See below for video and highlights from the VA Senate Democrats’ press conference this morning on the Trump administration pressuring UVA President Jim Ryan to resign. Unfortunately, I had some technical difficulties with the audio for the first few minutes, so here’s what I got (bolding added by me for emphasis of things that jumped out).
Sen. Scott Surovell said:
“We have about 65 of the governor’s nominees that are currently pending before us that we can take action on at any moment. You saw we we rejected eight of the governor’s nominees two weeks ago, and that’s something that’s on the table that we’re actively discussing – number one. Number two, we put a bill on the governor’s desk two years ago that made clear that the duty of every member of the board of visitors runs their school first and the state second and the governor never. And we also wanted to give those schools independent legal counsel so they’re not in a position right now where they have a partisan lawyer like Attorney General Miyares, who refuses to give them accurate legal advice so they can make their own independent decisions. Those are I think some of the options that are before us. I think we also need to look at whether or not people on the board of visitors ought to be able to assume their seats before we confirm them. The system we have right now has exposed to us that the governor could put people on there that we can’t do anything about when we’re not in special session, and that’s something we need to look at. Those are a few of the things that I think we need to consider both right now and in the future.”
Sen. Lachresce Aird said:
“And I would just say that that’s the reason why we’re here this morning. I think the importance of what has happened at the University of Virginia is that this can happen to another institution here in Virginia if we stand quiet and if we don’t make the point that we will not stand idly by while this has occurred. What I will say is that I think that what you have heard from Leader Surovell about taking a look at the construct of our board of visitors and who is allowed to assume those positions prior to the confirmation of the General Assembly is critically important. We typically have seen these appointments from the governor and we wait a period of time before we actually take them up, and that is critical when you look at the boards of Norfolk State University and Virginia State University, they are majority Youngkin-appointed at this time. And so we are deeply concerned and that is why we’re here today to say that we won’t just allow for this type of action to occur to Virginia public institutions, because no institution will be safe if this is the precedent that is set.”
Sen. Surovell said:
“I outlined a couple ways that, and Senator Aird just re-highlighted some of the ways that we could try to address this, I think there’s a couple other things that are important to note. First of all, the governor has now appointed a majority of the members of all these boards, because they get appointed in four-year chunks. And one of the things we could look at is whether or not we could restructure boards. First of all, I just want to make clear that the code of Virginia makes clear that these universities are under the control of the General Assembly, not the governor. The governor has been telling his board members that he’s been appointing that they’re loyal to him and that they need to do what he says, even though Virginia law specifically says in the governing statute for each separate individual college, they’re subject to the control of the General Assembly. And when we come back in January, we can rewrite the law, we can change the structure of these boards, we can add people, we can subtract people, we can delete positions as long as the governor goes along. I would like to note that that Abigail Spanberger is an alumni of the University of Virginia, she’s put out a statement, she’s deeply disturbed by what’s happened. And so I think we need to look very carefully at university governance. I think it’s also important to note that with regard to some of these boards for example, UVA in particular, there are currently five vacancies. We rejected Ken Cuccinelli two weeks ago; there are four people currently pending before us which makes five. If we were to reject those five people and our next governor which I hope to be Governor Spanberger picks four more people 12 months from now, there would be a different ideological majority on that board starting 11 months from now. George Mason currently has six vacancies, there was four more that were just given to us out of their 16 seats; if the four people currently pending are rejected with six people pending or rejected, you know that would mean that would leave 10 vacancies on that 16 member board. So there are steps out there that are available to us in the short term and in the long term to sort of reform governance and try and get control of the situation in some of these institutions….
…I know we’ve received reports that there have been some investigations at a couple other universities by the Trump administration, whether it’s looking at anti-Semitism or these similar issues…and what really deeply disturbs me about this whole thing is it appears to me that the Youngkin administration coordinated this with the Trump administration as a means to get a president removed who was under contract for another few years. I don’t view this as being something that just sort of rose up and happened when Trump got elected, but I think it was a deliberately coordinated, specifically planned-out way to remove somebody from an institution that a lot of people with a lot of money didn’t like. And we have a couple other schools where the Trump administration seems to have taken an unusual interest and we’re going to do everything we can to protect those schools from any kind of influence from the Trump administration.”
Sen. Mamie Locke:
“I completely agree with what Senator Surovell has just said, that this has been a coordinated effort to weaponize boards across the Commonwealth. And you can see it in the appointments that have been made to these boards from the very beginning of the Youngkin administration. And it has not been an effort to try to at the very least appoint people who understood governance at these institutions of higher education – that was never the point. It was always the point to try to attack the presidents and to undermine what was going on at these institutions. It was never an effort to try to understand education or higher education, it was always an effort to try to undermine academic freedom and undermine what was going on at that institution, never an an effort to try to understand governance or what board governance was about but to completely weaponize the boards.”
Sen. Surovell:
“I think it’s important to remember that the governor, as we learned with Bert Ellis just about two months ago, the governor retains the authority to remove anybody from the board of visitors if they engage in malfeasance or incompetence and that means if they don’t follow the law. We already have Ken Cuccinelli announcing that he’s not going to follow the law and continue to try to seat notwithstanding, take his seat not withstanding the fact that we’ve rejected him, which is why Senator Lucas and eight members of our privileges and elections committee had to file a lawsuit to make sure the rule of law is honored in the Commonwealth. So first of all, if the rector at the university continues to recognize people who we’ve rejected, I believe that would constitute malfeasance and incompetence and be a basis for removal by the next governor if that governor so chooses. So first of all, I just think everybody needs to remember that’s on the table. Secondly…between the five people…we currently have the Cuccinelli vacancy, the governor just put four people on. There’s going to be four new people appointed by the next governor next June; it will be a different ideological majority of the University of Virginia next July 1. And I think it’s very important that… the board of visitors do not act rashly, do not try to do something to bind the future board, because this current majority is only going to be in place for about 11 months and they should not do anything that I think binds the university any kind of long-term commitment to anything, because they’re not going to be in power very long. And if they try to act and install somebody immediately, I think the Senate of Virginia would probably view that as an attempt to undermine legislative control of the body and the future governor’s authority at that institution. So I really hope they don’t act, I hope they don’t install a new president anytime soon. What’s happened is tragic and just that’s what I think about it.”
I asked whether the Democratic Senators had any reaction to what Sen. Tim Kaine said last night at the VA Women’s Summit about reaching out to Gov. Glenn Youngkin early yesterday morning, in order to get his help regarding the situation at UVA, and not getting any response at all from Youngkin. Sen. Scott Surovell said “that’s par for the course,” adding:
“...the governor is cheering on what the Trump administration is doing because he directed and asked them to do it. So it’s disturbing, it’s disappointing, but you know the governor from the beginning has shown that he’s more loyal to the Trump administration than he is to the voters of Virginia, because he’s worried about his presidential ambitions and his political base. So to me, it’s entirely consistent with how he’s been operating from day one.”
Sen. Mamie Locke added:
“And this is par for the course for this administration whenever you ask them questions that they don’t want to answer or that directly will question some action that they have taken, for example when they sent out that letter to directors and to the presidents with regard to DEIA, I actually questioned the secretary of education in terms of by what authority are you doing this beyond that EO, when the code of Virginia actually says that these institutions have to have strategic plans that address diversity equity and inclusion; I’m still waiting on an answer 6 months later to that question. So if you ask them a question that they don’t want to answer, it’s crickets. But when they want you to assist them, it’s like we almost need an an immediate response. But if we don’t want to answer you, we don’t have to.”
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