The brewing tug-of-war over public college trustees

H.B. 780 in the Virginia legislature would take this to the next level of politicization by purging all of Youngkin’s appointees, including sitting board members who have already been confirmed by the legislature. The bill’s proponents have not spoken publicly to justify the need for mass dismissals, but the partisan reasons are not hard to surmise. Democrats are annoyed by what they perceive as the boards’ insufficient resistance to the federal government’s increased level of intervention in higher education. That particularly includes the investigation of alleged civil rights violations that led to the resignation of the president of the University of Virginia.

State law defines board members’ “primary duty” as “to the citizens of the Commonwealth” rather than to the institution that they oversee. This is an important distinction. Trustees, if they are true fiduciaries, must often make choices that are unpopular on campus but in the public’s best interest.

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