Campus Union Joins No-Confidence Movement

The “no confidence” campaign against the University of Virginia Board of Visitors is gaining momentum with the United Campus Workers of Virginia (UCWV) joining the effort. Strikes and lawsuits are among the options available to protesters, although, as one panelist put it in a “teach-in” yesterday, strikes by state employees are illegal in Virginia and hard to pull off. “There’s probably a lot of steps in between [a strike] and where we are now.”

The union representing graduate students and other employees at UVA, Virginia Tech, Virginia Commonwealth University, and the College of William & Mary also is keeping close tabs on the GMU Board of Visitors, which was meeting today amidst widespread fears that it might oust President Gregory Washington in disputes over anti-Semitism and Diversity, Equity & Inclusion. The UVA Board is scheduled to meet in a special session Monday to discuss the search for a new president.

In a zoom meeting open to public participation yesterday, the UCWV provided insight into what leftist elements in Virginia’s public universities are thinking and doing. From the remarks made in the meeting, it was evident that UCWV members sympathized with the UVA Faculty Senate’s recent 46-to-6 “no confidence” vote against the UVA board but faced a steep learning curve to understand the governance of public universities.

The meeting took place against a backdrop of a battle royale between Governor Glenn Youngkin and state Senate Democrats over control over the governing boards of Virginia’s public universities.

The UCWV session also explored what the possible election of Democrat Abigail Spanberger as governor might mean for collective bargaining for state employees. But the main thrust was explaining how the boards of Virginia’s public universities are structured and the powers they exercise. During breakout sessions, participants researched the backgrounds of BoV members at the institutions where they worked.

“Where do the faculty organizers go next after the vote of no confidence? I think that’s an open question,” said event moderator Kelsey Levine, a UVA chemical-engineering graduate student. “I don’t think there is a decision yet, but things are moving really quickly, and I think that’s all the more reason for people to be involved and have a say in what you think should happen next.”

Levine gave an account of the circumstances surrounding the recent resignation of President Jim Ryan and the search to find a replacement. Noting that only six faculty and two students were appointed to the 28-person search committee, she said the Board of Visitors needs to “publicly explain the events that led up to resignation, ensure that the searches for interim president and president are ultimately voted on by a body that consists of at least 75% of UVA students, UVA workers, and local residents, and rebuild structures of shared governance and bring students, workers, and the public into shared decision-making.”

Until those demands are met, Levine continued, a UCWV committee is “organizing a no-confidence movement where they’re asking local Charlottesville and UVA groups to make their own statement of no confidence in UVA’s Board of Visitors.”

Contributing to the discussion by means of a chat comment, Karina Ripley elaborated on the no-confidence campaign.

“One of the reasons why we’re doing a no confidence campaign is try to build the social relationships and infrastructure for escalating actions. We’re talking to any and all organizations in Charlottesville and the surrounding area to get them on board. I think that’s a great example of sort of what a vote of no confidence does. And this is part of the purpose of today’s teaching, part of the purpose of the action that’s happening at George Mason tomorrow is to start to like draw attention to this schism with the boards.”

Answering a question from a UCWV member about a possible teaching strike, a woman identifying herself as Cecilia (UVA) explored the options.

“There’s a lot of escalating steps in terms of more militant protests and petitions,” she said. “Striking is a little bit tricky because striking, like refusing to teach, is illegal under Virginia law. That doesn’t mean that we can’t do it. There have been plenty [of] examples all through history of illegal strikes being successful. But it does mean that we just need to be very, very organized. … That’s not impossible. It just takes like a really high degree of organizing to execute successfully and there’s probably a lot of steps in between that and where we are now.”

Another topic focused on the implications of a victory by Democrat Abigail Spanberger in the Governor’s race this fall.

“It’s been relatively rare in the past for governors to remove people from boards of visitors,” Levine said. “I think one of the more likely things to happen is Youngkin’s employees get tied up in the courts for a really long time, potentially until after the election. And if there’s a new governor that is elected, then she could cancel those appointments and put someone else in.”

A precedent exists for a Virginia governor to fire a board member, added a panelist identified as Jonathan. Youngkin fired Bert Ellis from the UVA board.