Democrat’s Win May Upend a Conservative Push in Virginia Universities

Supporters of Abigail Spanberger, Virginia’s governor-elect, say they expect her to reverse efforts to impose conservative priorities on the state’s prestigious public university system.

When she takes office as governor of Virginia in January, Abigail Spanberger will step into a partisan war over the political direction of one of the nation’s most respected public university systems.

The schools have lately been at the center of a push by Republicans to overhaul universities that they see as having liberal biases. The Democratic victory in the election may test the limits of that effort in public universities, where state politicians often play a significant role in selecting administrators and setting policy.

In Virginia, the battle over public higher education has pitted legislative Democrats against Republican-appointed boards, primarily at the University of Virginia and two other public schools, George Mason University and the Virginia Military Institute. Virginia’s governor appoints the board members at each campus who oversee the state’s public university system, and conservative board members and alumni have engineered efforts to oust leaders of the universities, largely over disputes about diversity initiatives.

Now, though, Ms. Spanberger will take office as the first woman to serve as governor, with a new Democratic attorney general and her party in control of the General Assembly.

Continue reading here for the full story, including remarks from Joel Gardner.