Louisa Supervisors restore funding to Piedmont Virginia Community College

The Louisa County Board of Supervisors has restored $5,859 in funding to the Piedmont Virginia Community College that had been pulled shortly before the elected officials adopted their budget for fiscal 2025. 

“We had requested a meeting with the community college and that meeting was unfortunately scheduled for after the scheduled budget vote,” said Supervisor Chair Duane Adams on Monday. “Since that time I’ve had several conversations and meetings with the President of the community college who forwarded me the community college’s protocols.” 

Adams said those protocols cover affirmative action, discrimination, anti-Semitism, and how PVCC ensures all students feel safe. 

“Those answers satisfied my concerns,” Adams said. “I passed that information on to the Board earlier today.”   

At issue is the April 19 screening of a film called Israelism by the PVCC chapter of Students for Palestine. The day before, Adams posted to his Facebook account that he was disappointed PVCC was allowing the group to show the documentary. 

As chair, Adams cannot make a motion but he invited others to do so. Supervisor Toni Williams of the Jackson District made the motion as he did on April 29 to withhold the funding. He said he received angry phone calls but that is not why he changed his mind. 

“I didn’t change my mind,” Williams said. “We just wanted to hear from them. And so I know a bunch of us got a really interesting phone call from someone in the community, I don’t know who it was. Maybe it wasn’t even from the community. It came from a Texas number. I just want to be clear that the best way to deal with these things is to discuss them and educate yourself. That’s what we’ve done. I feel comfortable about what they’ve given us and I’m prepared to vote for it.”

The resolution to restore the funding was unanimous.

A specific policy was not mentioned at the meeting. For a list of all of the protocols at the community college, visit the PVCC website.

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