Skye Hathaway, Contributing Writer
The Virginia General Assembly passed a bill that would reform how university boards of visitors operate with the goal of making them less partisan. It is awaiting a signature from Gov. Abigail Spanberger, who called for the changes upon entering office.
Under the legislation, board members’ terms would increase from four to six years. Members would be required to wait two years after their six-year term before being reappointed. The measure would prevent any one governor from fully packing the boards with their appointees.
Boards of visitors consist of 16 members. After the governor appoints members, they are confirmed by the General Assembly. The boards hold the power to budget, hire and fire presidents, shape university policy and approve course curricula.
The governor currently gets to appoint four board members each year, meaning the boards consist entirely of the governor’s appointees by the end of their term.
The bill would also require the General Assembly to confirm or reject the governor’s appointees as soon as “practicable.” Currently, the General Assembly confirms or rejects appointees within the first 30 days of the following session — meaning there are often months-long gaps between appointments and confirmation.
Proposal would not give voting rights to students, faculty, staff
A number of reforms were proposed this year, but only the bill by Del. Lily Franklin, D-Montgomery, passed and will be considered by Spanberger.
Some of the proposals would have required boards of visitors to have student, faculty and staff representatives with voting powers.
Those provisions were not included in Franklin’s bill. However the passed proposal would give students, faculty and staff one nonvoting, advisory role each.
Each staff and faculty representative would serve a year long term and must be elected by their university’s faculty senate and staff senate respectively, or an equivalent body. The student representative must be nominated by their university’s student government. The board would decide the term of the student.
New language would clarify roles of boards, prevent partisanship
If signed, new language would be added to state laws that would clarify the duties of boards of visitors.
Governing boards would be required to create a shared government involving student, faculty and staff advisory members — as well as establish rules on how that shared governance will operate, according to Franklin.
Boards would have to include advisory members in conversations about program and funding cuts, as well as changes to tenure policies, according to Franklin.
The bill includes language permitting boards from adopting policies that prevent free expression and academic freedom — including firing faculty for their views.
Board members would be obligated to excuse themselves from participating in decisions in which they could not vote objectively due to their views.
“Students, faculty and staff will have a stronger voice with what they want out of their universities,” Franklin said.
Student groups support reforms, but want more representation
Members of VCU’s Student Government Association have pushed to increase student representation on the board of visitors. Their president-elect Natalie Bowen is hopeful the changes will lead to consideration of student well-being and rights.
SGA members often feel that student concerns and solutions are not taken into consideration by the university, Bowen said.
“If masses bring enough attention to something and keep pushing for their voices to be heard, eventually, the university or government will bend a little bit,” Bowen said. “That’s really all that we can hope for in times like these, so definitely keep pushing for more representation, because it’s what we deserve.”
The VCU chapter of the NAACP has been advocating for reforms since the VCU Board of Visitors voted to cancel the implementation of a “racial literacy” core curriculum requirement in 2024.
The requirement — which covered topics such as systemic racism, gender studies and workplace inequality — was in development by students and faculty for years before getting cancelled.
Their ideal reform would grant students actual voting power, rather than advisory roles or only being able to speak at meetings, said chapter vice president Jordan Hill.
The VCU Board of Visitors currently has student and faculty representatives who do not have voting powers.
“They tend to, especially the board of visitors, forget the main priority and the actual foundation for its resources is the students,” Hill said.
Many VCU students and staff are unaware of the board, and that they can attend their public meetings, according to political action chair Abdullah Mohamed. He believes putting board activities in the public eye would increase their accessibility.
The chapter will continue to focus on educating students and staff about the board and encourage them to attend meetings, said chapter president Ashley Brown.
“When we go, sometimes they even run out of seats, because they don’t expect that many people to show up as students,” Brown said.
Spanberger has until April 13 to sign, amend or veto the bill. The General Assembly will reconvene on April 23, giving them the opportunity to vote on any proposed changes.
CORRECTION: A previous iteration of this story misspelled Abdullah Mohamed’s name. The story has been updated with the correct spelling.