By Andrew Kerley
Senate Democrats asked Gov. Glenn Youngkin to cease appointing more members to the governing boards of three Virginia universities after blocking 14 more of them in a Senate meeting Thursday.
The Senate Privileges and Elections Committee voted to block 14 of Youngkin’s appointments to George Mason University, Virginia Military Institute and the University of Virginia on Thursday, citing concerns of partisanship. The panel blocked eight appointments to the same three schools in June, bringing the total to 22.
The 16-member boards are the highest decision-making bodies at Virginia’s institutes of higher education, holding the power to budget, hire and fire presidents and approve course curricula.
Democrats’ actions come as multiple Virginia universities face pressure from the Trump administration over diversity practices. GMU was recently found by the federal government to have violated civil rights laws regarding hiring and admissions practices. Former UVA President Jim Ryan resigned in July under similar pressure, without support from the university’s board.
Democratic Senate leaders Scott Surovell, Louise Lucas and Mamie Locke sent a letter to Youngkin Thursday expressing their concern about his recent appointees who they previously accused of disrupting governance — though three of the appointees being stripped of their role were appointed back in 2022.
“This unprecedented level of rejection reflects not partisan obstruction, but genuine concerns about the qualifications, backgrounds, and intentions of your appointees,” they wrote. “The pattern of inappropriate nominations and acquiescence to outside political influence has created significant uncertainty and instability within our higher education system at a time when these institutions need steady, qualified leadership.”
The letter also reaffirmed Democrats’ intentions to propose “significant reforms to how visitors are nominated and confirmed” in the 2026 General Assembly session and said it would be “unwise” for Youngkin to make more appointments before then.
“We therefore respectfully request that you suspend further appointments to these boards
pending meaningful consultation with Senate leadership,” the letter states. “We stand ready to work with you to identify qualified nominees who can earn broad support and provide the stable governance our universities deserve. Virginia’s higher education system is too important to become a casualty of political discord.”
Youngkin issued a statement calling the vote a “partisan campaign” by eight Democratic senators to “irreparably harm higher education in Virginia.”
“In my view, a single Senate committee does not have the legal authority to perform duties that the Constitution and Code explicitly assign to the full General Assembly,” Youngkin stated. “This important constitutional question is now before the Supreme Court of Virginia, and I am confident in our position.”
The Thursday vote blocked six appointees to GMU: Preston Cooper, Jeffrey Dinwoodie, Bobbie Kilberg, William Moschella, Sarah Parshall Perry and Harold Pyon. The VMI appointees blocked were Garrett Exner, L. Scott Lingamfelter, Ernesto Sampson and Lloyd Taliaferro; and to UVa, James Donovan, John Harris, H. Eugene Lockhart and Calvert Saunders Moore.
During the meeting, Sen. Bill DeSteph, R-Virginia Beach, asked the committee’s chair, Sen. Aaron Rouse, D-Virginia Beach, why the panel was voting before the Supreme Court of Virginia has made a decision regarding an ongoing lawsuit over the first set of appointment rejections. A Fairfax judge previously ruled in favor of Democrats, but Attorney General Jason Miyares appealed.
“We are trying to usurp their authority, which, again, we should not be allowed to do,” DeSteph said.
Sen. Tara Durant, R-Fredericksburg, called the vote unprecedented and said the rejected appointees had plenty of experience that made them qualified. One of them, Scott Lingamfelter, served in the House of Delegates for 16 years.
“We have a job to do as this committee, not only to protect our colleges and universities, but to make sure that appointees or potential appointees are upholding the values and principles set forth,” Rouse said in response to both DeSteph and Durant.
Democrats’ letter to Youngkin said the continuing cycle of nominations and rejections serves no one’s interests, wastes valuable time and resources and creates ongoing uncertainty for university administrators, faculty, and students.
Democrats’ rejection of the 22 appointees leaves the 16-member boards at GMU, VMI and UVA with multiple vacant seats. In total, 10 GMU board members have been removed, along with seven at VMI and five at UVA.
When asked how university boards will operate without full membership, Rouse told Virginia Scope, “They have to figure it out.”