The Virginia Senate rejected the affirmation of all seven Richard Bland School board appointments on Tuesday morning, successfully eradicating the complete Board of Guests in a sudden transfer.
With little public dialogue, the Democratic-majority Senate voted 21 to 19 on Tuesday to approve an amended record of gubernatorial board appointments, which excluded the Richard Bland School board picks. The vote signifies that these board members, appointed by former Republican governor Glenn Youngkin, are formally gone after serving seven months of their roles, a stint that included hiring an interim president earlier this month.
Youngkin appointed Richard Bland’s inaugural board members in July. The general public two-year faculty in Virginia has solely had its personal board since final summer season; it was beforehand ruled by a committee comprised of William & Mary board members, a construction that dated again to the Nineteen Sixties, when Richard Bland School was based as an extension campus. Nevertheless, the Normal Meeting accredited laws final yr that allowed Richard Bland to have its personal board.
Underneath Virginia legislation, board members are allowed to serve following their appointment, even when they haven’t been confirmed. The inaugural board has held a number of conferences since its first in August, and the following one is scheduled for April. However now that the Richard Bland picks have been formally rejected, a brand new slate of appointments should be appointed earlier than a gathering will be held.
“Your complete board was changed. It seems our phrases expired not by calendar, however by election cycle,” Christopher Winslow, one of many board members, wrote to Inside Larger Ed by e-mail.
One other former board member, John Rathbone, mentioned, “The Board of Guests serves on the pleasure of the Normal Meeting, and we respect the knowledge of their resolution on this matter.”
Whereas Youngkin closely favored GOP donors and conservative political figures in his board picks, his nominees at Richard Bland broke from that follow. An Inside Larger Ed assessment discovered that extra Richard Bland board picks have donated to Democrats than Republicans. And whereas Youngkin tapped a number of former Republican lawmakers to serve on Virginia’s varied boards, his picks at Richard Bland have been extra bipartisan. Youngkin appointed three members with political pasts: James W. Dyke Jr., who served as Virginia schooling secretary underneath a Democratic governor; Winslow, who beforehand held county workplace as a Republican; and Petersburg mayor Samuel Parham, an Unbiased who broke from the Democratic Celebration a number of years in the past.
“Richard Bland School was granted an unbiased governing board by the 2025 Virginia Normal Meeting, and that Board carried out their duties with nice care and stewardship,” President Debbie Sydow advised Inside Larger Ed. “The midyear transition is disruptive, however I’m assured that Governor [Abigail] Spanberger’s appointed board will probably be equally conscientious of their stewardship of Richard Bland School.”
The Democrats’ rejection of a number of board appointments has basically handed Spanberger extra management over who sits on college boards, an influence she flexed on day one in all her time period, when she appointed 27 board members on the College of Virginia, George Mason College and Virginia Navy Institute.
Whereas Richard Bland was hit the toughest by Tuesday’s rejections, different state establishments additionally noticed board picks shot down. Notable names rejected embody Eric Cantor, a former Republican U.S. consultant whom Youngkin had appointed to the William & Mary board, and Michael Poliakoff, president and CEO of the American Council of Trustees and Alumni, who had been tapped to serve on Longwood College’s board.
