Heciel Nieves Bonilla, News Editor
Virginia legislators filed legislation to reform the appointment process and make-up of university boards of visitors, the highest governing bodies at public universities.
Proposed changes include expanding representation on boards to students, faculty and staff, clarifying the role of the General Assembly in confirming appointments and expanding the terms of appointees to reduce their dependence on individual governors.
The largest piece of legislation proposes fundamental changes to the structure of boards. It would expand their membership from 16 to 18, increase terms by two years, and add one person each from the university’s faculty, staff and student bodies as voting members.
VCU’s Board of Visitors has made decisions that were criticized by students and faculty in recent years, including the removal of DEI programs at the university in compliance with directives from the Trump administration and the cancellation of the racial literacy requirement developed by students and faculty.
Several pieces of legislation address a lack of student or faculty representation on boards. One proposal demands one faculty and one staff voting member on each board, elected by their respective groups to serve at least 12-month terms.
Another only calls for the addition of a student representative, elected and chosen by the governor from a list of three.
Some proposals are more administrative in nature, including one clarifying boards’ rights to hire legal counsel and another to clarify the role of the General Assembly in confirming all appointees.
One piece of legislation mandates that board meetings be livestreamed to the public and are made easily accessible after-the-fact through an archive.
Megan Rhyne, director of the nonprofit Virginia Coalition for Open Government, said the policy aligns boards with “modern expectations of access and transparency” in her comments to the legislature.
“School boards and local governments routinely do this without a mandate because their constituents expect it, and I think the constituents of these higher education institutions deserve the same,” Rhyne said.
Boards across Virginia have been involved in numerous controversies over the appointees of former Gov. Glenn Youngkin, many of whom were blocked from taking office by Democrats throughout 2025 over their views, according to a previous report by The CT.
Last October, a group composed of the United Campus Workers, Virginia Coalition for Human Rights and various teacher organizations created a package of proposed legislation involving universities — including voting seats for students, faculty and staff, according to a previous report by The CT.
Jack Leff, a VCHR board member who collaborated on the policy proposals, said the proposed changes are a “great start” but sees more room for improvement.
Leff suggested amending the various bills in the docket to bypass the need for the potential new student, faculty and staff board members to also be confirmed by boards or by the governor.
“This would put them more in line with the principles of shared governance that have been eroded over time and ensure true representation from constituencies,” Leff said. “If the Board of Visitors or the governor is allowed to appoint student, faculty and staff seats, then I worry this will end up continuing to chill shared governance and the democratic process of these public institutions.”
Leff said undergraduate and graduate students have different interests and that the two groups should each have their own board representation, as opposed to one student representing both groups, as is recommended by much of the pending legislation. Despite his differences with some of the final language, Leff confirmed his team has been involved with the bills’ development.
Another organization advocating for Board of Visitors reform is Virginia’s state chapter of the NAACP, which held a legislative advocacy day on Jan. 20.
One of the organization’s legislative priorities is ensuring voting student representation on university boards, according to Jalen Vince, president of its Youth & College Division.
“We want to make sure that we maybe have three students who can vote in representation, or a student who can vote, and one faculty that can vote, or two students at Boards and two… and so on and so on,” Vince said. “So definitely [seeking] Board of Visitors reform, because it allows for more say from the actual community that’s being affected by the governance of the board.”
Vince also encourages students to attend their Board of Visitors meetings, along with other venues for civic engagement such as legislative and city council meetings.
VCU’s next full Board of Visitors meeting is in-person on Feb. 27.