Gov. Abigail Spanberger (D) vetoed identical bills — Senate Bill 494 and House Bill 1385 — May 19 after proposing amendments to each bill that were rejected by the General Assembly. SB 494 and HB 1385 focused on changing the governing boards of public institutions of higher education in the Commonwealth through requirements such as mandating the appointment of at least one voting faculty representative, one voting staff representative and one voting student representative to governing boards. This is a change from current law which requires one nonvoting student representative and one nonvoting faculty representative to be on each board of a public higher education institution in the Commonwealth.
SB 494 was patroned by Sen. Creigh Deeds (D-11), and Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell (D-34) was a cosponsor to the final bill. Here is a look at the timeline of the bill — from when it was introduced Jan. 13 to when it was vetoed by Spanberger May 19.
The legislative process
SB 494 was introduced Jan. 13 and in addition to requiring one voting faculty, staff and student representative on each board, it would have increased the membership terms of each member of a governing board from four to six years. Further, institutions would have been required to define and implement models of shared governance across their organizational structures.
On Feb. 12, the Senate Education and Health Committee amended the bill in the Nature of a Substitute — “a substantive redrafting of legislation that incorporates the changes in a new version referred to as a ‘substitute.’” The amended bill included the proposed voting faculty, staff and student members of the Board as nonvoting members, instead.
When the bill reached the House, further amendments were made. The House Committee on Education proposed amendments March 4 and removed the language that board members would serve six-year terms, reversing the bill back to current legislation which says board members serve four-year terms.
The General Assembly ultimately passed the bill March 14 and it moved to Spanberger’s desk. She proposed further amendments to SB 494 April 13, again in the Nature of a Substitute. Spanberger wrote that she “[approved] the general purpose of this bill, but [returned] it without [her] signature with the request that the attached Amendment in the Nature of a Substitute … be accepted.”
These amendments were ultimately rejected by the General Assembly. One amendment included changing the number of members of the Virginia Commission on Higher Education Board Appointments from a total of eight to “at least six but no more than 15 nonlegislative citizen members and two ex-officio members.” The Virginia Commission on Higher Education Board Appointments is an eight-member advisory body responsible for vetting candidates for governing boards of the public higher education institutions in the Commonwealth.
Another one of Spanberger’s amendments to SB 494 and rejected by the General Assembly added a clause to the bill that governing boards “shall act at all times in accordance with their primary duties of advancing the interests of the institution and the interests of the people of the Commonwealth.”
The Senate “passed by for a day” with a block vote of 21 ayes, 18 nays and zero abstentions April 22, though one senator was absent and did not vote. A “pass by for the day” signifies that the committee is not ready to act on the bill, and a block vote serves to group bills together to pass one vote for bills on the docket that day, collectively. The Senate passed by SB 494 and six other Senate Bills that day, and the vote was mostly split along partisan lines.
The Senate’s decision was communicated to Spanberger April 22, with a deadline of May 23 to accept or veto. Spanberger vetoed SB 494 May 19.
In her veto statement, Spanberger wrote that she “offered amendments [to] remove certain provisions that could further politicize our institutions” that might undermine the current efforts of her administration to “stabilize” governing boards.
She also wrote that she “removed provisions that had no clear connection to addressing the challenges our boards have experienced in recent years.”
Legislators and University stakeholders weigh in
The Cavalier Daily received statements from Deeds and Michael Mitchell, Student Council president and rising fourth-year Commerce student, regarding the importance of SB 494. Both Deeds and Mitchell expressed disappointment in Spanberger’s veto of the bill.
Wahoos4UVA — a group of alumni, faculty, staff, students and parents which formed in May 2025 to support former University President Jim Ryan — also sent a letter to Spanberger May 29 after she vetoed the bill. The letter asks Spanberger to consider other mechanisms to protect public institutions of higher education in the Commonwealth, including by issuing an executive directive to board of visitors members and the State Council on Higher Education in Virginia for board policies to commit to shared governance and act in the best interests of their respective institution.
Deeds wrote that his primary objection to the substitute was the removal of the six-year terms, as one of his intentions for the bill was removing partisanship from the governing boards of institutes of higher education. He referenced how an individual governor’s appointments would eventually make up the entirety of the Board when members serve four-year terms, and that six-year terms would ensure that at minimum, a portion of the Board would be appointed by a different governor.
“[Sen. Scott Surovell, Del. Katrina Callsen] and I — and others — worked on legislation to put a wall between the partisan world and higher education,” Deeds wrote. “I think we all wanted to strip partisanship, to the extent that we could, from the process of selecting members of the Board of Visitors.”
Another key focus of Deeds’ with SB 494 was to implement voting power for the faculty, staff and student representatives, he wrote, and he added that he will continue working for these reforms to the Board.
At the University, Jeri Seidman, former Faculty Senate chair and associate professor of commerce, and rising fourth-year College student Jackson Sleadd serve in the nonvoting positions of faculty representative and student representative to the Board, respectively.
Mitchell said during the Student Council presidential debate in February that he believes the student representative to the Board should have voting power. Following the veto, he echoed many of Deeds’ sentiments, writing that Spanberger’s decision was “disappointing” and that he plans to continue Student Council efforts to give the student representative voting power.
"We still believe [University] students deserve a voting representative on the Board of Visitors, and we're committed to continuing that effort through Student Council’s Legislative Affairs agency and alongside student leaders from colleges and universities across Virginia,” Mitchell wrote. “We don’t know all of the factors that influenced Governor Spanberger’s decision. What we do know is that she has expressed interest in continuing the conversation around University governance, and we welcome that opportunity.”
Student Council’s Legislative Affairs Agency is part of the Cabinet, and according to the Student Council website, works to “[encourage] student participation in the political process and [represent] the interests of University students in the federal, state and local government.” The description notes that this year, the agency is specifically committed to “lobbying against discriminatory and punitive state laws that actively obstruct a more equitable U.Va.,” though the website does not specify what state laws it sees as currently “discriminatory and punitive.”
Deeds concluded by explaining the significance of SB 494 for University students.
“Students should care about higher education policy,” Deeds wrote. “The ideas and workforce that shape our present and future economy are developed in our system of higher education.”
Charlotte Gabriel is a second-year student and serves as a staff writer on the news desk. In her free time, she enjoys hiking, painting and being with her dog Buddy.
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