by James A. Bacon
Time is running short for Governor Glenn Youngkin to make his mark on the University of Virginia. His appointees to the Board of Visitors now comprise a 13-to-4 majority, yet after almost a half year, they have failed to make a visible dent in the priorities set by President Jim Ryan. Youngkin has little more than a year left in office. If the likely Democratic candidate for governor, Abigail Spanberger, succeeds him, she could easily reverse the little progress he’s made.
The sand is fast draining from the hourglass. The painfully slow pace of change came into focus during the Board of Visitors’ quarterly meeting last week. Youngkin appointees signaled that they intended to take a closer look at UVA finances. Mind you, they didn’t contest a single administrative proposal. Three building projects totaling more than a half a billion dollars in cost are still moving through the bureaucratic pipeline. Rather, Youngkin board members flexed their majority muscles by expressing their intent to take a closer look in the future.
As for doing something tangible such as cutting spending and tuition, reining in the Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) bureaucracy, halting the double standards applied to different student groups, or bringing about intellectual diversity at an institution overwhelmingly dominated by left-of-center faculty and administrators, those conversations haven’t even begun.
When board member Bert Ellis declared that he would vote “no” on any proposed new spending increase until the administration presented a budget with significant spending and tuition cuts, not a single board member spoke in agreement. The few docile challenges that have taken place amount to tinkering on the margins.
Why is this so?
The Governor’s Office is active behind the scenes. Board members respond to guidance from Youngkin and his top aides. The counsel they have been given, as I understand it, is to avoid controversy.
Team Youngkin’s reticence to create waves is to some degree understandable. The governor nominates board members in June, but they must win approval from the Democratic-dominated General Assembly the following January and February. Democrats came within a cat’s whisker of derailing Ellis’s appointment two years ago in the wake of calumnious accusations of racism and homophobia. While the Dems didn’t succeed in blocking Ellis’s confirmation, Team Youngkin got the message: UVA board members should tread lightly. And that they have done.
As I see it, the governor wants to play nice so he can get his latest round of appointees confirmed early next year. In June he’ll appoint another four board members, at which point the last Northam appointees, including Rector Robert Hardie, will rotate off the board. A Youngkin appointee then will be appointed rector, and the board will be able to set the agenda for the first time.
Then Youngkin will have six months to get things done before his term expires.
If the next governor is Winsome Earle-Sears, the likely Republican nominee, this strategy could work out well. Youngkin appointees would remain in charge. If the next governor is Spanberger, however, all bets are off. Although Youngkinites will dominate the board until Spanberger’s picks begin rolling in over the succeeding years, they will find themselves working in political environment dominated by Democrats who control the purse strings.
Furthermore, while Spanberger might take a don’t-rock-the-boat approach similar to Youngkin’s, there is no guarantee that she will. As former Governor Ralph Northam demonstrated when he sacked Virginia Military Institute Superintendent J.H. Binford Peay III, installed his own pick as superintendent, and accepted the resignation of two board members, governors don’t always play nice.
If Youngkin wants to create change at Virginia’s flagship university, there is no time to lose. The sad fact is, the Youngkin-dominated board has no agenda, much less a coherent strategy for enacting it in the face of inevitable administrative resistance. There is a reason for the lack of a plan. President Ryan and Rector Hardie, a supporter of the status-quo, set the board agenda and control what information board members see. Open board discussion on unapproved topics is rare, and it is suppressed when it occasionally does surface. While many universities around the country are rolling back their DEI bureaucracies, for instance, the UVA board has not broached the topic even obliquely in more than a year.
Virginia state law makes it impossible for a faction on a university board to form a “shadow government” with an alternative agenda, much less to coordinate concerted action. Any conversation between three or more board members triggers state open-meeting and transparency laws. As a practical matter, all conversations between dissidents must take place one-on-one. Board members have families and demanding jobs, they’re inundated with reading material, and they have limited time in their lives to spend time hatching plots on the phone.
As a consequence, Youngkin board members find themselves responding to what the Ryan administration puts before them or reacting to eruptions such as the triple-homicide two years ago or the allegations of fraud and abuse by Health System/Medical School management that are roiling the university today.
The most aggressive actions seen from Youngkin board members (other than Ellis) before the December meeting was politely asking for more statistics or background information, which the administration answered or ignored as it pleased. Judging from last week’s meeting, Youngkinites might press their questions more assertively in the future. Whether they will be willing to risk unpleasant confrontations remains to be seen.
Four regular meetings are scheduled during Youngkin’s last year in office. Two will be run by Hardie, who has consistently backed Ryan and has kept testy topics off the agenda. In theory, dissident board members could call a special meeting, but most are personally loyal to the Governor, so there is little likelihood of such a dramatic ploy happening without his approval. Such an action would be at odds with the non-combative rhetoric we have seen from the Governor so far.
UVA has what may be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to tame its bloated, suffocating bureaucracy and to create an institution dedicated to intellectual diversity and wide-ranging debate. As the old saying goes, a mind is a terrible thing to waste. So is an entire university.
James A. Bacon is contributing editor to The Jefferson Council. Bert Ellis is a co-founder and former president of the Council.
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