CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) – During her speech to a joint session of the Virginia General Assembly on Monday, Gov. Abigail Spanberger addressed the political controversies swirling around the Boards of Visitors at the University of Virginia and other state institutions of higher education.

“Virginia has some of the finest colleges and universities in the world. And yet, news story after news story, it’s not about their successes — it’s about them becoming political battlegrounds,” Spanberger said. “Our students deserve better. Our educators deserve better. Our institutions deserve better. Our economy and our Virginia deserve better. And this ends right now.”

Spanberger said she has issued an executive order directing the Department of Education, under Sec. Dr. Jeffrey Smith, and the Secretary of the Commonwealth, Candi Mundon King, to review the way Boards of Visitors at higher education institutions are appointed.

During the campaign, in October, Lt. Gov. Ghazala Hashmi, a former educator who chaired the Senate’s committee on Education and Health, said Virginia Democrats were “in the drafting stage” of legislation that would lessen the governor’s control over board appointments, would require General Assembly confirmation before board members can begin serving and give student, faculty and staff voting representation on the boards.

Del. Amy Laufer told Cville Right Now, earlier this month, that she planned to reintroduce legislation that former Gov. Glenn Youngkin vetoed, to give the faculty and staff more representation on BOVs, chosen by the faculty and staff. Currently, the faculty and staff have one non-voting member. Laufer’s plan would make those members voting members.

“I will also work with this General Assembly to pursue reforms that prevent any future governor — Democrat or Republican — from imposing an ideological agenda on our universities,” Spanberger said. “As Governor, I have already and will continue to appoint serious, mission-driven individuals to serve our Boards of Visitors. People whose allegiance is to the institutions they are serving, not any political agenda. On Saturday, I was proud to fill vacancies on the boards of UVA, VMI, and George Mason, and now I trust these individuals to do right by the universities they’re going to serve and the Commonwealth of Virginia.”

Less than six hours after her inauguration, Gov. 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.

That game a day after  BOV rector Rachel Sheridan, vice-rector Porter Wilkinson and major donor Paul Manning were among five board members to resign, reportedly under pressure from Spanberger, 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.