Eight individuals appointed to serve on statewide universities’ governing boards by Gov. Glenn Youngkin will not be allowed to sit on those boards, a Fairfax County judge ruled Tuesday. Judge Jonathan D. Frieden said that the plaintiffs — Virginia Senate Democrats, led by Sen. Louise Lucas, D-Portsmouth — demonstrated that allowing these appointees to serve would cause “irreparable harm.”
The ruling is a major development in the ongoing battle between Senate Democrats and the state Republicans and officials at three universities. This includes former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, appointed by Youngkin in March but blocked by the Senate Privileges and Elections Committee in June.
In the ruling, Frieden wrote that he believes the plaintiffs will ultimately prevail in the final ruling.
“Plaintiffs have demonstrated their entitlement to a preliminary injunction prohibiting Defendants from recognizing the rejected appointees as members of their respective university governing boards,” Frieden wrote.
The appointees will now no longer be permitted to be recognized as members, vote or participate in meetings. However, Frieden emphasized that governing boards will be able to continue their work, just in the absence of the appointees who have not been confirmed.
“Each [rector] will continue to preside over meetings of their respective Boards. Each of the affected Boards will continue to meet and do business, just with fewer members,” Frieden wrote.
In a statement to The Cavalier Daily, University Spokesperson Bethanie Glover said the University will comply with the ruling.
“As we prepare for the new academic year, the Board of Visitors and U.Va. leaders remain focused on serving our community and our commonwealth through our education, research and patient care missions,” Glover said.
The origin of this case centers around whether the Senate committee was ever allowed to block these appointees. Republicans said that the Code of Virginia requires appointees to be confirmed by the entire General Assembly, not just one committee. But Democrats said that they voted down the nominees the same way they would have voted down any bills — in committee. Bills which die in committee do not advance to a full vote, the Democrats argued.
When the appointees refused to step down, at the direction of Republican Attorney General Jason Miyares, Democrats on the committee sued the three university rectors at the University of Virginia, George Mason University and the Virginia Military Institute.
These three universities have recently been embroiled in governing conflicts surrounding their presidents. The VMI governing board opted in March to not renew the contract of the institute’s first Black president. Former U.Va. President Jim Ryan resigned at the end of June under pressure from the Department of Justice, which had begun an investigation into the University’s admissions programs and diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. And the DOJ said it will begin a second investigation into faculty support for the president at GMU.
The ruling may have immediate implications at U.Va. The search committee formed Friday to find U.Va.’s 10th president contains multiple appointees who were never confirmed by the Senate committee. The search committee serves only in an advisory capacity.
As for the Board, a total of five of its appointees currently serving were appointed by Youngkin but have either been denied or not yet confirmed by the Senate committee — Cuccinelli, Adjunct Prof. James Donovan, Class of 1982 alumnus John F. Harris, Class of 1972 and 1974 alumnus H. Eugene Lockhart and Class of 1990 alumna Calvert Saunders Moore.
Senate Democrats now face a choice. They could block the pending nominees, leaving vacancies on the Board until a new governor — possibly former Rep. Abigail Spanberger, a Democrat — is elected and can appoint new members, or they could use their leverage over Youngkin to pressure him to choose different members if he wants them to be confirmed.
Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell, D-Fairfax, previously told The Cavalier Daily that nothing is off the table for the party, and that he hopes to see reform for the process by which Board nominees are appointed and confirmed.
“When we come back in January, we can rewrite the law. We can change the structure of these boards. We can add people, we can subtract people, we can delete positions, as long as the governor goes along,” Surovell said at a June 28 media conference.
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