Virginia’s governor-elect, Abigail Spanberger, moved quickly on Wednesday to assert influence over higher education in the state, where conservatives have been on a campaign to force colleges and universities to abandon diversity measures.
During the summer, for example, conservative alumni teamed with the Trump administration to force the resignation of James E. Ryan, who was president of the University of Virginia and a proponent of diversity initiatives.
The school’s governing body, the Board of Visitors, has been seeking a permanent replacement for Mr. Ryan. But in a letter Wednesday, Ms. Spanberger, a Democrat and alumna of the university, asked the board to put off choosing a successor until after she takes office next month, and has a chance to fill five vacant seats on the board.
Ms. Spanberger said the ousting of Mr. Ryan involved “federal overreach,” and that she was “deeply concerned” about the board’s failure to challenge the Trump administration.
“Over the past six months, the actions of the Board of Visitors have severely undermined the public’s and the University community’s confidence in the Board’s ability to govern productively, transparently, and in the best interests of the university,” she wrote.
Noting the vacancies on the board, Ms. Spanberger questioned whether it could legitimately name a new leader now. “The search for a university president is the most consequential action a university board can undertake, and in all cases, a search must be conducted through a legitimate and transparent process,” she wrote in the letter, which was addressed to the board’s chair and vice chair.
She urged the board to delay the process until after new members have been confirmed by the legislature to fill those vacancies. Members are nominated by the governor and confirmed by the state legislature.
The letter, sent just over a week after Ms. Spanberger’s decisive election victory, seemed to illustrate how she intends to work to shape higher education in a state where leaders at three public universities — the University of Virginia, George Mason University and the Virginia Military Institute — have come under attack from alumni groups, largely over their efforts to increase campus diversity. In February, the board of V.M.I. voted against renewing the contract of Cedric T. Wins, the school’s first Black superintendent.
Spurred partly by the conservative attacks on the university presidents, Democrats in the legislature moved this year to block the confirmation of 22 university board appointments made by Gov. Glenn Youngkin, the Republican incumbent, who was barred by term limits from seeking re-election. That move left the seats vacant.
It can sometimes take a year or more for a university to select a new president, while the school is run by an interim leader — in Virginia’s case, Paul G. Mahoney, a former law school dean. But the Board of Visitors was moving swiftly to choose a successor to Mr. Ryan, with a selection committee scheduled to hold interviews with candidates this month.
Mr. Ryan’s resignation in June followed an onslaught against the university from the Justice Department, which sent it a total of seven letters last spring accusing the school of antisemitism and of violating federal bans on D.E.I. programs and race-conscious admissions preferences.
Mr. Ryan said he chose to resign in the hope of protecting the school from further federal intervention.
Last month, the school reached an agreement with the Trump administration to end the investigations, one of five universities to do so.
Stephanie Saul reports on colleges and universities, with a recent focus on the dramatic changes in college admissions and the debate around diversity, equity and inclusion in higher education.
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