William Antholis, director and CEO of the University of Virginia’s Miller Center, said in a statement that “the loss of any Miller Center faculty or staff member saddens me." | AP Photo Hiring of former Trump aide at UVa prompts 2 historians to quit

Two prominent historians are leaving a public policy center at the University of Virginia in protest over its plan to hire a former aide to President Donald Trump, calling the aide, Marc Short, "complicit in the erosion of our civic discourse."

William I. Hitchcock and Melvyn P. Leffler announced Monday they are resigning from the Miller Center, a wing of the university focused on presidential history and public policy, over its hiring of Short, Trump’s former legislative affairs director. They remain tenured faculty in the university's history department.


In their resignation letter, the historians blasted Short for not distancing himself from Trump's response to the August 2017 white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va., which resulted in the death of a 32-year-old woman and in which Trump famously blamed "both sides."

"By not speaking out at the time, by not emphasizing the threats to human decency posed by the public display of Nazi symbols and racist diatribes in our own neighborhood, Mr. Short was complicit in the erosion of our civic discourse and showed an appalling indifference to the civility of our own city and university," they wrote.

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It's the latest fallout over the center's decision to appoint Short to a one-year fellowship. Professors, alumni and others have strongly objected, calling it "unconscionable" as the one-year anniversary of the violent rally in Charlottesville approaches. An online petition with thousands of signatures blasts the school for hiring Short, saying "the university should not serve as a waystation for high-level members of an administration that has directly harmed our community."

Leffler is a former dean of the College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at UVa. Hitchcock is a New York Times bestselling historian and has been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.

In their joint resignation letter, the two wrote that the decision to hire Short was made "without adequate faculty discussion, deliberation and a vote" and "violates the values of the Center," which describes itself as a “nonpartisan affiliate" of UVa.

"Short has been a partisan activist during his entire professional career," they wrote. "He has associated himself with people and institutions who disregard, circumvent and even violate the norms and laws that are fundamental to civil discourse and democratic politics."

William Antholis, director and CEO of the University of Virginia’s Miller Center, said in a statement that “the loss of any Miller Center faculty or staff member saddens me."

"As much as I respect the depth of feelings on this issue, the Miller Center’s core focus on the presidency, our commitment to nonpartisanship and our demonstrated ability to promote civil discourse must remain our principal responsibility, especially in trying times,” Antholis said.

Antholis defended the hire last week, saying Short "brings a missing critical voice — one that represents members of Congress and the Republican Party who continue to support the president in large numbers."

But the historians said the Short hire does not fit with the Miller Center's objectives.

"By associating himself with an administration that shows no respect for truth, he has contributed to the erosion of civil discourse and democratic norms that are essential to democratic governance and that are central to the mission of the Miller Center."

Short did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but he told POLITICO earlier this month that he is "sympathetic to the pain in the community" and that "I think we could have done a better job expressing sympathy for the victims and outrage at those who perpetrated this evil."

He also referred at the time to an Aug. 14 statement in which he said the president was "unambiguous."

In that statement, Trump said, "racism is evil, and those who cause violence in its name are criminals and thugs, including the KKK, neo-Nazis, white supremacists and other hate groups that are repugnant to everything we hold dear as Americans."