? Is that number accurate? Site your source. Trust but verify. Ronald Reagan, that is 30,000?

That's not true. 30,000? This should be a very straightforward Google search for you here with a reputable source. This is from news.virginia.edu. Okay, that's the most reputable of sources. This is from a little over a year ago. February 16th, 2024. UVA in total employs some 30,000 people across its academic division in Charlottesville. UVA Health, UVA Physician, the group, and College It Wise. Okay, is that all UVA employees? That and College It Was. OK, is that all UVA employees? I want to know facilities management. You want to know if there's more than that?

I want to know how many total employees receive this letter because it's the entire listserv. The entire listserv received this letter. Total employees, not just academia. And please don't do that tongue tie thing again that scared the bejeebus out of me, Judy. Why is that? It's terrifying what you just did right there. I'll offer the cliff notes of this letter, okay, as he gives us the total employee base. 30,000 is a flabbergasting number. Hiring freezes are upon us at UVA. Hiring freezes. Not only hiring freezes, they

allude to raises not being an option, including pay raises, cost of living raises, and bonuses. Not getting the cost of living raise is a gut punch. Not getting performance or merit-based raises is a gut punch. And that's what's happening here at dear old UVA. And I want to unpack that on the Wednesday edition of the I Love Sevilleille show. Ladies and gentlemen, this is a monumental story here. We're going to unpack this from an analysis on the letter of Jim

to the UVA community. You have a number? Are we going to go with the 30,000 from news.virginia.edu? Do they caveat or offer criteria on that number, Judah? What's that? Do they caveat or offer criteria on that number, Judah? What's that? Do they caveat or offer criteria on that number? What goes on with the number on that link that you find?

What else is said before and after that number? The whole paragraph is more than 170,000 employees at companies and organizations with at least 1,000 employees were surveyed and results were broken down based on the number of workers. UVA in total employs some 30,000 people across its academic division in Charlottesville, UVA Health, UVA Physicians Group, and the college it was. And since this is from news.virginia.edu, I would think that they are including not just the the big names, but the you know the people that take out trash as well. Okay, 30,000. Geez, Louise, that is astronomical. That puts in

perspective yet again the significance of the University of Virginia. I mean, holy bejeebus. If we're talking 26,000 students and 30,000 employees as this news.virginia.edu article says, that means the students employees alone have a population that's greater than what Charlottesville's is on paper. Albemarle County's population, Alamaro County, Virginia population, what do you think that is? I ask you this all the time. And I always forget.

116,000 roughly. That means the staff and students at the University of Virginia combined are damn near close to. A quarter. Quarter, what math did you take, my my friend 30,000 to 116,000 staff and students combined is at 56 okay gotcha total Albemarle County population is 116 was that 40 per 45 percent 46 47 percent and and when 30 thousand people receive a letter like this from Jim Ryan, this is pretty much what

happened yesterday. You go to your Virginia.edu email. Uh-oh. I got an email from President Ryan. Jim Ryan has emailed me. Good God. This can't be good. Every time Jim Ryan is emailing me,

it's about triple murder redacted reports. Every time Jim Ryan has emailed me is about students that were pepper sprayed in a pro-Palestine protest. Every time Jim Ryan has emailed me, it's about alleged corruption and white collar racketeering at UVA Health. Every time Jim Ryan has emailed me,

what does the emailing be about now? I hesitantly click on the email and open it on my phone or computer and I start reading and this isn't roses and flowers. This is doom and gloom. No pay raises, no cost of living raises, no performance and merit based bonuses, hiring freezes, discretionary spending put on ICE, that's going to leak. And it's going to leak outside the listserv.

I wonder how many universities across the U.S. are sending out those same or similar emails. I would bet you damn near close to all of them. Right? So we will unpack that not just from a UVA standpoint, but at Charlottesville, Almar, and Central Virginia standpoint, and we will associate some role playing with it, as Judah Wickhauer is going to be Jim Ryan's therapist, and I'm going to be Jim Ryan, and, you know, on the sofa, laying on my back for 50 minutes to an hour at $2.95 an hour, talking to my therapist about what my life has been

over the last 12 to 18 months. That conversation on the Wednesday edition of the I Love Civo Show, we're also gonna talk on today's program, a potential buyer for the daily progress. Lee Enterprises is the parent company of the daily progress. Lee Enterprises, an Iowa-based media company. They own a number of newspapers, including just about all of them

in the Commonwealth of Virginia, including the Richmond Times, Dispatch, the Roanoke Times, and the Daily Progress. There's a shareholder that just owns just under 10% of Lee's stock, and it's the Hoffman companies, the Hoffman family of companies, and they wrote a letter to Lee Enterprise executives

saying, we wanna have an open discussion about buying your company in totality. Wow. We have a lot of cash on hand, and we own a lot of different businesses, and frankly frankly Lee Enterprises, you're terrible at running newspapers. That's pretty much what was said. We're going to talk about that on today's episode. I'm going to highlight the worst intersections in Charlottesville and Alamaro County. This on the heels that VDOT is considering updates to one of downtown Charlottesville's most frustrating intersections.

Ridge Street, McIntyre Road, West Main Street, West Water Street, and South Street West. That's the intersection that's right in front of the Lewis and Clark statue by the Music Resource Center, the entry point to downtown Charlottesville. VDOT is launching a survey to assess the operational and safety improvements needed to this intersection. That got me thinking which intersections in Charlottesville and Alamaro County are just ones you avoid at all costs. I'm talking like the Pantops, Diamond Interchange. We've got one clear winner. I'm talking like the one on Hillsdale, the one by Whole Foods.

Whole Foods. I'm talking about the- You wanna see Charlottesvillians being insane, terrible drivers. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The Whole Foods one. I'm talking about what's becoming of Ivy Road as you go from the city into Albemarle County

when there's an apartment complex being built next to Moe's Barbecue, when there's a gray star doing a, what is it, like a 13 story apartment complex off of Old Ivy Road, kind of across from Bel Air and St. Anne's Belfield. I mean, that's gonna turn into a clustered dot quack, quack, quack, very, very soon. So we'll highlight some of the most challenging

intersections as VDOT is considering renovating, improving the downtown entry point. This is what's shocking about this. Is VDOT dumb enough to do this? Is Charlottesville dumb enough to do this? While Jeff Levine, the North Garden and Big Apple developer, builds a hotel next to the Omni in the site where the livery stable and the artful lodger is located? Are they dumb enough to allow this to happen when Jeff

Levine is also pushing violent crown to be destroyed and torn down so he can build an 18-story apartment complex? And are they dumb enough to allow this to happen at the same time that the Dewberry Hotel is on the for sale block with the Hilton and the Marriott kicking the tires to purchase the Dewberry skeleton as we speak? I mean, can you imagine VDOT and the city of Charlottesville doing an intersection improvement project at the same time that a hotel's being built in the shadows of Charlottesville doing an intersection improvement project at the

same time that a hotel is being built in the shadows of the Obney and at the same time that an 18-story apartment tower, the tallest building in the region, could be built next to the code building in the site or the place of the movie theater and at the same time that the skeleton that Johnny Dewberry, Waynesboro's finest, the former quarterback of the Ramblin Rec is trying to sell with the Marriott and the Hilton kicking the tires to purchase. Ay mi madre carajo chico. We'll talk about that on the Wednesday edition of the I Love C-Bowl show. We'll highlight the fact that Dollar Tree is selling, has sold Family Dollar, a billion

dollars to what, two private equity firms. One billion with a B smackaroos Family Dollar is now in the hands of venture vultures. Quite possibly. Venture vultures own Family Dollar now as Dollar Tree says, we don't want Family Dollar no more. Get it away from us. What is the localized impact of Family Dollar being sold? Ladies and gentlemen, there is a Family Dollar located in the area, Judah Wickhauer. Pop quiz, hot shot.

What line, what movie is that line from? Pop quiz, hot shot. Pop quiz, hot shot. Viewers and listeners, what line? Top Gun. No, not Maverick and Goose. Pop quiz, hot shot. What viewer and listener you'll get praise

on the I Love Seville show can name the line that movie is from? The movie that line is from. I think that's what I'm trying to say anybody viewers and listeners Judy do you give up yeah I have no idea I'll give you I'll give you a hint okay Sandra Bullock Sandra Bullock the number of Sandra Bullock movies I can name that doesn't help you either this is one of the most iconic lines of a movie generation

Is it speed Oh? Was the clue that one of the most iconic movies of a generation what gave it away Pop quiz hot shot Dennis Hopper to Keanu Reeves speed that was the only movie I can think of off the top of my head that Sunder Bullock is in. OK, very good. Well, you got it right, Judas. So props to you. Pop quiz hot shot, where is the only family dollar located?

Is that the one at the bottom of Pantops? I don't think so. No? Is that not a family dollar? I don't think so. No. No. Is that not a family dollar? I don't think so. You guess again, as you look to I think that's a dollar general. Yeah. And the pan and the lazy parent shopping center is where roses was closed. The only family dollar in the area is in the Willoughby

shopping center. You drive by this on the way to your parents. Willoughby. Yeah, next to the food center. You drive by this on the way to your parents. Willoughby? I don't even know what that is. Yeah, next to the Food Lion. You drive by it as you go to your parents in the Willoughby shopping center. There's a Dollar Tree on Pantops. Okay. And a Dollar Tree in the Wegman shopping center. Do we have a Dollar General locally? Anyway. Not that I'm aware of. Family Dollar has been sold. I wanna localize this to Charlottesville.

I also wanna highlight that media reports are linking Isaac McNeely to the North Carolina Tar Heels. The UVA sharpshooter who has one year of eligibility remaining, who entered the transfer portal, much to the demoralization of Wahoo Nation, as being linked to UNC in a big bag of money. That story on the Isle of Sival Show.

Judah, let's give some love to some of our partners. We'll highlight our friends over at Pro Renata. John Shade, stay in focus. The man at the task right here. Dr. John Shade and Pro Renata have a comedy act tomorrow. You wanna give the who, what, when, where, why and Pro Renata have a comedy act tomorrow. You wanna give the who, what, when, where, why of tomorrow, Judah Wickhauer, and this very nationally known comedian

that's coming to Pro Renata with $10 tickets, man. Yeah. We got Tim Shropshire. He is a lot of things. I believe he even has some, I don't know if they're cooking show comedy acts, but you can find a lot of, you can find, Google a lot of information about him where he's doing like barbecue. Pro Renata, Judah, Thursday, stick to the task at hand.

You said who, what, when, this is part of the what. He's going to be doing a comedy show at Pro Renato. There we go. Thursday, March 27. There we go. That is tomorrow. Tomorrow. $10 tickets.

From 7 to 9 PM. Eat some pizza, eat some ice cream, drink some beer, and check out the Disney World of Crozet. John Shabe understands the concept of experiential. Stacey Baker-Patty, is she one of our valued listeners that we do not have a photo of? Stacey Baker-Patty says speed is the answer that Judah is looking for. Stacey Baker-Patty, you are an extremely intelligent viewer and listener. You are correct.

A lot we're going to cover on the program. She's not on our list. We don't have her photo? No. Oh man, Stacey Baker Patty, I wish we had your photo. I'd put it on the screen. All right, do we want to get to Jimbo? Jim Ryan?

Dude, anybody that says they want to start getting into the stratosphere of 1% wealth, and Jim Ryan, I would say, is flirting with the 1% wealth stratosphere, okay. The guy's making about a million dollars a year. When you include the other like pomp and circumstance and bells and whistles, the dude's making well over a million dollars. I mean he's got a house on Cars Hill. He, I mean, has Jim Ryan paid for a drink in a long time? Obviously that's proverbial, you know, he's paid for drinks.

But the guy is the president of one of the most prestigious universities. His total compensation package, well over a million dollars. You say you wanna be in the stratosphere of top 5% or top 1%, top 3%, 2%, 4% wealth, you may want to think again. Because the last 24 months to 36 months of Jim Ryan's life have been, in a lot of ways, a living hell.

A living hell. OK? First, he navigated COVID. OK? And frankly, how President Ryan and UVA managed the pandemic and COVID, we applauded them. He earned brand equity and community loyalty with his tie-it-half mask, sleeves rolled up,

video conversations with students in the UVA community in the Charlottesville area community during the pandemic. Really likeable, really approachable, really kind of took, and this is not about politics, but it took a lot of like the approachability cues from Barack Obama. It's not about politics, it's not about being a Democrat or Republican. One thing you can say about Barack Obama is the guy has approachability and he has approachability in spades. And he did that by making himself one of the people, by taking his button-down shirts and

rolling up the sleeves to his elbows and loosening in his tie and just being in it, taking off his sports coat, his suit jacket, and just coming across as an average Joe you want to belly up to the bar with. Brock was real good at that, President Obama. President Ryan had that too. Then you start dabbling in a dose or a smidge or a sprinkle of President Ryan waking up at sunrise and running around grounds and encouraging the community

to run with him. Remember early in his presidency, President Ryan was walking around grounds and interviewing students with microphones, doing kind of like the Jay Leno Act, Judah, where he would ask students random questions about UVA and he'd have a videographer following him around, interviewing the students.

I loved it. It was really an 180 degree contrast of what we saw with John Castine, who was a little bit more stodgy, still very likable, but way more button up to, you know, way more Tyler in full tie in full position and suit jacket on at all times, even in 100 degree weather. I think he was far more of a, of a, of a, getting money for the school. He was a fundraiser. Yeah. He was, he was an OG president. Where Ryan came across as a- There was also, there was also no or at least far less social media to be capturing every

breath and footstep. 100%, 100%. And today's social and digital world, where everyone's got a camera and a platform and a massive following at their fingertips, you have to be on your P's and Q's significantly more. From that approachability and affability and overall agreeability, Jim Ryan, early in his presidency.

Look at what's happened, dude. Look at what's happened. Did it start with the triple murder? Probably started with COVID. There was more than just his fires know, his fireside chat. There were probably a lot of tough decisions to make and then we come out of it and we've got, as you said, the triple murder.

Okay, I'll give you, it started during the pandemic because during the pandemic, during COVID, they also did a kind of, not just a hiring freeze, not just a raise in performance bonus freeze, but they also cut people's pay. Because during the pandemic, UVA Health could not see patients from an elective surgery standpoint. Elective surgeries were cut.

And let's cut to the chase. If you're a hospital system, how you're making the meat and potatoes of your revenue is through elective surgeries. So during the pandemic, elective surgeries were not an option because we thought the vid was like on the ground. And if we walked shoes on the ground, we'd spread the vid.

We thought COVID, sure for COVID. Yeah, I figured that out. We thought COVID was on the doors or on cars. We'd have to go grocery shopping with some people were grocery shopping with latex gloves. I saw some people wrapping grocery bags around their shoes so their feet would not touch the floor of the grocery store. I mean, I heard stories about people washing their groceries after they got home. People were legitimately... Bags and cartons and boxes and I mean... It's one thing to wash the apples and oranges and the celery and the broccoli, but it's

a completely different thing altogether to ladies and gentlemen soap and lather the Honey Nut Cheerios cardboard box. That's what we were doing. soap and lather the Honey Nut Cheerios cardboard box. And that's what we were doing. We were soap and lathering the Honey Nut Cheerios cardboard box in the eggnog carton. We were soap and lathering the Angel's NV750 milliliter, the Pro Renata six pack we were soap and lathering and

Things just got crazy and when they stopped elective surgery during the covin during the vid during the pandemic They didn't really have a lot of money and they couldn't pay their bills So some people were legitimately some staff members of the health system were legitimately not just no money Not just pay freeze or cost of living freeze, they had their pay cut by 10, 15, 20, 30 percent, some cases even more. So imagine you're going through COVID, the world you appear think has fallen apart and a good rule of thumb, when everyone is scared and fearful, great opportunity to pursue opportunity. That's when we bought the house in Glenmore for pennies on the dollar. Just highlighting that. I like to tell the story, lesson of Warren Buffett. But President Ryan had to deliver that news to people.

You guys are going to have to figure out COVID and you're going to do it at a 25, 30 percent. So maybe Judah's right. That's when the fall, the equity built with the brand started crumbling. Since then, we've seen a triple murder at the University of Virginia at the hands of another University of Virginia student. And help me do the timeline here, Judah. Triple murder. We've seen the pro-Palestine pepper spraying protest, where he's the fall guy, state police militarize to pepper spray students. We've seen the health system with the white collar racketeering and the fraud and the cronyism and the medical chart change it to maintain performance standards. Right?

Multiple reports. Multiple reports of that. Both the murderers and the... White collar racketeering and the UVA health system fraud and performance standards changing. We've seen the Board of Visitors dynamic change dramatically since Yonkin got his hands on it. 13 of 17 Yonkin got his hands on it. 13 of 17 Yonkin appointments. It's gonna be even more in July as Yonkin makes all the appointments. Jim Ryan's ideology in stark contrast to the BOV appointments.

Now Jim Ryan, the president of the University of Virginia, you know what president he is at UVA, Judah? What number president he is at UVA? You mean counting from the beginning of president? Yes. No, I have no idea. What number president is Jim Ryan at UVA? I don't know.

He's the ninth. Only the ninth? Wow. The ninth. Right, only the ninth. That says something right there. He first assumed office on the 1st of August in 2018. Yesterday he writes a letter to 30,000 people and says,

you guys, we got hiring freezes, cost of living raises ain't gonna happen, and merit-based bonuses aren't gonna happen, and you also have to freeze your discretionary spending tied to your department. That basically is this in a nutshell. You ready? Do more with less. Judah would say profits over people. Now, some people would say put the endowment in play. I push back on that. The endowment's not necessarily liquid, and you can't just use the endowment nilly-willy for anything you want. When the money is raised for the endowment, it is earmarked for certain endeavors and

activities. Not all of it is. A large portion of it. Not all of it. But while I am one that often says, oh, you know. You do use that all the time. That's why I wanted to caveat that. But it's true.

And it's the same thing with, it's the same thing with people questioning why people, why rich industrialists like Musk and Bezos don't pay more in taxes and they've got all this money. But in reality, those guys don't have, they don't have the piles of cash like in Uncle Scrooge McDuck's, you know. You're talking liquid reserves, cash on hand, like Scrooge when he's swimming through the gold coins in DuckTales.

Yeah, most of it's tied up in stocks and property and things like that. And you don't just call up someone and say, you'd sell half the stock and give me the cash. There you go. Rotate the lower thirds on screen if you could please. Those lower thirds I hear from many viewers and listeners are very, very important.

We got three tied to Jim Ryan. Do you know any of the DuckTales theme song? What's the hook of the DuckTales theme song? DuckTales, ooh. Do you remember that? Oh, Judo Bicoward's on point today. That's the only thing I can tell you about those songs. That's what I remember too.

DuckTales, ooh. Yeah. What do you make of the Jim Ryan letter? Is it just more of the like poop storm heaped on this man? This is big. I don't know, it doesn't really say much. I wouldn't say it was I wouldn't say that letter. You don't think you caused a drop of sweat to come off of his brow. And I doubt he even wrote it at the universe. I disagree with

you. You said you doubt he even wrote it? Yeah. I push back on that. I think Jim Ryan, with this letter sent to staff, absolutely had influence of how it's laid out and the words that were chosen. 100%. This is a significant letter. Yeah. And I'm going to ask you, and I'm going to ask the viewers and listeners this. This is not a fair reality, but it is today's reality. When this letter is written to staff,

30,000 Judas said, that number I find flabbergasting. My jaw was literally on the studio table when you said that. This isn't a byproduct of decisions that Jim Ryan has made. We got federal cuts upon us. This is Trump and Musk and the Trump administration that are determining, that are creating these headwinds for UVA in college and universities everywhere, right? I mean, that's what it is. But the fall guy in some ways is going to be President Ryan.

He's the president. He's what, the second highest paid guy, third highest paid guy? We won't include the head coaches, UVA, men's football, or football and men's basketball because they're paid from a number of different pots. I mean, Craig Kent's not there anymore. He's resigned. Is the dean of the medical school, Melina Kibbe, and then Jim Ryan, the two highest paid people. When you make this level of compensation, Judah,

and when you earn this level of perks and bonuses and, you know, bells and whistles, and when you have this level of profile, you become a target. and you know, bells and whistles. And when you have this level of profile, you become a target. You become, and you position, you're positioned in the microscope. And folks are gonna say this is Jim Ryan's doing.

They're gonna say it's Jim Ryan's doing, okay? And it's a perfect segue to role play as you put those lower thirds on screen. Mm-hmm. And in today's edition of role play, and no Bill McChesney, the great Jared Dini are not here today, and neither is the great Bubini, which was Judah's nickname that he came up with that he loved. Oh, yeah, yeah.

Very, very wonderfully conceived name. Carol Thorpe says, please remember that Jim Ryan also magnificently botched the Morgan Benninger, Zyanna Bryant fiasco. That's another one. That was just train wreck. Where a protest on Water Street, Black Women's Matter protest on Water Street with Zianna Bryant, one of the leaders, who very interestingly is running for Charlottesville School Board today, tried to ruin the life, literally ruin the life of a fellow UVA student, claiming the fellow UVA student, Morgan Bettinger, was alluding to vehicles slamming and ram-rotting the protest when she was not in fact doing that.

Right. That was disgusting behavior. Oh, 100%. Disgusting behavior. That story is well documented. You can find it online. But I want to get to role-playing. I want to get to role-playing on the I Love Seaville show today. And in today's episode of role-play on the I Love Seaville show today. And in today's episode of role play on the I Love Seaville show, yours truly is walking into a waiting room.

And yours truly is walking into a waiting room in downtown Charlottesville. And here's the setting. In the waiting room, smooth jazz is playing through speakers. The mood and the lighting is one of calming nature. The lights are dim, incense is burning. And Kenny G., Michael Bolton's smooth jazz,

is percolating the speakers in the waiting room. Jim Ryan... Is that a specific request from Jim Ryan? Jim Ryan enters the door, and President Ryan, on today's edition of Role Play, is tired. He's exhausted. And he's proverbially been run over by a truck. And no, it's not the truck that Zianna Bryant said Morgan Benninger wanted to use

on a protest in Water Street. Okay, Jim Ryan is in the waiting room, waiting for his therapist to come out of their room to start the therapy session. Cue the therapist. I hope you have a good name, Mr. Therapist, of who you're going to be called, because my name is President Ryan. You didn't tell me I had to come up with a name.

Just come up with something on the spot, Trudy. You're a quick thinker. You're very succinct and witty. Cue the therapist who is opening the door to the waiting room and asking client Jim Ryan to come in for a 50 minute session at 295 an hour and action Welcome back President Ryan, it's good to see you again. I can already tell that you've had a rough week

Would you care to lie on the couch? Thank you for seeing me on such short notice. I know my schedule is unpredictable and I know you're very busy and and I'm grateful for you giving me the time. Yes, I'll come in on the couch. So tell me about your day. It's been trying. I had to notify 30,000 people via email that they will not get cost of living raises, pay raises, performance based bonuses. They're going to have to freeze all discretionary hiring,

all discretionary spending, and frankly they're gonna have to do more with less. I don't know what's happening but it seems every day I wake up more people are hating me and more people dislike me. When I saw the news about the letter I had my secretary clear my calendar for today. I was fairly certain you would come by. Why is it I never see your secretary in your practice? There is no secretary in your waiting room. I'm sorry, I'm getting into the weeds here.

It seems to be only you at your therapy practice. What am I to do? The world is mounting. The weight on my shoulders is grave. I can't sleep at night. I look weathered, and my only outlet, running around this community, is an outlet I can't sleep at night. I look weathered and my only outlet running around this community is an outlet I don't enjoy anymore. This job is trying. I'm exhausted and I have not been able to parlay or springboard this UVA position into

an Ivy League presidency, much to my disappointment. Is there anything you can do for me? Hmm. I can prescribe some drugs. You know what that Xanax does to my mind. You know what that volume does to my clarity of thought. I must be clear. I cannot do the volume again. We have a few drugs we've been testing on patients and one that I think might work well for you. But... Mr. Watson, no more drugs.

No more drugs, Mr. Watson. No more drugs, please. Please, Dr. Watson, no more drugs. No more drugs, Mr. Watson. No more drugs, please. Please, Dr. Watson. Okay, Dr. Watson, we've talked about this. You haven't given me anything so far, and I'm 10 minutes in. That's costed me $65 so far. I'm here to listen and evaluate.

How can I be liked again? How can I get back in the good graces of the community of love nigh of? Rank and file how can I build and breed my trust again my likeability and approachability? I've tried everything the Boston Marathon jumping into swimming pools to celebrate national championships being there to revel in a national championship for basketball, a game that they throw a ball into a hoop and they play at a snail's pace. They don't even try to score. I traveled all the way across the country for this trophy presentation to win likeability and it's all eroding before me. Have you tried honesty?

Honesty? Did you see the letter I wrote? Did you not think it was honest? While it may have been honest, it seemed to be somewhat lacking in detail. What do you mean? There was plenty of detail. I used big words. I used three-syllable words, four-syllable words, five-syllable words. I used three-syllable words, four-syllable words, five-syllable words. I used sentence structure. Grammar was correct. I signed it with my president title. What was wrong with it? And nothing was redacted.

I understand. But there's been quite a bit of interaction between you and the local community, not to mention the school, UVA, where I think a lot of people have gone from seeing you as a very approachable figure. When you know, for instance, in the video where you rolled up your shirt sleeves, sat on the desk, and I think people related to you.

And it seems in recent years that a lot of what you've been doing has been hidden behind a veil of secrecy, and whether or not you see that as necessary or whether you've been ordered into those situations, I believe that overall the look is one of, as I said, secrecy. There's another man telling me what to do. He controls the purse strings.

He controls my bosses. He determines where the university goes. I can do nothing. I'm the president, yet I'm nothing but middle management here. Somebody's 60 minutes from me, 65 miles from me. A very wealthy person is telling me what to do. I'm the fall guy. I'm the scapegoat. I'm hanging on the sword.

What else am I supposed to do? There's a gentleman on the Board of Vis visitors right now, a very angry fellow, a portly fellow, a gentleman who chooses to drive in a luxury vehicle across state lines to threaten my students and he's barking instructions at me. I've lost consensus. I've lost influence. I'm tired. Have you thought that maybe a break would be in order? The Ivy Leagues won't pick me. Maybe you need some distance from UVA before they will. To my house in Earleysville I go.

Take me off the clock. I'm not paying full freight. Can you imagine as we exit role play, being in this position, do you feel pity? Do I feel pity for Paul, for President Ryan? It's hard to, it's a... This is one of the most empathetic people I've ever met in my life. A man whose emotional intelligence is off the charts.

One of the kindest people I've met, and I'm talking Judah Wickower, not therapist Watson, and not that fool that was acting Jim Ryan moments ago. Certainly not that fool that was acting Jim Ryan moments ago. Certainly not that fool that was acting Jim Ryan moments ago. This man, Judah Wichara, is one of the kindest, most empathetic people I know, and he legitimately cannot acknowledge immediate pity for a man over the last 24 to 36 months that has faced scandal, murder,

rights being stepped on, alleged white collar racketeering and cronyism and fraud, and an emasculation of power and influence, most likely health issues tied to stress, quality of life erosion undoubtedly, and Judah cannot find pity in his heart or empathy. I mean, look at that. He still can't find it. Look at that. You're always too quick to offer empathy. I'm not saying you're wrong. I'm not saying you're wrong. I'm not saying you're wrong. That's because I can empathize usually.

And I can empathize with him having tough times, but it's his job. And I think the barrier for me is the fact that we've had all these equivocations and messages that don't really, that don't really. This is my issue with it. I'll put it succinctly. We have yet to see a true acknowledgement of mismanagement

and asking for forgiveness or holding oneself to true accountability. In our household, when our oldest, our youngest is two and a half, he's just trying to figure out not to put his hand in his diapers when he's pooped and rub it on the wall. That's literally what we're going through right now.

But our oldest knows the difference between right and wrong. And we ask our oldest when wrong has been committed to, A, what did you do wrong? How are you gonna hold yourself accountable? Is there an apology? And if there's a punishment, it needs to be served now. And often it's time out. Or spending some alone time in the room

to think about what happened. Okay, and I know that's an elementary version of accountability, and an elementary version of saying I'm sorry, but have we seen that yet in any of the fiascos? Have we seen it yet in any of the fiascos? Have we seen it yet in the triple murder? Have we seen it yet in the pepper spraying of students? Have we seen it yet at UVA Health?

Have we seen it yet with Morgan Benninger? Have we seen, I'm sorry, I handled this wrong in any capacity? I don't think we have. We have not. We have not. That's I think. We have not seen sincerity. Right. We have not seen just I'm sorry. Mm-hmm. And because of that it's hard to empathize. Yeah. It's hard to offer compassion. He's also come out against some of the things that I do empathize with. Oh, He straight up told 128 anonymous doctors that said this stuff is going on. He basically called them bitter and angry high schoolers who did not get invited to

prom. He says there's 9 to 10% of any organization that is angry and bitter and you can just expect that and ignore them. That's what he said. He marginalized them. That's what he said. He marginalized them. That was mismanaged as much as anything I think I've seen professionally in a really long time. No doubt. Now, we spent some time covering this and we continue to have to cover it as Burt Ellis

fights for power on the Board of Visitors. What happened with the meeting yesterday with Governor Youngkin? I mean, is he fighting for power? Burt Ellis is undoubtedly fighting for power. You can make a legitimate argument right now that the most powerful person at the University of Virginia is Burt Ellis. A legitimate argument. Burt Ellis is to UVA as Elon Musk is to America. Very similar personality traits with Musk and Ellis.

We'll cover that more on tomorrow's edition of the show. We have other topic matter to get to. Judy B. Wickhauer, you're doing a hell of a job today. What are the next topics on the show as comments are coming in very quickly on a Wednesday afternoon? In fact, why don't I get to- Lee Enterprise?

To some of those comments. I do want to cover Lee Enterprises, the owner of the Daily Progress, one of their top shareholders, looking to take control of the Daily Progress. The second biggest shareholder, in fact, the Hoffman family of companies. Comments are coming in though.

That biggest shareholder, in fact, the Hoffman family of companies. Comments are coming in though. Deep Throats, back in the mix, fresh from Montana. He says, anyone can pose as a sympathetic good guy, but under stress, the mask drops. That's a good point. The UVA health situation and his response to it was that dropping the mask moment.

Mercenary organization man with some fake ass jog with me jive is what he calls him. That's I mean. Interesting. I appreciate his words here and I think he makes a good point. Anyone can pose as a sympathetic good guy but under stress that's when the mask of sympathetic good guy drops. And he says how he handled the UVA health and its response was the dropping of the mask moment. And he says he's a mercenary organization man

with some fake ass jog with me jive. Deep Throat, genuinely mean this, you have a way with words, the written word in particular. No doubt. Ginny Hu, watching the program. She says Forbes just listed Notre Dame as the best large employer for 2025. Forbes Magazine listed Notre Dame

as the best large employer for 2025. I did not see UVA on the list, although they were ranked 73rd in 2024. Ginny who says, Judah immediately went to medicine and drugs to slap a band-aid on the problem. He does laughing face emojis. I didn't notice that as well. A reminder, folks, that I am not a practicing psychotherapist of any kind, shape, form or... I didn't notice that as well. I think we all noticed you immediately went to the drugs for President Ryan.

My other choice was suggesting that he quit his job and go hang out in the mountains or the prairies for a year to just decompress and get a new perspective on things. All right. A couple of items out of the notebook that are extremely important here. I hope this plays out. The Daily Progress, there is a publicly, Lee Enterprises, who owns the Daily Progress, is a publicly traded company. They own the Richmond Times Dispatch, the Roanoke Times, the most amount of newspapers in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

They own other newspapers like the paper in Buffalo as well. The Daily Progress and its second largest shareholder, the Hoffman family of companies, which owns just under 10% of Lee Enterprises' stock, is written a letter to Lee Enterprises' executives and said, hey, we want to buy, we wanna have an open discussion about buying your company in totality. And it's entirely-

I can't believe that's not an immediate, yes please. If you're Lee Enterprises, and remember, I'll push back slightly on that. In the past, Lee Enterprises has fought other shareholders in their pursuit of purchasing the company. And they've certainly just worked hard to come back from their cyber attack. In the last year alone, a cyber attack

has crippled Lee Enterprises, a newspaper business, to the point that this cyber attack prevented the newspaper business from printing the newspaper. This cyber attack for months kept the daily progress in other media brands and Lee Enterprises holding in their portfolio from making news, writing news, ladies and gentlemen. For the most part, the daily progress for the large portion of 2025 was not behind a paywall. How were they generating revenue? How were they printing the notices from government where they had to paper the trail about permitting and zoning and other government business? That's why our, that's why the Charlottesville tax discussion is postponed. Yeah. With Albemarle County, right?

Because it was, uh, no. Or was it the city of Charlottesville? This is Charlottesville. Yeah. Postponed because they couldn't advertise the rate? No, it was because it was advertised in the wrong section. Oh, I thought it was advertised incorrectly. I think it was advertised in the wrong section of the paper. thought it was advertised incorrectly. I think it was advertised in the wrong section of the paper. Yeah. We're talking like a squirrel trying to eat a nut, and before the squirrel ate a nut, it confused the nut with a rock and ate the rock

and broke his teeth. We're talking incompetence here. Absolute incompetence here. This company, the Hoffman family of companies, I hope to God they buy this portfolio of brands for Lee Enterprises because we're at the bottom of the barrel. You think they're buying the whole kit and caboodle? Whole kit and caboodle. Dang.

Buying Lee in its entirety. Oh, wow. The whole, not just the daily progress, J-Dubbs. Lee has 78 newspapers. 78 newspapers. Hoffman has 21 publications of their own. And the Hoffman companies, I would encourage everyone to look at the Hoffman family

of companies online. This company is in the search space, internet search, is in vineyards and wineries, is in transportation, is in commercial real estate. This guy is extremely diversified with his revenue stream and very much understands profitability and how to take struggling businesses and put them in the black. I hope this happens for the community's sake. As we've become a media desert, at a time we need news coverage more than ever. Next headline, Judah Wichower.

What do we have on the docket over there? Are we talking worse intersections in the community? Ooh, that's a good one. This comes on the heels of a report that's out there that VDOT is considering updates to one of Charlottesville's most confusing intersections, most specifically Ridge Street, McIntyre Road, West Main Street, West Water Street, and South Street West.

I will say this, the Lewis and Clark statue is gone. Where the Lewis and Clark statue was, that intersection is a cluster. The Belmont intersection is still a cluster. I'll tell you a really under the radar cluster intersection is the Park Street at the bypass with the back to back lights there. On the bridge of the bypass on Park Street. Oh yeah, yeah.

I know. I hate that. That's the way you go home, isn't it? Yeah, I hit that every day. Yeah. That is a nightmare. Twice. Twice. An absolute nightmare.

The Pantops, Diamond Interchange, or whatever they call it, that's an absolute nightmare. I would make a legitimate argument. I thought you liked that. What? I thought you liked that. Well, it's gotten way worse. It hasn't?

Yeah, it's horrendous. I always question why. It doesn't make any sense to me, but I'm sure some people understand why you would cross streams like that, stop one to let another one go. I can make a convincing argument that there's a handful of intersections in the Charlottesville, Alamaro County area that is depressing or hurting real estate values. You're not gonna wanna hear this because your parents live down Fifth Street Extended.

But when that Wawa is finished, down Fifth Street, at the intersection of Wegmans and Fifth Street Station, right, that is going to impact real estate values in Southside Charlottesville down Fifth Street Extended. I don't think my parents care. Well, I mean, your parents are retired on the backside of their lives over there. So it's not like they're driving into work or driving home from work during peak driving time. If they were driving into work, driving home from work, or picking up their kids during peak drive time, they would care.

Yeah, but we were talking about property values, not the... That Wawa intersection is going to make that area so difficult to get to, I predict it's going to impact property values. I predict that Pantops Diamond Interchange impacting property values toward Keswick. If that lowers their tax rate, I'm sure they'll be happy. It's not going to lower their tax rate. Why?

If the property value goes down. Tax rates being raised by Amaral County, four cents. Are you talking about assessment? Yeah, assessment. Okay, assessment's one thing. Tax rates completely different. I meant the rate that they... County of Amaral is raising the tax rate four cents.

Yeah. I'll make a legitimate argument. People don't want to hear this here. When the UVA continues its development down Ivy Road, and when UVA develops buildings for second years to live on Ivy Road, more students to live on grounds in UVA housing, at the same time that a 10-story apartment complex is being built next to Moe's Barbecue, at the same time

that Grey Star is trying to build 500, 600 units on Ivy Road, old Ivy Road, luxury student housing, all that happening at the same time. I can make a legitimate argument that that development is going to cause a bottleneck and impact values in key neighborhoods on Ivy Road. Everything causes a bottleneck in Charlottesville. 100%. I can goggle at the planning that creates this. Is VDOT and the city of Charlottesville dumb enough to do a VDOT project, a road project,

at the same time that Jeff Levine's going to build a hotel next to the Omni? And considering building an apartment complex of 18-story variety at the Violent Crown? Why don't you think that's fair? And let me ask you this question for the viewers and listeners. Hold on, hold on, hold on. Let me ask you this question for the viewers and listeners, then you jump in.

That intersection that is under study right now, where the Lewis and Clark statue used to be, that was part of the West Main streetscape project, where five, six years ago, Heather Hill and Kathy Galvin, when they were on council, were championing the West Main Streets Gay Project, where the city had funds from the state and VDOT and the University of Virginia and some funds of their own, and they were gonna reimagine one of the most important gateways in the city.

And the Gilligan Gang, they said, we do not need this free money from the Commonwealth. We do not need this free money from the University of Virginia to reimagine this gateway that is big time underachieving, terrible infrastructure. Instead, give us that money for the reconfiguration of a middle school in the city.

Buford. And it's going to, is that project done yet? Are the kids they were gonna try to help even gonna be able to go to this middle school? Or is it just gonna be the rich? Because they're just gentrifying households every single year, making the community, since the West Main Streetscape project was kiboshed,

I would ask anyone to take the HUD median family income for the city of Charlottesville, the greater Charlottesville area, and I can assure you every year since then, the median family household income has uptick noticeably, which is a direct reflection of gentrification, which is a direct correlation of families on the financial margin not going to that middle school

to enjoy the reconfiguration that still is not finished. And I interrupted you and I apologize, I got caught up in the moment. Did you forget your thought? Yeah. Damn it, really? No idea where I, I don't even know what I was talking about. We talked about this, the notes, the remember.

I really wanted to hear what you had to say because I know you were gonna make a compelling point. You were about to say that that's not necessarily fair. Oh yeah, what was? point. You were about to say that that's not necessarily fair. Oh yes. I don't... Whatever you were talking about... Therapist Watson, we need some memory stuff over there. Janice Boyster-Villian says, Ivy is already a bottleneck by salvage, 100%. I drive our kid into school in the morning to first grade. If I leave, we live in Ivy, if I leave the house at 720,

I can get to school in nine minutes. If I leave the house at 738, I can get to school in like 18 minutes. Because when you're driving in from Crozet and Ivy down Ivy Road into the city, passing the car wash and Papa John's and Boars city, passing the car wash in Papa Johns and Borset, the sun starts rising. Alex Erpey thinks there's a mistimed light over there by Farmington and it creates a bottleneck toward Crozet of traffic. But if you leave

at 720, you're fine, very interestingly, and you can make it to 250 in the bypass for first grade drop off in nine minutes, which is pretty darn fast. It certainly is a lot faster than what drop off was when we were coming from Glenmore. Next headline, what do you got? Jack of all trades, Jack of all wins, Judah Wickhart. Oh, that's it? What's that? That's it. Family dollar?

We didn't even talk about the, did we even get into what the worst intersections are? Well, my worst intersection- Family dollar is selling. My worst, what is worst intersections are? Well, my worst intersection. Family dollar is selling. My worst, what is your worst intersection? My worst intersection is as clear cut as all clear cut can be. Isn't yours? Are you saying the bridge?

I'm saying it's Pantops and it's not even close. Deep Throat's back and he's back with a vengeance. Great to have you back. He says, buying all of Lee Enterprises sounds like a lot, but the total market cap is 60 million. And Hoffman already owns 10% of it already. And Hoffman is worth almost $2 billion. So it's a very easy buy for them.

Great stuff from Deep Throat. And he says, dude, the Rugby Road, Mason Lane, Barracks Road intersection is insane. It's been designed by a blind man on mushrooms. It's good to have the man back from Montana. I've missed you my friend. I sincerely missed your quick wit and your worst myth talents. Mine's pantops. Are you gonna make... I've lived it, I lived that for four years. One of the reasons we moved from Glenmore to that side of town is my wife was spending three hours in a car with her kid. You spend three hours in a car with a screaming baby, you're gonna wanna scratch and claw your eyes out.

Literally. If you're spending three hours driving around Charlottesville in a car, you're doing something wrong. That's Northern Virginia stress, not Charlottesville stress. Now my wife is spending less than 30 minutes round trip every day in a car. Less than 30 minutes from three hours. Your vote for a worse intersection? I mean, just in terms of all the hate that it gets, I've got to put my vote in for the

new roundabout at at Whole Foods. The number of times I've heard about people that just don't understand how a roundabout works, and can't wrap their heads around it is is a little bit distressing. Because they're not that complicated. That one's that was on the list. Most of us would say they're not that complicated. Hopefully that one starts getting figured out because it's still relatively fresh. But that ain't that easy.

And there's not a lot of roundabouts around here. And that's causing some of the confusion. Bill McChesney says that intersection revamp would be the absolute elimination of the Lewis and Clark Sacajawea style statue. The only thing left is, is the word plinth? Yeah, plinth is good. There have been plans to modify the intersection before it was removed.

Yeah, the West Main streetscape project. Someone should Google, you want to learn about Charlottesville history? West Main streetscape project. Someone should Google, you want to learn about Charlottesville history, West Main streetscape project. Google the history of that and understand that the West Main streetscape project was kiboshed by the Gilligan gang. Legitimately. Legitimately. And we're still talking about the West Main streetscape project and Buford still isn't done. Next headline, what do you got? Family dollar? I mean, if we localize this to Charlottesville, this is a headwind for retail, right?

At a time of inflationary headwinds, family dollar gets sold to vulture capital, right? Bridge capital management and macellem Capital Management for a billion dollars. Dollar Tree says we don't want family dollar anymore. There's Dollar General, there's Family Dollar, there's Dollar Tree. Yeah. Rose is already closed. Kmart's closed. Big Lots is closed. I need you to understand something here, okay? In the category of discount retail, are you with me? Bankrupt. Big Lots, done. Big Lots got taken out by private equity. Kmart, done.

Family Dollar, about to be picked apart like Thanksgiving Turkey and left for dead on the side of the road like a carcass of a raccoon or a deer on 250. I mean the odd crows are eating his bottom. The odd part is that it's owned, it was owned by Dollar Tree and there are three Dollar Trees in the area and there's also a family dollar. It just, maybe they didn't put enough TLC into it. The local, the story local is headwind discount retail. That's the story. You would think that with everybody tightening their belts that places like Family Dollar

and Dollar Tree would be booming. My point, exactly. My point exactly. You would think that the Burger Kings would be booming and the Wendy's, but they're being eradicated. They're not as cheap as they were though. But they're cheaper than what else is out there. What are you talking about? I mean, yeah, they're cheaper than steak houses, but. Well, there are few things that you can get are cheaper for meal than the McDonald's $5 menu.

Okay. What? Yeah. Even have you been to Bodo's recently? Not in a little while. Even Bodo's is uptick in price a lot. I'm not saying it's expensive, but their cost of goods and their labor is clearly direct influencing price increases.

Still much better than fast food, but it's gone up. Family Dollar sold to Vulture Capital for a billion dollars. John Blair says, I used to be a family dollar manager when I was in community college. Believe it or not, I worked some Saturdays at the Fifth Street Family Dollar while at UVA to work my way through undergrad. I worked, I did know that about you, John Blair.

You shared that with me in the past. I worked my way through UVA undergrad at Ruby Tuesdays in Barricks Road, where I was a host, bartender, and waiter for multiple years as an undergrad. All right, one shot, last headline of the show. Isaac McNeely is being linked to the UNC Tar Heels, ladies and gentlemen.

Multiple media reports said North Carolina has contacted Isaac McNeely. And Isaac McNeely is a guy that's gonna make a college basketball team really good. Let's see if he goes to a rival on Tobacco Road in the Atlantic Coast Conference. Isaac McNeely and Carolina Blue, oof, media reports link him to Hubert Davis' team

in Chapel Hill. And more on the Chance Mallory story from yesterday, the St. Ann's-Belfield Academy senior, talented basketball player. After yesterday's show, the chitter-chatter I've heard from multiple reliable people has his NIL compensation north of a million dollars. I had heard that from reliable people, and then after yesterday's show, heard it from even more reliable people that the point guard from St. Anne's,

five foot nine, talented four star, 18 year old, north of a million dollars to be an incoming freshman point guard under Ryan Odom at Virginia basketball. That's a lot of money, north of a million dollars a year to play basketball, folks, in college. John says the biggest issue with that intersection, in my humble opinion, is what is going to happen

to the old Trailways station. That would be a huge issue in any idea of redevelopment. That station for sale right now. The old Greyhound station, for sale. Front of the program, Talents of Terry Hinderman owns the building right next door to that station. All right, that's the Wednesday edition of the show. Judah Wickhauer was on point today.

That's back to back. In fact, that's three shows in a week where he's been on point. My name is Jerry Miller. Thank you kindly for joining us. So long, everybody..