Historical Precedent and Law Refute Criticism of UVA Board’s Presidential Search
Over the last half-century, presidential search committees at UVA have tended to follow an order that has remained relatively similar: It is led by the Board of Visitors (BOV) while including other members of the University community. This is the case with the current search committee assembled to replace Jim Ryan, who resigned in June. There has been a lot of pushback from faculty and students and some General Assembly members in recent weeks, with some groups declaring no confidence in the Board of Visitors and requesting much larger seats at the table in the process under the idea of shared governance. However, these demands ignore both the law that empowers the Board, and only the Board, to decide who will be the new president as well as historical precedent as to the structure of the process that has guided the selection of a president for at least the last fifty years. It is therefore worth taking a look at how UVA has historically chosen a successor.
The most notable aspect is that BOV members have always been the predominant parties involved. It is in fact the Board’s express duty to choose a new president granted to them according to the BOV manual which is the document that “constitutes the corporate bylaws of the University of Virginia, largely determines its internal organization, its procedures of operation, and the responsibilities of the administrative officers selected by it to carry out its directives of policy and program.” In the last 50 years, five presidents have been chosen and the majority of all search committees have been composed of BOV members. The rest of the members of presidential search committees has varied over time, but has sometimes included other senior administrators, prior BOV members, one or more faculty members, up to three students, and select alumni.
Here’s a deep dive into who typically serves on the Special Committee on the Nomination of a President starting in 1973 with the selection of Frank Hereford, Jr. to succeed Edgar Shannon, Jr. According to the BOV minutes,
“The Rector read to the Board the second paragraph of Section 4.12 of the Manual of the Board of Visitors 1966 as follows:
"Whenever the office of President becomes vacant or a vacancy is impending, the Rector shall appoint a Special Committee on the Nomination of a President from among the membership of the Board to seek and recommend to the Board a person to fill the vacancy. This special committee shall be under the chairmanship of the Rector and the committee shall consist of no fewer than five members".
The minutes subsequently recorded the names of seven members of the BOV chosen to pick the new President, with Weldon Cooper additionally serving as the elected Secretary. There were no other community members involved. At the time, Linwood Holton (R) was the Governor of Virginia and was preceded by Mills Godwin (D), so one can infer the makeup of the BOV members was a mixture of Republican and Democrat appointees.
In 1984, the need for a new Special Committee on the Nomination of the President was formed to find a successor to President Hereford. The BOV minutes recorded that the “Rector, acting under Section 4.12 of the Manual of the Board of Visitors, announced that he has appointed the following Members of the Board to serve on the Special Committee on the Nomination of a President”. Following the same statute as the previous committee which stipulated no less than five BOV members, the minutes list seven members of the Board of Visitors who were appointed. Like the previous committee, no other community members were included. The current governor at the time was Chuck Robb (D), who was preceded by John Dalton (R ) so it is likely that the BOV members at the time were also a mixture of Democrat and Republican appointees. The Committee chose Robert O’Neil to serve as the next President.
The next presidential search committee took place five years later, as President O’Neil submitted his resignation in October 1989 with the plan to vacate in 1990. A search committee was formed and is notable for the broadening of its membership. According to BOV minutes,
As prescribed by the Manual of the Board of Visitors, then Rector Joshua P. Darden Jr. appointed from the membership of the Board a Special Committee on the Nomination of a President. In addition to the eight Board members of the Committee, Mr. Darden appointed two members of the Faculty Senate and the student member of the Board of Visitors to serve as nonvoting members of the Committee. This unprecedented expansion of the Committee was intended to assure that these major constituencies of the University community would have a direct voice in the selection of the next president.
The committee ultimately chose John T. Casteen III to serve as the 7th president of UVA. At the time, the Governor was Gerald Baliles (D) and his predecessor was, Chuck Robb (D), so the eight BOV members were entirely Democrat appointees.
John Casteen served for twenty years, so the next selection of a Special Committee on the Nomination of the President did not happen until 2009 when Casteen announced he would be stepping down. This committee represented a similar mix of community members. A UVA Today article listed the members of that committee that were chosen, which stated that, “The special committee comprises nine members of the Board of Visitors, six faculty members, two former rectors and two students. Of the 19 members, 11 are alumni.” The committee also engaged the services of an outside firm to aid the process. After many months, the committee chose Teresa Sullivan to succeed President Casteen. The governor at the time was Tim Kaine (D) and his predecessor was Mark Warner (D) so like the Casteen committee members, the nine BOV members on this search committee were all Democrat appointees.
After a seven year tenure, Teresa Sullivan announced her departure, necessitating a new Special Committee on the Nomination of the President. This committee was similar to the one that chose President Sullivan. According to the BOV minutes in 2017, it comprised 11 BOV members, 5 faculty members plus the CEO of UVA Health, 2 students, and 3 alumni, two of whom were former BOV rectors. The Governor at that time was Terry McAuliffe (D) and was preceded by Bob McDonnell (R) so the BOV members were majority Democrat appointees.
The current Special Committee of the Nomination of the President is only dissimilar from its predecessors in that it has expanded the number of members even more, and largely reflects a similar makeup of the three most recent search committees. According to a UVA Today article, there are 28 members of the committee, including 12 members of the BOV, five faculty members plus three administrators, three students (one undergrad and two graduate), and the rest alumni, including two former BOV members. The current Governor is Glenn Youngkin (R ) who is finishing his tenure in December, making the BOV members all Republican appointees.
The Special Committees on the Nomination of the President has changed over time to broaden the overall number of members as well include other members of the UVA community instead of only BOV members. The greatest number of BOV members on any search committee past and present is 12, faculty is six, and students are three. BOV members have largely tended to be Democrat appointees based on who held the governor’s office at the time. The committees that chose Casteen and Sullivan were entirely Democrat appointees to the BOV and the current committee to choose Ryan’s successor are entirely Republican appointees to the BOV.
This raises interesting observations. Since the announcement of Ryan’s departure and subsequent creation of the current presidential search committee, there has been an outcry of protests. Student Council passed a resolution of no confidence in the BOV after it failed to include its demand for five students on the search committee, even though this current committee has the largest number of students (3) than previous committees. Similarly, a group of members from the UVA community held a press conference condemning the current search committee process. According to the Cavalier Daily, Ian Mullins, a member of United Campus Workers-VA and associate professor of sociology, stated that “faculty, staff, students and community members were ‘props’ in the interim presidential search, rather than decision makers. He then called on members of the University community to denounce Mahoney’s appointment as the outcome of an ‘illegitimate process,’ and fight for shared governance.”
Furthermore, Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell (D-Fairfax) recently declared, “They should not make any steps towards picking a permanent president at UVA. Come next July 1 of 2026 with this new governor, there’s the potential to have nine new members on a 16-member board, which means there would be an entirely different majority on that Board of Visitors deciding things. They shouldn’t make decisions that are going to have a long-term impact on that school right now.” Surovell is pushing to avoid making a decision until after the gubernatorial election this November where the likely winner will be a Democrat. Given the past history of presidential search committees at UVA, two of which were composed entirely of Democrat BOV appointees, his concerns are entirely political and appear to be gaming the process. This strategy would be unprecedented if adopted.
The current Special Committee on the Nomination of the President has more members and is made up of the greatest mix of current and former BOV members, faculty, administrators, alumni, and students that has ever been seen in the past at UVA. Those who oppose the current process would do well to read their history before making assumptions, politically charged statements, and inappropriate demands.