by Andrew Kerley
Gov. Abigail Spanberger has already appointed nearly half of the members serving on Virginia’s public university governing boards, an unusually rapid reshaping made possible after Democrats in the General Assembly rejected dozens of former Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s appointments over concerns they had politicized higher education.
Including a handful of Youngkin picks she reappointed, Spanberger has filled about 47% of the membership between the boards of the state’s 14 four-year public institutions.
Spanberger has also appointed two of the 15 members on the State Board for Community Colleges and four of the 13 State Council for Higher Education members.
George Mason University has seen the biggest turnover, with 13 of its 16 board members replaced. Spanberger has also appointed 10 members each to the boards governing the University of Virginia, Virginia Military Institute and Old Dominion University. At Richard Bland College, she filled all nine seats after the board was vacated.
Virginia governors typically appoint one quarter of a college board’s membership each summer until it is fully packed by the end of their four-year term. Spanberger has made a number of appointments other governors did not reach until the second year of their terms.
Democrats sought to ‘depoliticize’ the boards
Last summer, Senate Democrats removed 22 of Youngkin’s board appointees between UVA, GMU and VMI in a public spat that turned into a court battle.
Those concerns came after Youngkin’s appointees complied with President Donald Trump’s efforts to reshape higher education. They voted to cut diversity, equity and inclusion policies, did not back ousted UVA president Jim Ryan and piled on pressure to reject new learning requirements about systemic racism and workplace inequality at GMU and Virginia Commonwealth University.
“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,” Democratic Senate leaders wrote to Youngkin at the time.
Youngkin and former Attorney General Jason Miyares argued in court that Democrats’ rejection votes were invalid because they did not take place during a typical legislative session with the full General Assembly able to weigh in. The Republicans lost the case, and then again in an appeal to the Supreme Court of Virginia.
On her first day in office, Spanberger directed the Virginia Department of Education to review the process for appointing board members — with a required report including recommendations on potential legislative or policy changes.
Democrats voted to reject even more of Youngkin’s appointees during the 2026 General Assembly session, creating more vacancies for Spanberger to fill.
Alongside the rejections came a number of bills seeking to reform boards of visitors and how their members are appointed.
One proposal would have added language clarifying the General Assembly’s role in confirming appointments. Another, pushed by campus worker unions, would have expanded representation on the boards by giving students, faculty and staff one voting seat each.
The bills were ultimately watered down into one package sent to Spanberger’s desk, which would have increased member terms from four to six years and require them to wait two years before being reappointed. It would have prevented any one governor from fully packing the boards with their appointees.
But Spanberger still vetoed the legislation.
“The General Assembly put forth a whole host of reforms without linking them to what they were trying to fortify,” Spanberger said in a July conversation with reporters.
The authors of the legislation, Del. Lily Franklin, D-Montgomery County, and Sen. Creigh Deeds, D-Charlottesville, did not answer a request for comment.
An ‘unprecedented’ number of appointments
Longtime Virginia political analyst and former VCU Board of Visitors member Bob Holsworth said the number of appointees rejected by Democrats and replaced by Spanberger is “unprecedented” for higher education — and comparable to how Youngkin packed the K-12 Virginia Board of Education.
Holsworth thinks Spanberger is attempting to return to her version of the status quo. He said her appointees do not appear as politicized as Youngkin’s, who were more intent on pushing his platform.
“They just don’t seem to be attempting to promote a definitive ideological agenda, with the exception of trying to back away from some of what Youngkin was trying to do,” Holsworth said.
Spanberger said she has endeavored to appoint people with wide skill sets who will ensure their school’s independence, regardless of their political affiliation. In particular, she has appointed people with backgrounds in finance.
“I said explicitly, like ‘you are there to do the right thing by the university. Your principal responsibility is for the long-term strength of this university, and all of the benefits that it gives to its students, the local community, the economy, its alumni network, etc,’” Spanberger said.
Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell, D-Fairfax, stated he is not worried about Spanberger or Democrats politicizing higher education in the same way he believes Republicans did
“The governor has appointed many well-qualified Virginians who care about the schools’ first and politics last,” Surovell stated. “I’m sure that her office is not conducting regular check-ins or pressure campaigns with board of visitors members like the Youngkin administration.”
‘Back to business as usual’
Cecelia Parks is a member of the American Association of University Professors, a UVA librarian and one of many advocates for the proposal that would have created voting board seats for students, faculty and staff. She applauded Spanberger for removing some of UVA’s “worst actors,” but was disappointed to see the governor veto the reforms.
“After we had this really robust conversation around reforms and depoliticization of the boards, this administration just kinda seems content to go back to business as usual,” Parks said.
Parks said students, faculty and staff need to have voting seats on boards because they will otherwise be ignored, along with traditional shared governance bodies like faculty senates and university councils. They need to be able to contribute to decisions on new policies, new buildings and adding or cutting programs.
“We are the ones who have dedicated our lives to working with these institutions,” Parks said. “Not only do we have expertise, but it really affects me in a day-to-day way”
Spokespeople for House of Delegates Speaker Don Scott, D-Portsmouth, House Minority Leader Terry Kilgore, R-Scott, and Senate Minority Leader Ryan McDougle, R-Hanover, did not answer requests for comment.