CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) – New University of Virginia President Scott Beardsley emailed the university community Monday, reaffirming his vow to work in a non-partisan fashion to steady the reeling institution.

“I stand before you as a mission-driven leader, not a politically driven leader,” Beardsley wrote in his email. “My decisions will not be motivated by partisan divisions – which I have worked to bridge my entire career – but by my love for our University community, a love that I know we all share.”

Beardsley, the dean of the business school, took over as UVA’s 10th president on Jan. 1, succeeding Jim Ryan, who was forced to resign under pressure from the Trump administration in June. Law school dean Paul Mahoney has been serving as UVA’s interim president. The spring semester at the school begins Jan. 12.

In his email, Beardsley outlined three points of emphasis. The first, addressed the fraught political climate he is ascending to the presidency amidst.

Beardsley also pledged to seek and consider input from the entire university community. The school’s Faculty Senate along with nine of 14 deans have politically expressed no confidence in the school’s current Board of Visitors, who pushed forward with Beardsley’s selection against their wishes and those of Governor-elect Abigail Spanberger, who will be sworn in on Jan. 17.

“I believe in excellence. Excellence requires teamwork,” Beardsley wrote. “The University belongs to all of you, and my role as president is to help you achieve your full potential as we work together to fulfill UVA’s noble mission. That is an honor and a duty I do not take lightly.”

Beardsley began work on that front Monday when he hosted “First Coffee” at Madison Hall, a tradition he carried over from the Darden School of Business. Faculty and staff were invited eat and talk with Beardsley and each other.

“The First Coffee tradition just brings the community together to share thoughts around something informal … and try to be nonhierarchical,” Beardsley said in a UVA release. “At Darden, we bring faculty, staff and students together. Anybody can just come over and have a free cup of coffee, so I thought, ‘Try it out.’ If people like it, we’ll keep doing it.”

Finally, Beardsley laid out his view of the school’s overall mission.

“We will work to strengthen UVA as the flagship university and an important economic engine of the Commonwealth of Virginia,” he wrote. “Motivated by our mission of public service, I am eager for us to work with leaders across the Commonwealth to ensure that UVA remains a place where excellence is accessible, discoveries translate into real-world solutions for the citizens we serve, and we develop leaders committed to the public good.”