After University President-elect Scott Beardsley was appointed to be the University’s 10th president Friday, several state leaders were quick to criticize his appointment, even those who view him favorably. Democrats made clear they are not backing down from the fight.
Beardsley was appointed unanimously by the Board of Visitors Friday afternoon despite calls, including from Gov.-elect Abigail Spanberger (D), not to name a new president until she took office. But the Board moved ahead anyway, a move that was praised by Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R).
Youngkin, who already said he opposed Spanberger’s request for the Board to hold off, wrote in a statement posted to X Friday congratulating Beardsley and thanking the Board and presidential search committee for conducting a “robust, world-class search.”
“I know Dean Beardsley only by his reputation, which is stellar, and based on his accomplishments at the Darden School of Business, which is consistently ranked as the top public business school in the country,” Youngkin wrote.
Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears (R), who Spanberger defeated in this year’s election, also congratulated Beardsley in a statement posted to X, saying she looks forward to his leadership in the University’s next chapter.
But Youngkin and Earle-Sears appear to have stood alone in congratulatory reactions from state officials, as Democrats moved quickly to say they were not backing down from the fight to stop the appointment — even though the search is complete.
Lt. Gov.-elect Ghazala Hashmi (D) wrote in a statement that she still believes the Board should completely pause the presidential appointment process until Spanberger takes office and can fill vacancies on the Board.
“A Board that is incomplete, particularly during a transition between administrations, cannot credibly claim the full authority or legitimacy required to appoint a president whose tenure will extend well beyond the current governor’s term,” Hashmi wrote. “Proceeding under these circumstances weakens the integrity of the process.”
The Board has five vacancies after Senate Democrats blocked Youngkin’s nominees over the summer, leading to a legal battle which the Democrats ultimately won. But because the Board does not have its entire membership, some, including Spanberger, have argued that it is not legally constituted. Virginia law requires the Board to have 12 Virginia residents and 12 University alumni, and it currently only has nine of each, one of the bases for the Democrats’ argument.
Some stakeholders, including a majority of the University’s academic deans — Beardsley not amongst them — have said the Board should hold off on naming a president because a new president would immediately be faced with questions of legitimacy given disputes over the Board’s composition.
Beardsley is now facing those questions about his appointment, but State Sen. Creigh Deeds, D-Charlottesville, said it is not personal.
“It's not even about him. It's not about the substance of the appointment,” Deeds said. “He looks to have a stellar background. But the point is, last month, a new governor was elected … and she asked the Board to discontinue the search until the Board was fully constituted next month. And the Board refused.”
Deeds engaged in a series of disputes with University administrators over the course of the fall, and received 284 pages of documents via a Freedom of Information Act request in which he sought to get more information on the resignation of former University President Jim Ryan. Deeds also told The Cavalier Daily in October that the University’s state funding may be revisited by the General Assembly if the Board did not provide more detailed information about Ryan’s resignation.
But in Friday's interview, Deeds did not appear open to the idea of cutting state appropriations as a response to Beardsley's appointment, saying the budget is already tight as is with federal funding pressures.
“I don't think the General Assembly has done a great job of funding higher education over the past quarter of a century. I think we've taken a couple of wrong turns,” Deeds said. “And I don't want to get to the point where we are looking at things like [state funding for higher education].”
As for other steps Democrats could take, Deeds left the option of firing individual Board members up to Spanberger, saying there is recent precedent — likely referring to Youngkin firing former Board member Bert Ellis — for the move.
“It's going to be the governor's prerogative to look at all the actions of the Board in that light. Do I think she should? You know, I think that I'm gonna leave that to her judgment. I certainly have a lot of concern,” Deeds said.
Other Democrats took to X immediately after the appointment was announced to speak out against the appointment.
Senate President Pro Tempore Louise Lucas, D-Portsmouth, said on X that Beardsley should “buckle up.”.
“Scott Beardsley, you will quickly learn about the separation of powers between branches and what happens when one branch gives a middle finger to another that funds, regulates and allows their existence,” Lucas wrote.
Del. Patrick Hope, D-Arlington, quoted Lucas’s post and said “congratulations Scott Beardsley on your interim appointment,” with a laughing emoji.
State Sen. Schuyler VanValkenburg, D-Henrico, posted to X a screenshot of the Code of Virginia’s standard for a governor firing members of boards, saying he believes Friday’s appointment meets the “malfeasance” standard, or misconduct by public officials.
“To my mind, the speed of this search is the definition of ‘malfeasance.’ It was politics over the health of the University from beginning to end; from firing President Ryan to now,” VanValkenburg wrote.
In Hashmi’s statement, she did not comment on how the General Assembly should proceed, but said that she believes the presidential search committee should go back to the drawing board once Spanberger takes office, ignoring Beardsley’s appointment.
“The appropriate next step is to fully pause the presidential appointment process until the new administration is in place and the Board of Visitors is appropriately constituted,” Hashmi wrote.
Deeds was less specific about his desired next steps, just saying that he wants what is best for the University.
“I want things to work out very well for U.Va.,” Deeds said. “I think we have some tough sledding ahead, though.”
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