Richard Bland College Board Removed

The Virginia Senate rejected the confirmation of all seven Richard Bland College board appointments on Tuesday morning, effectively removing the entire Board of Visitors in a sudden move.

With little public discussion, the Democratic-majority Senate voted 21 to 19 on Tuesday to approve an amended list of gubernatorial board appointments, which excluded the Richard Bland College board picks. The vote means that those board members, appointed by former Republican governor Glenn Youngkin, are officially gone after serving seven months in their roles, a stint that included hiring an interim president earlier this month.

Youngkin appointed Richard Bland’s inaugural board members in July. The public two-year college in Virginia has only had its own board since last summer; it was previously governed by a committee comprised of William & Mary board members, a structure that dated back to the 1960s, when Richard Bland College was founded as an extension campus. However, the General Assembly approved legislation last year that allowed Richard Bland to have its own board.

Under Virginia law, board members are allowed to serve following their appointment, even if they haven’t been confirmed. The inaugural board has held several meetings since its first in August, and the next one is scheduled for April. But now that the Richard Bland picks have been officially rejected, a new slate of appointments will have to be appointed before a meeting can be held.

“The entire board was replaced. It appears our terms expired not by calendar, but by election cycle,” Christopher Winslow, one of the board members, wrote to Inside Higher Ed by email.

Another former board member, John Rathbone, said, “The Board of Visitors serves at the pleasure of the General Assembly, and we respect the wisdom of their decision in this matter.”

While Youngkin heavily favored GOP donors and conservative political figures in his board picks, his nominees at Richard Bland broke from that practice. An Inside Higher Ed review found that more Richard Bland board picks have donated to Democrats than Republicans. And while Youngkin tapped multiple former Republican lawmakers to serve on Virginia’s various boards, his picks at Richard Bland were more bipartisan. Youngkin appointed three members with political pasts: James W. Dyke Jr., who served as Virginia education secretary under a Democratic governor; Winslow, who previously held county office as a Republican; and Petersburg mayor Samuel Parham, an Independent who broke from the Democratic Party several years ago.

“Richard Bland College was granted an independent governing board by the 2025 Virginia General Assembly, and that Board performed their duties with great care and stewardship,” President Debbie Sydow told Inside Higher Ed. “The midyear transition is disruptive, but I am confident that Governor [Abigail] Spanberger’s appointed board will be equally conscientious in their stewardship of Richard Bland College.”

The Democrats’ rejection of multiple board appointments has essentially handed Spanberger more control over who sits on university boards, a power she flexed on day one of her term, when she appointed 27 board members at the University of Virginia, George Mason University and Virginia Military Institute.

While Richard Bland was hit the hardest by Tuesday’s rejections, other state institutions also saw board picks shot down. Notable names rejected include Eric Cantor, a former Republican U.S. representative whom Youngkin had appointed to the William & Mary board, and Michael Poliakoff, president and CEO of the American Council of Trustees and Alumni, who had been tapped to serve on Longwood University’s board.