The Senate Privileges and Elections Committee voted down another set of Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s nominees to public university governing boards in Virginia. In total, the Committee has now rejected 10 nominees for George Mason University’s governing board, seven for the Virginia Military Institute and five at the University of Virginia.
Rejected Thursday were James Donovan, John Harris, H. Eugene Lockhart and Calvert Sanders, all of whom were appointed by Youngkin at the end of June and have been serving on the Board of Visitors since then. Former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli was previously rejected by the committee in early June, alongside seven other appointees to GMU and VMI. If those universities comply with the ruling, there will be a total of 10 vacancies at GMU and seven at VMI.
In the 9 minute meeting Thursday, Democrats wasted little time in voting down the slate of appointees before them, with eight members voting against the nominees and six in favor — a party line vote. Before the vote, State Sen. Glen Sturtevant, R-Midlothian, made remarks before the committee that the nominees have not done anything worthy of being voted down. State Sen. Aaron Rouse, D-Virginia Beach and the chair of the committee, did not respond to Sturtevant, and brought the slate to a vote.
In a statement after the vote, Rouse cited “political interference” from the Trump administration as the reason for the vote. Former University President Jim Ryan stepped down in June following pressure from the Department of Justice.
“Forcing out U.Va.’s president through a baseless investigation … is not about protecting civil rights. It is about dismantling public education to advance a partisan agenda,” Rouse said.
In a statement to The Cavalier Daily, Youngkin said that the Democrats on the committee are “damaging” Virginia’s universities.
“Removing these talented, experienced, and dedicated volunteer board members is an unprecedented breach of public trust. Even more concerning, they refused to provide Virginians with any explanation for their decision,” Youngkin said.
The Thursday vote is the most recent part of a summer-long saga regarding public university governing board appointments. At the June meeting of the committee, Senate Democrats voted down Cuccinelli along with seven other appointees at the Virginia Military Institute and George Mason University.
But Republicans disagreed with the vote, saying the Virginia constitution requires a full vote of the General Assembly on the appointments. The vote on whether to confirm the nominees was presented before the committee as a resolution, and Democrats argued that they were following standard procedure, as any bill has to make it out of committee to reach the full chamber.
When Attorney General Jason Miyares instructed University rectors not to comply with the vote and continue allowing appointees to serve, Senate Democrats sued the rectors. At the end of July, Judge Jonathan D. Frieden in Fairfax County issued a preliminary ruling in favor of the Democrats, preventing the blocked appointees from serving.
In Frieden’s ruling, he agreed that allowing the appointees to serve could cause “irreparable harm,” and that the Democrats were likely to win in the end anyway. Republicans have now appealed to the Supreme Court of Virginia, and Youngkin said in a statement Thursday that he is “confident” in the GOP’s position.
Two of the four rejected nominees — Donovan and Harris — are on the recently announced presidential search committee to find the University’s 10th president. It is unclear who will replace them as of Thursday.
At the time of publication, The Cavalier Daily had not received an answer from the University on if it plans to comply with Thursday’s vote.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
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