CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) – Less than six hours after her inauguration, new Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger made 10 appointments to the University of Virginia’s Board of Visitors, a massive overhaul of the embattled body that had been operating with five vacancies.

Spanberger named Mike Bisceglia, Carlos Brown, Robert Bryon, Peter Grant, Owen Griffin, Victoria Harker, Elizabeth Hayes, Rudene Mercer Haynes, Evans Poston and Moshin Syed to the BOV on Saturday.

On Friday, reportedly under pressure from Spanberger, BOV rector Rachel Sheridan, vice-rector Porter Wilkinson and major donor Paul Manning were among five current board members to resign, according to the New York Times and Washington Post. The Washington Post reported they were joined by Stephen Long and Douglas Wetmore.

Sheridan, Wilkinson and Manning were central figures in the forced resignation of President Jim Ryan in June. Ryan accused them of working with the Trump administration and the Department of Justice to orchestrate his ouster.

Spanberger had urged the BOV not to move ahead with the hiring of new president until she took office. The BOV already had five empty seats, raising questions about its legitimacy as it pushed forward with the presidential search.

The school’s Faculty Senate, Student Council and nine of 14 of the university’s deans had expressed no confidence in the BOV, but the body still went ahead and named business school dean Scott Beardsley as the institution’s 10th president on Dec. 19. It is unclear what this reconfigured BOV will mean for Beardsley’s future with the school.

While Sheridan and Wilkinson’s removal were anticipated, largely due to their roles in the highly-politicized ouster of Ryan, Manning’s comes as a surprise. One of the school’s most significant financial boosters, Manning and his wife, Diane, donated $100 million in 2023 for the creation of a biotechnology institute, set to open in 2027.