A moment of clarity about legitimacy—and what comes next

Dear Wahoos,

On December 12, 2025, the Faculty Senate took the extraordinary step of formally warning that any president selected under the current rushed timeline, and by a Board that no longer holds faculty confidence, would not begin their tenure with the confidence of the Faculty Senate.

Against the publicly expressed views of nine of the University’s deans, as well as students, faculty, staff, alumni, elected officials, and the Governor-elect herself, the Board of Visitors appointed a president on the last day of final exams as winter break was beginning. It did so while serious questions remain unresolved about its own composition, statutory compliance, transparency, and outside political interference.

Scott Beardsley chose to accept appointment through precisely the process the Faculty Senate cautioned against. Clay Dickerson, Student Council president, summed things up powerfully in a Cavalier Daily article this week:

“The Board of Visitors’ obscure decision-making during this transition period has left much of the community in the dark, betraying decades of shared governance…The presidential search’s results have not healed this University and have endangered our community by politicizing the process.”

Beardsley Himself Warned Against Just This

What makes this moment especially striking is that Beardsley, of all people, should have realized the lack of wisdom in accepting the position of president against the express wishes of the Faculty Senate in particular. In his 2015 doctoral dissertation, “The Rise of the Nontraditional Liberal Arts College President,” Beardsley affirms the centrality of faculty confidence in presidential selection:

“Liberal arts colleges have a strong culture of shared governance, and faculty have a de facto veto on any presidential candidate.” (p. 57)

He also explains how presidential search outcomes shift in favor of nontraditional candidates like himself when faculty are marginalized in the search process:

“Presidential searches look different when the board is running the selection process (and the faculty isn’t).” (p. 127)

His own scholarship recognizes what decades of higher-education practice have taught: presidential legitimacy does not flow from an employment contract. It depends on governance conditions that secure faculty confidence, meaningful participation, and public trust. Overall representation of the faculty on the Presidential search committee was significantly smaller than was reasonable, and was atypical of past searches. And many of those faculty that were chosen lacked experience with searches of this type. Faculty also had no input on those chosen.

The Path Forward

The appointment of a president is among the most consequential acts a governing board can take. The failures surrounding this process cannot simply be “moved past.” Meaningful restoration of trust requires independent oversight and formal accountability. This includes any lawful review necessary to determine whether members of the Board met their fiduciary, statutory, and ethical obligations, and to ensure that such a breakdown cannot happen again. At the same time, a lawfully constituted Board of Visitors with its full complement of members must determine the best path forward regarding the presidency.

We’re hopeful that Governor-elect Spanberger will remove the Board members whom she determines have taken actions that fall short of what is expected of them. We’re equally hopeful that she will appoint a bipartisan complement of new Board members who will carry out their duties faithfully in service to the University and the Commonwealth. UVA deserves nothing less.

Make Sure to Register to Watch This Afternoon’s Emergency Faculty Senate Meeting!

The Faculty Senate will be holding an emergency meeting this afternoon (Thursday, January 15) from 3:30 to 5:00 pm. The meeting will focus on the continuing governance crisis at UVA and will include a guided open forum on recent BOV actions. We hope you’ll join us in watching the livestream of the meeting. You can register for the livestream meeting here:

Register for Livestream

With determination and resolve,

Ann Brown (College ‘74, Law ‘77) and Chris Ford (Engineering ‘87)

Co-Chairs, Wahoos4UVA

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