The leaders of the University of Virginia and Virginia Military Institute will appear before a Senate subcommittee on Monday morning to answer questions about the “leadership and finances” of their institutions.
Both schools have been embroiled in public controversy for much of this year after the sudden departure of their previous leaders.
Paul Mahoney, interim president of UVa, and Lt. Gen. David Furness, superintendent of VMI, are scheduled to come before the Senate Finance Education Subcommittee to answer questions about the resignation of former UVa President Jim Ryan under political pressure in late June and the decision of the VMI Board of Visitors early this year to not renew the contract of then-Superintendent Cedric Wins, the first Black superintendent in the institute’s history.
The subcommittee also invited UVa Rector Rachel Sheridan and Vice Rector Porter Wilkinson to appear, but they declined because they said they had received the invitation too late, according to Sen. Creigh Deeds, D- Charlottesville, who is not a member of the subcommittee but plans to participate. Deeds, whose district includes the university, has been seeking answers to questions about the role that the Board of Visitors and Gov. Glenn Youngkin, who appointed its members, may have played in Ryan’s departure.
“Without the rector and vice rector, a lot of questions won’t be answered,” he said.
Deeds said Sheridan and Wilkinson will get another chance to appear before the subcommittee in January.
The UVa board is conducting a search for a new president, which has led to a highly public showdown between Youngkin, a Republican who will leave office in January, and Gov.-elect Abigail Spanberger, a Democrat and UVa graduate who will be inaugurated as Virginia’s 75th governor on Jan. 17.
After her landslide election on Nov. 4, Spanberger asked the UVa board to pause the process of selecting a new president until after she is inaugurated. Youngkin has publicly rebuked her for trying to intervene in the presidential search before she takes office, and he has advised the board to continue its search.
She plans to quickly appoint five members of the board to fill seats left vacant after the Virginia Supreme Court let stand a lower court injunction that prevents Youngkin’s appointees from continuing to serve in those seats.
Spanberger vows to fill university board vacancies ‘Day 1’
Gov.-elect Abigail Spanberger promises to take quick action after her inauguration on Jan. 17 to fill vacancies on the governing boards of three Virginia colleges and universities.
The injunction also blocks the continued service of 10 Youngkin appointees to the George Mason University Board of Visitors, which lacks a quorum to operate, and seven at VMI.
Spanberger also has raised questions about whether the UVa board can act legally before she appoints new members to comply with requirements in state law that it include a minimum number of state residents and UVa graduates.
“My commitment is announcing those appointees Day 1, and my expectation is that my counterparts in the legislative branch will confirm them quickly, so that all of our boards can have a full complement of membership immediately,” Spanberger told the Richmond Times-Dispatch in a Nov. 21 interview.
“I think it is of the utmost importance to the university, to Virginia, to governance, and ultimately to the success of a potential president, that that president be appointed by a fully constituted and statutorily compliant board,” she said during the interview at her transition office in Richmond.
‘They’re not pausing’
Deeds said he does not expect the Youngkin-appointed board to honor the governor-elect’s request.
“They’re not pausing as far as I can tell,” he said.
In doing so, Deeds said the board risks having Spanberger reverse any decision it makes after she becomes governor and appoints new members.
“They’re not willing to deal with political reality, and that’s too bad,” he said.
Spanberger has not said whether she intends to replace any existing members of the UVa board. Youngkin fired Bert Ellis from the board in late March and tried to replace him with former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, a former Republican candidate for governor and a former acting director of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services during President Donald Trump’s first term. Cuccinelli is one of the five Youngkin appointees to the UVa board whom the court injunction blocked from continuing to serve.
“There is actually recent precedent” for replacing sitting board members, Deeds said.
Deeds and Sen. Mamie Locke, D- Hampton, who chairs the Senate Finance education subcommittee, were among nine Democrats who filed suit last year in Fairfax County Circuit Court. They sought to prevent the Youngkin appointees from continuing to serve after the Senate Privileges and Elections Committee voted this summer not to confirm their appointments. Senate President Pro Tempore Louise Lucas, D- Portsmouth, who led the lawsuit, also serves on the education subcommittee.
Subcommittee members also include Sen. Ghazala Hashmi, D- Chesterfield, who was elected lieutenant governor this month and will take office in January; Senate Republican Caucus Chairman Mark Obenshain, R- Rockingham; and Sen. Richard Stuart, R- King George.
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