by James A. Bacon

Blaming the toxic politics in Washington, D.C., the state Senate Privileges & Elections Subcommittee just made Virginia politics more toxic by voting down eight university Board of Visitors members nominated by Governor Glenn Youngkin in an 8-to-4 party line vote.

“What we see in our political climate today, especially coming out of Washington, trying to make its way to our commonwealth — it’s our job to stand up,” said Committee Chair Sen. Aaron Rouse, D-Virginia Beach, the committee chair…. who happens to be running for lieutenant governor.

A new battleground has emerged in Virginia politics — the appointment of board members to the governing bodies of Virginia’s public universities. Traditionally, the legislature defers to the overwhelming majority of a governor’s nominees. And when lawmakers don’t like someone, they wait until the regular General Assembly session in January-February to reject him or her.

The process allows nominees to serve six or more months before getting the axe. It’s not clear from the Richmond Times-Dispatch report what immediate impact the Subcommittee vote will have.

“Just days before a contentious Democrat primary, Virginians see today’s antics for what they are — an obvious political sideshow,” said Youngkin spokesman Rob Damschen. “This sloppy attempt … is not only completely out of order with General Assembly procedures, it also costs Virginians thousands of dollars. Make no mistake, these highly qualified appointees will continue to serve in their posts as the Constitution of Virginia affords.”

But Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell, D-Fairfax, defended the vote. “When we’ve done this before, governors have said this is valid,” he said. According to the RTD, Surovell was referring to subcommittee votes when Republicans were in control that did not confirm some of Democratic Governor Ralph Northam’s appointees.

One nominee, former state Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, tells me that he expects to continue serving on the University of Virginia Board of Visitors until early next year when the full General Assembly votes on his nomination. He anticipates being rejected then, at which point he will step down. Cuccinelli interprets the Subcommittee vote as a stunt by a candidate for lieutenant governor seeking to burnish credentials with fellow Democrats.

Aside from Cuccinelli, the blocked nominees include:

• Virginia Military Institute — Jonathan Hartsock, Stephen Reardon, and José J. Suárez.
• George Mason University — Caren Merrick, Charles J. Cooper, William D. Hansen, and Maureen Ohlhausen

UVA, VMI and GMU are the three universities where Youngkin appointees have been most aggressive in rolling back Diversity, Equity & Inclusion and racial preferences.

DEI is under attack nationally as part of a larger assault on higher education as a bastion of leftist power, privilege, indoctrination, anti-Semitism and racial preferences. The Trump administration has most visibly targeted Harvard and other Ivy League institutions, but a Trump executive order has ordered all universities to dismantle their DEI programs and end racial preferences. Meanwhile, the Office of Civil Rights is investigating dozens of others for anti-Semitism.

Many university administrations have sought to dodge the DEI orders by changing department titles, rewriting job descriptions, and shifting personnel from one office to another. At the University of Virginia, President Jim Ryan has failed to satisfy either the Board of Visitors or the federal Office of Civil Rights with the pace at which he has moved to bring UVA policies and practices into alignment with Civil Rights law.

There is a widespread supposition that Ryan is running out the clock, seeking to preserve as much as possible of the DEI regime in the hope that his presumed favorite, Democrat Abigail Spanberger, will be elected governor.

Youngkin appointees were constrained in their ability to carry out the Governor’s priorities at UVA — cutting costs, capping tuition, bolstering intellectual diversity, ending racial preferences — by the inertia built into the governance system. Youngkin is halfway through his last year in office, yet four UVA Board members appointed by former Governor Ralph Northam still occupy key positions, including the Rector and chair of the Finance Committee, through the end of this month.

One might assume that the same inertia will work in favor of the Youngkin appointees in reverse should a Democrat occupy the Governor’s Mansion. But the militancy of General Assembly Democrats calls that assumption into question.

Youngkin is scheduled to nominate another slate of Board members by the end of June. Could the General Assembly block all of them as well? Will Youngkin, fearing the worst, appoint milquetoasts unlikely to draw fire from Democrats? How many board members will play it safe rather than speak out? Youngkin fired Bert Ellis from his seat on the UVA Board for the offense of speaking out too boldly and with insufficient courtesy. Among his alleged offenses, Ellis referred to a UVA employee as a “numnut” in a private communication. The bar for excommunication is a low one.

The biggest wild card is Spanberger. If elected, would the UVA grad exercise her power as governor to bump inconvenient Youngkin appointees from university boards, just as Youngkin fired Ellis? And how might such a possibility affect the behavior of board members? Will they keep a low profile, even while Youngkin is in office, rather than risk rebuke?

It’s a new world in higher-ed governance in Virginia.