The head of the board overseeing the University of Virginia and two other top board members, including a major donor to the school, on Friday resigned under pressure from the state’s incoming Democratic governor, according to two people briefed on the matter and letters obtained by The New York Times.

The resignations came after Abigail Spanberger asked at least five members of the board to step aside as she takes office Saturday.

Those who submitted resignations Friday were Rachel Sheridan, the head of the board, known at UVA as the rector; Porter Wilkinson, the vice rector; and Paul Manning, a board member and major donor who gave $100 million to the university just a few years ago, according to the letters.

There are 12 members of the Board of Visitors, which oversees the school, and all had been appointed by Spanberger’s Republican predecessor, Glenn Youngkin. At least two other members of the board were asked to resign but so far have resisted. It is unclear if Spanberger has asked the rest of the board members to resign.

The turmoil at the university over its board is the latest fallout to rock the school since the Trump administration began a pressure campaign against it earlier this year. Last summer, the school’s president, Jim Ryan, resigned amid pressure from the Trump administration, which was threatening to cut the school’s funding and investigate it if Ryan remained in office.

Conservative alumni and members of the Justice Department under President Donald Trump had wanted Ryan out because they believed he was too liberal. It’s unclear what impact the resignations will have on the recently appointed president of the school, Scott C. Beardsley. Some Virginia Democrats and school faculty members have been calling on Spanberger to have Beardsley removed, saying that he was too hastily appointed by a board that refused to stand up to Trump.

Shortly after her election in November, Spanberger sent a letter to the board asking that they delay the search for a new president after Ryan resigned, but the board declined to do so and appointed Beardsley anyway.

The moves come after months of broader conflict over the direction of the nation’s most elite higher education institutions. Trump and other Republicans have put enormous pressure on schools that they say have veered too far to the left. But many faculty members, university presidents and leaders on the left have argued that the tactics, including funding cuts to schools and efforts to oust university leadership, are threatening their independence and academic freedom.

On Friday, as news of Spanberger asking the members to resign made its way around Richmond and Charlottesville, some top Virginia Republicans were shocked by Spanberger’s decision. They believe that Manning has been integral to the school’s growth and that ousting board members will just continue the turmoil at the school.

Manning had discussions with senior Justice Department officials in July in which they told him that Ryan had to go.

“Paul Manning reached out directly to the DOJ lawyers to make sure he was not missing anything, and he said that they told him that if I didn’t resign, they would ‘bleed UVA white,’” Ryan later wrote in a letter about his firing.

UVA and Spanberger could not be immediately reached for comment.

Other schools in the state may also be poised for leadership changes. One of George Mason University’s board members, Charles D. Stimson, offered his resignation to Youngkin on Friday, according to a letter that was obtained by the Times.

Stimson, who also works for the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, had been the chair of George Mason’s board. The school had also experienced turmoil over the summer, after the Trump administration targeted its president, Gregory N. Washington, over his support of diversity programs and asked him to personally apologize.

GMU said it would not have any comment about Stimson’s resignation. Stimson did not respond immediately to a request for comment.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

https://www.pilotonline.com/2026/01/16/uva-board-members-resign-spanberger-pressure/