William and Mary Board of Visitors holds forums for discussion

Members of the College of William and Mary Board of
Visitors met with students Friday to discuss recent events
at the college that ultimately led to the sudden resignation
of William and Mary President Gene R. Nichol.

Board members R. Phillip Herget III, Kathy Hornsby,
Suzann W. Matthews, Jeffrey L. McWaters, Anita Poston,
John Charles Thomas and Barbara B. Ukrop joined Board
Rector Michael K. Powell in a day of forums set up for
students to voice their concerns.

The meetings were broadcasted by the William and
Mary radio station, WCWM.org, and partial recordings
of Powell’s responses were made available in a William
and Mary news release following the student forum.

Nichol announced his resignation to the William
and Mary community Feb. 12 after being informed by
the board that his contract would be allowed to expire
in June.

“The College of William and Mary is a singular place
of invention, rigor, commitment, character and heart,”
Nichol stated in a letter about his resignation. “You will
remain always and forever at the center of our hearts.”

Following Nichol’s announcement, there was some
confusion about how Powell and the board came to such
a decision. The board held three meetings Friday-one
for staff, one for faculty and one for
students. The board received questions
that both were pre-submitted and were
taken from audience members.

Throughout the student forum, the
board constantly was on the defensive.
Powell’s integrity and motives were
brought into question, and the entire
board was accused of holding a perpetual
condescending and patronizing tone
with the student body-both in communications
prior to the meeting and
while attempting to provide answers
during the forum.

According to Virginia law, the Board
of Visitors is not allowed to hold a vote in
a closed-session meeting. To stay within
the bounds of the law, the board did not
hold a vote but decided unanimously
– according to the members present – to
not hold the vote and to let Nichol’s
contract expire.

“There was no vote to be taken, and
none was taken,” Powell said.

There was heavy debate about
whether Powell misinterpreted
the decision as unanimous
following the resignation of
board member Robert A. Blair
and after Powell described the
decision as unanimous.

“For over a week, I described
the decision that way,” Powell
said. “I never heard from a
board member, or anyone
else, any objection to using
the term.” Powell said the first
disagreement he noticed was in
Blair’s e-mail announcing his
resignation.

“I was one of several members of
the board who argued forcefully for the
renewal of Gene Nichol’s contract as
President of the College,” Blair stated in
his e-mail. “Although no vote was taken,
one was not required if the contract was
not to be renewed. Those for renewal
were given ample opportunity to argue
their points. We ultimately found
ourselves in the minority.”

Blair said he was at first reassured by
statements by Powell and the board that
the board would not change policies put
in place by Nichol.

“Why then am I resigning from the
board at this juncture?” Blair stated.
“Because there has been an incipient
effort by some members of the Board
of Visitors to pick apart President
Nichol’s accomplishments. . I have
also seen mean-spirited communications
that are not worthy of the professional
deliberations of any managing board,
but most especially not the Board of
Visitors of William and Mary. Such
communications call into question the
real motivation for the initial decision
not to renew the President’s contract.”

Powell said of the 17 board members,
three were in support of renewing
Nichol’s contract, but – because of the
overwhelming majority – the board
decided to publicize the decision as
unanimous, as Powell has done in
previous interviews.

“By the end of the meeting, the
consensus was clear,” Powell said.
“At best, there were two to three who
would have voted for renewal and the
remainder would not have.”

According to Powell, the board went
through a similar process when voting
to hire Nichol as president in 2006. The
board decided at that point to consider
the decision unanimous.

“In this case, the same discussion
ensued,” Powell said. “There were no
objections; there was also no recorded
vote. It was my understanding – and
I think I’ll let other board members
confirm that it was their understanding
– that we had agreed that that would be
how we represented the decision.”

Prior to the Friday meetings, the board
formally recognized the appointment
of W. Taylor Reveley III as interim
president of the college. Reveley has
served 10 years as dean of William and
Mary’s Marshall-Wythe School of Law
where Nichol was – and is now once
again – a faculty member.