Higher Education Governance

Incoming Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger has asked at least five members of the University of Virginia’s Board of Visitors — including board chair Rachel Sheridan and major donor Paul Manning — to resign before she is sworn in Saturday, according to people briefed on the move. All 12 current board members were appointed by outgoing Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin, and it is unclear whether they will comply or force Spanberger to remove them. The shake‑up follows last summer’s resignation of U.Va. president Jim Ryan under pressure from the Trump Justice Department, which, according to a Ryan letter, told Manning that if Ryan stayed they would "bleed UVA white" by cutting funding and launching investigations because conservatives viewed him as too liberal. Some Virginia Democrats and faculty are now pressing Spanberger to oust Ryan’s hastily chosen successor, Scott C. Beardsley, arguing the Youngkin board capitulated to Trump’s pressure campaign, while Republican leaders accuse Spanberger of stoking further turmoil and targeting trustees they see as central to the university’s growth. The episode is the latest front in a broader national fight over partisan control of elite universities, as the Trump administration uses funding threats and probes to force leadership changes and critics warn of a direct threat to institutional independence and academic freedom.