Gov. Abigail Spanberger of Virginia lost no time on Saturday in altering the tenor of the board that controls the University of Virginia, appointing 10 new members to the 17-member body within hours of being inaugurated. She also acted to revamp the boards of two other state schools.
The day before, she had asked five board members at the University of Virginia, all appointees of her Republican predecessor, Gov. Glenn Youngkin, to step aside. The swift change in university leadership followed more than a year of partisan acrimony over the university’s direction.
Conservative members of the school’s board, in alliance with the Trump administration, had moved successfully last summer to remove James E. Ryan from the university presidency, largely because of his support for diversity initiatives.
More recently, the Youngkin-appointed board prompted strong objections from the university’s faculty by signing an agreement with the Trump administration to eliminate diversity programs, which the government had argued were illegally discriminatory, and to follow the administration’s prescriptions for university admissions.
Over the objections of Ms. Spanberger, who had asked for a delay, the board rushed to replace Mr. Ryan before she was inaugurated, giving Scott C. Beardsley, the dean of the university’s business school, a five-year contract to serve as president.
By forcing the resignations of the five members, who included the board’s chair, vice-chair, and a donor who had given $100 million, Ms. Spanberger, an alumna of the university, gained influence over the university much faster than new governors usually do. Ordinarily, governors have the opportunity to appoint just four new members in each year of their four-year terms.
Rachel Sheridan, a lawyer who served as the university’s rector, or board chair, offered a parting note of concern in her letter of resignation.
“I have come to believe,” she wrote in the letter, which was made public on Saturday, “that our efforts to do what is right for U.Va. have become paralyzed through purposeful political warfare that is dangerous to the university.”
There were already five vacancies on the board before the resignations because Democrats in the state legislature had refused to approve some of Mr. Youngkin’s appointees. The new governor, consequently, had 10 slots she could fill.
The new members include Carlos Brown, a utility executive; Peter Grant, a private equity executive who once led a successful fund-raising campaign for the university; and Victoria Harker, a former publishing and broadcast executive.
Both Mr. Brown and Ms. Harker have previously served on the board, which is known as the Board of Visitors.
Ms. Spanberger also announced the appointment on Saturday of new board members at George Mason University and the Virginia Military Institute.
At George Mason, the state’s largest public university, the Trump administration had worked with Youngkin-appointed board members in an unsuccessful attempt to oust the university’s president, Gregory N. Washington, a champion of diversity programs. Ms. Spanberger appointed 12 new members to the school’s board on Saturday, including Tom Davis, a former Republican congressman who had previously served.
On Friday, the chairman of the George Mason board, Charles Stimson, a Heritage Foundation official, had submitted his resignation.
At the Virginia Military Institute, where conservatives on the board declined last year to renew the appointment of the school’s leader, Maj. Gen. Cedric T. Wins, Ms. Spanberger appointed five new members, including Ralph Northam, a former Democratic governor of the state.
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.
The post Virginia’s New Governor Moves Swiftly to Overhaul State University Boards appeared first on New York Times.
