Team Youngkin Flexes Muscles at UVA Board Meeting
In a special meeting called Friday, the University of Virginia Board of Visitors made it crystal clear who was in charge of setting university policy — the board, not the president. It was the most forceful assertion of board authority since the board under Rector Helen Dragas ousted former president Teresa Sullivan in 2012.
The putative issue was how UVA should respond to an executive order from President Trump threatening the withdrawal of federal funds from institutions engaged in the “chemical and surgical mutilation” — alternatively referred to as “gender-affirming care” — of children under the age of 19. Shortly after, a federal judge in Maryland issued a temporary restraining order blocking enforcement of the restrictions.
In response to the executive order, UVA’s administrative leadership suspended the treatment of transgenders and then, in response to the judge’s order, reversed the suspension. The primary concern expressed in the BoV resolution was not the transgender policy itself but the administration’s usurpation of authority to decide university policy.
The resolution claimed sweeping authority, not over just the final wording of high-level policies but the process by which policies are made, and even the appointment of members to committees and task forces formed to study and make recommendations (my emphasis):
The Board of Visitors is responsible for seeing to the effective and transparent government of the University, and pursuant to Virginia law … among other matters the Board of Visitors is granted the authority to make regulations and policies for the University, and this Board of Visitors intends to exercise such authority. …
The Board of Visitors shall be consulted prior to any consideration or announcement of any material policy changes of the University, or the creation of any task force or other committee created to formulate or evaluate any potential material policy changes, the Board of Visitors may determine, in its discretion, the scope, objectives and final members of any such group or the content of any such announcement.
UVA has not seen such a “recalibrating of the power dynamic,” in the words of one source, since former Rector Dragas and her allies on the Board pressured President Sullivan to resign thirteen years ago. The issues then centered on Sullivan’s alleged lack of vision for the university to deal with the onrushing digital revolution, in particular distance learning. After faculty and students mobilized in her defense, Sullivan was reinstated as president. Then-Governor Bob McDonnell played a key role by issuing an ultimatum to the BoV to resolve the controversy and threatening to force the entire board to resign if it didn’t.
Don’t expect a parallel outcome in the current environment. Governor Glenn Youngkin has appointed 13 of the board’s 17 members with the expectation that they would be change agents. Indeed, my sources tell me that the Governor’s Office helped draft the resolution along with the Attorney General’s Office, Rachel Sheridan (frequently said to be the heir apparent of Rector Robert Hardie), and other members of the board.
Having asserted its authority Friday, the Board meets again tomorrow to discuss “matters alleged by the School of Medicine faculty in their letter of September 5, 2024.” That letter alleged widespread abuses by the leadership of UVA Health and the School of Medicine. The charges have been the subject of an inquiry run by the Williams & Connolly law firm and run by the Board of Visitors audit committee.
Before Friday, President Jim Ryan had been firmly in control of university policy since he assumed the office in 2018. The board largely abandoned its oversight role, rubber stamping proposals submitted by the administration. Notably, the board adopted the recommendations of the Ryan-appointed Racial Equity Task Force to funnel as much as $950 million into social equity reforms. The board also relinquished its authority to approve expenditures of the Strategic Investment Fund (SIF), a $2 billion chunk of the endowment that currently throws off $65 million a year in revenue with no strings attached.
For the first three years of the Youngkin administration, board members appointed by former Governor Ralph Northam routinely backed Ryan and blocked efforts by Youngkin appointees to cut costs, tame tuition increases, and scrutinize Diversity, Equity & Inclusion practices. Even now, the four Northam-era holdovers, including Rector Hardie, control the agendas of regularly scheduled board meetings, deciding what topics to discuss, who makes presentations, and what information is presented.
The special meeting scheduled Friday was held at the behest of Youngkin appointees utilizing a clause in the governing documents allowing a minimum of five board members to call an unscheduled meeting. The five members were Bert Ellis, Stephen Long, Paul Harris, Doug Wetmore, and David Webb. This was the first time during the Youngkin administration that such a meeting had been called.
The Board resolution cited the “significant legal uncertainty and institutional risk” regarding the medical procedures for transgenders as reason to turn away new patients. The two physicians on the board — Long and David Okonkwo, both Youngkin appointees — wanted to avoid any disruption of care that might harm current patients so the UVA hospital will maintain treatment for them until they can find alternative private providers. Meanwhile, the BoV will “solicit input from our doctors and other experts in this area.”
Trump’s executive order about transgenders might have been the precipitating event, but the timing was not accidental. Team Youngkin delayed challenging Ryan until after the end of the General Assembly session in which the Democratic majorities in both houses had the power to block gubernatorial appointments. The nixing of Youngkin appointees to George Mason University, Old Dominion University, and the Virginia Military Institute this year was an unprecedented assertion of legislative power. Two years previously, an effort by Democrats to cancel the appointment of Bert Ellis failed by the narrowest of margins, which required a tie-breaking vote by Lieutenant Governor Winsome Earle-Sears. Determined to avoid a repeat, the Governor’s Office counseled the Youngkin appointees to lay low until they could lock in their majority.
The calling of the special board meeting Friday — and another one tomorrow — suggests that the Youngkin appointees will move aggressively to accomplish as much as possible in the final year of the governor’s administration. There is no time to lose.
The 2025 governor’s race looks like a toss-up between Sears, a Republican, and the Democratic Party favorite Abigail Spanberger. If Sears is elected, the thinking goes, she will likely support a continuation of Youngkin’s priorities. If Spanberger is elected, though, anything is possible. When Youngkin leaves office next year, all 17 board seats will be occupied by his people. But a Democratic governor, egged on by Democratic legislators, could, as former Governor McDonnell did, threaten to demand the resignations of the board. Such an act would be not unprecedented for Virginia. Four years ago Ralph Northam demanded — and got — the resignation of Superintendent J.H. Binford Peay at VMI. In any case, after another year of bruising, polarized political warfare in Washington, D.C., precedents may not count for much.
James A. Bacon is the founder of Bacon’s Rebellion and a contributing editor with The Jefferson Council.
