The UVA Board of Visitors announced Friday that it has named a new president, but all it has done is escalate what has been a political battle into one that will soon become a legal one.
“The UVA Board of Visitors is not fully constituted,” said State Sen. Aaron Rouse, D-Virginia Beach, offering a blunt reaction to the news that the Board had moved to appoint Scott C. Beardsley, dean of the UVA Darden School of Business, as the University’s 10th president.
That issue – the dispute over the seating of several BOV nominees – will be among those that will need to be sorted out in the coming weeks, particularly as the Virginia General Assembly gets to business next month.
“We have clear oversight over UVA’s Board of Visitors, and we intend to exercise it this upcoming session,” Rouse said.
We’re still waiting to hear at this hour from Abigail Spanberger, the governor-elect, who had informed the Board of Visitors, in a tersely worded letter last month, that it should “refrain from rushing this search process and from selecting the finalists for the presidency or a president until the Board is at full complement and in statutory compliance, meaning that I have appointed and the General Assembly has confirmed new Board members.”
ICYMI
“As it will be a priority of my administration to stabilize and normalize the leadership of our public colleges and universities, I will make appointments soon after my inauguration,” Spanberger, who was elected governor last month, and will assume office on Jan. 17, wrote in the letter addressed to the top two leaders on the UVA Board of Visitors, Rector Rachel Sheridan and Vice Rector Porter Wilkinson, MAGA Republicans appointed by the lame-duck governor, Glenn Youngkin.
ICYMI
Beardsley, on the surface, would appear to be a compromise candidate – scour his record, and you won’t find anything overtly political about him: no political donations, no entangling alliances, as was the case with the man installed as the interim president over the summer, Paul Mahoney, a member of the Federalist Society, whose roster also includes all six of the conservative justices on the Trump Supreme Court.
Beardsley, the dean at the UVA Darden School of Business since 2015, was named the chair of a search committee tasked with coming up with names for the position of provost/executive vice president, a position characterized as second in rank to the president, in September.
That move, putting Beardsley in charge of the provost search, perhaps presaged the direction of the search for the #1 job – in essence, the BOV directed its interim president, Mahoney, to appoint the guy who was going to get the top job, Beardsley, in the position of leading the search for his #2.
Now you can maybe see where this has been going all along.
ICYMI
Look at the new guy’s record some more, and it’s easy to be uncomfortable with Beardsley being an alum of McKinsey, the multinational consultant firm that we can thank, at least in part, for things like Enron, the 2008 financial crisis, the opioid epidemic, delaying action on climate change.
The press release from UVA touting Beardsley’s background played up his tenure at McKinsey, like it’s a good thing; it’s not.
Notably, the release didn’t mention that Beardsley lists on his LinkedIn resume that he is currently a senior advisor with The Carlyle Group, which was led by Youngkin, until Youngkin stepped down as the co-CEO in 2020 to run for governor in the 2021 cycle.
Youngkin, again, is the lame-duck governor whose appointees on the BOV voted today to hire Beardsley.
Get it now?
This was an inside job, from the jump.
“I congratulate Scott Beardsley on his unanimous election as President of the University of Virginia,” Youngkin wrote on Twitter, because, of course he did. “I know Dean Beardsley only by his reputation, which is stellar, and based on his accomplishments at the Darden School of Business, which is consistently ranked as the top public business school in the country. I want to thank the Board of Visitors and the Search Committee who conducted a robust, world-class search process. I look forward to the University of Virginia continuing to be one of the best universities in our nation.”
From the UVA press release announcing the appointment of Beardsley, we got a quote from Thomas J. Baltimore Jr., chairman, president and CEO of Park Hotels & Resorts and a graduate of the UVA McIntire School of Commerce and the Darden School of Business.
What else to know about Tom Baltimore: he donated $50,000 to Youngkin’s Spirit of Virginia PAC on Jan. 7 of this year, according to the Virginia Public Access Project.
“As someone who has spent the last 15 years leading public companies through growth and change, I recognize the importance of a steady, principled leader,” Baltimore said. “Scott Beardsley brings a practical, strategic approach and a deep respect for UVA’s people and institutions. He understands how to build trust across diverse groups and position an institution for long-term success, which is exactly what this moment at UVA calls for.”
The UVA press release also highlighted quotes from Mahoney, who is so steeped in the far-right Federalist Society that the UVA chapter gives out an annual award in his name; former BOV Rector George Keith Martin, a Bob McDonnell appointee; and just one person with an identifiable political persuasion who isn’t well to the right of center – Jimmy Reyes, a Terry McAuliffe and Ralph Northam BOV appointee who isn’t exactly a flaming liberal: he’s now listed as the owner of the multibillion-dollar food/beverage distribution company founded by his older brothers in 1976.
In the absence of a response from Spanberger, and being honest here, I’m disappointed that we haven’t heard from her yet – I’m finishing this post up at 6:55 p.m.; UVA announced the news at 3:45 p.m., so, more than three hours ago – we have this on the next steps from the lieutenant governor-elect, Ghazala Hashmi.
“Decisions of this magnitude require deliberation, transparency, and meaningful engagement with students, faculty, staff, alumni, and the broader university community. Rushing such an appointment at the end of an outgoing administration risks undermining shared governance and eroding confidence in the independence of the institution,” Hashmi said.
“The appropriate next step is to fully pause the presidential appointment process until the new administration is in place and the Board of Visitors is appropriately constituted. At that point, the University should undertake an open, inclusive search that is grounded in shared governance and informed by broad campus and public input. Such steps will help to ensure that the next president is chosen through a process that is transparent, legitimate, and worthy of the University of Virginia’s stature and mission,” Hashmi said.
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Chris Graham
