By Dan Rosenzweig-Ziff
Virginia Gov.-elect Abigail Spanberger (D) asked the University of Virginia’s board Wednesday to pause its search for a president until she takes office and appoints five new members, signaling she’ll make reshaping the state’s higher education institutions an early priority.
The request drew a rebuke a day later from current Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R), who said Spanberger’s letter to U-Va. board members contained inaccuracies and said the board should continue its work.
The board, run exclusively by Youngkin appointees, has drawn controversy over its handling of federal investigations into the school’s diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives — scrutiny that led James E. Ryan to resign as president. The university’s presidential search committee said recently that it would invite some candidates for in-person interviews later this month before identifying finalists for the role.
Spanberger, a U-Va. graduate, said in a letter to the heads of the Board of Visitors that Ryan’s departure resulted from “federal overreach” that the governing body did not challenge and questioned how that could affect the “legitimacy” of the search for the school’s next leader.
“I urge you to refrain from rushing this search process and from selecting the finalists for the presidency or a president until the Board is at full complement,” she wrote. Spanberger will be inaugurated in January.
She added that the board has lost the confidence of several of its constituencies, including the university’s faculty senate, raising questions over its ability to govern effectively.
Youngkin pushed back in a letter to Spanberger on Thursday. He wrote her note was “riddled with hyperbole and factual errors,” defended the settlement U-Va. reached with the Justice Department and alleged that the flagship had ignored federal civil rights law. He said that Spanberger took action without knowing the full situation.
“By acting precipitously, you may have inflicted significant damage on the university you profess to love,” he wrote.
He saidhe advises the U-Va. board to continue the presidential search as normal and that “there isjust one Governor of Virginia at any time.”
“Efforts to bully or micromanage are inappropriate,” he wrote. “Your administration will start on January 17, 2026.”
Brian Coy, a spokesperson for U-Va., acknowledged that board leaders had seen the statement but did not say whether the board would follow Spanberger’s request.
“University leaders and the Board of Visitors are reviewing the letter and are ready to engage with the Governor-elect and to work alongside her and her team to advance the best interests of U-Va. and the Commonwealth,” he said Wednesday in a statement.
The Trump administration and other conservatives have since this spring brought intense scrutiny to two of Virginia’s prominent universities — U-Va., the state’s flagship, and George Mason University, the state’s largest public four-year college — as part of efforts to root out DEI policies they see as discriminatory.
The administration launched several probes into U-Va., and Ryan said he stepped down in hopes of sparing the university from a costly fight with the federal government. U-Va. and the Justice Department last month announced an agreement to pause the investigations.
Soon after Ryan’s resignation, some Republicans began calling for the ouster of George Mason President Gregory Washington, who has refused to quit.
Spanberger’s letter could reignite a legal fight over board appointees to the state’s colleges and universities.
In the past few months, Democrats on a Virginia Senate committee rejected 22 of Youngkin’s recent appointees to university boards, including five at U-Va., to try to limit Youngkin’s influence on higher education. The governor and Attorney General Jason S. Miyares (R) have said only the full General Assembly can reject board members, who they argue should be able to serve until that happens. The judiciary has thus far said the appointees cannot serve.
The rejections and resulting vacancies have led some to question whether the boards at U-Va. and George Mason have enough members to make significant decisions.
In a post on X, state Senate President Pro Tempore L. Louise Lucas (D-Portsmouth) said Democratic state lawmakers would back Spanberger’s actions, which she said would help to ensure Virginia’s universities are not “turned into right wing political laboratories.”
The Jefferson Council, a conservative group of U-Va. alumni who pushed for Ryan’s ouster, called Democrats’ support of Spanberger’s letter hypocritical. The group cited a 2022 decision by the Board of Visitors — then controlled by Democratic appointees — to extend Ryan’s contract before Youngkin had a chance to name someone to the board.
“To suddenly ask the BOV to wait to choose a president is a bold act of political legerdemain representing a total historical double-standard,” the group said in a statement.
In her letter, Spanberger added that it is a priority of her administration to “stabilize and normalize” Virginia’s university boards and that she will make appointments soon after she is inaugurated in January.