The Cabal Is At It Again
A rumor circulated this week claiming that the Board of Visitors has developed a short list of candidates for a future University presidency, despite the recent appointment of Scott Beardsley. At the top of the list allegedly is Risa Goluboff, former Dean of UVA Law from 2016 - 2024. After hearing this whisper campaign, we feel it is an appropriate time to educate the University community as to the back story that underlies the rumor and helps to explain many of the recent machinations at The University.
For some time, we have heard from knowledgeable sources that Jim Ryan had identified Risa Goluboff as his preferred successor whenever he chose to step down as President–which according to his own statements was in the not-too-distant future. The first step in implementing this plan was to have Ms. Goluboff appointed as the new Provost to succeed Ian Baucom. While Ms. Goluboff is considered to be an intelligent and affable person by many, her greatest asset may have been her close alignment with Ryan and her full buy-in to his politicized “great and good” agenda. Unfortunately for the preconceived Ryan succession plan, that was not sufficient for her peers, as they apparently did not believe she had the credentials to be the Provost. Accordingly, Goluboff was neither the search committee’s choice for Provost nor, allegedly, even a finalist. Then, in a resulting huff, Ryan refused to accept the search committee’s actual nominee choice, resulting in a failed Provost search to the detriment of the University. This would help explain why the University community has been given no transparency whatsoever regarding what occurred during the initial search and why it failed.
After Jim Ryan resigned in June 2025, the plan was resurrected and Goluboff entered the running for President. According to our sources, she lobbied far and wide for the position. But once again, Ryan’s plan would fail, as Goluboff missed out on being chosen as one of the final four candidates. But perhaps of even greater consequence, we have been informed by multiple credible sources that the leader of the executive search firm retained by the Presidential Search Committee advised the Board that, in their professional judgment, Goluboff was not qualified at this time to serve as President of a university of this stature. Ultimately, Scott Beardsley was chosen to be the 10th President.
Given the background as set forth above, it is understandable why Ryan’s intrepid followers and supporters (the “Cabal”), who have been acting in concert for some time, have consistently sought to delegitimize the Presidential Search Committee and are now attempting to do the same with President Beardsley. We have previously discussed the actions of the Cabal in detail. The Cabal’s motives and targets are now also visible in Board text messages retrieved from one of the leaders of the Cabal and recently made public by the Washington Post through a Freedom of Information Act request. We have recently added a link to all 900+ pages of these texts on our website. It is critically important that the University community understand the truth behind this group’s actions, including who was targeted for marginalization and why. A detailed analysis of these materials will follow in the near future.