{"id":2446254,"date":"2025-06-12T06:46:01","date_gmt":"2025-06-12T10:46:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/dem-sen-threatens-to-fire-youngkin-university-board-appointees\/"},"modified":"2025-06-12T06:48:56","modified_gmt":"2025-06-12T10:48:56","slug":"dem-sen-threatens-to-fire-youngkin-university-board-appointees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/dem-sen-threatens-to-fire-youngkin-university-board-appointees\/","title":{"rendered":"Dem Sen. Threatens To Fire Youngkin University Board Appointees"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fdem-sen-threatens-to-fire-youngkin-university-board-appointees%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2446254&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Virginia Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell has sent a letter to university rectors and board members in the state, warning them to align with his political views or risk being removed from their positions. This follows a decision by some Virginia Senate Democrats to block Governor Glenn Youngkin&#8217;s appointees to public university boards.Surovell&#8217;s letter aimed to assert control over the boards, insisting that members must prioritize institutional needs and public interest over <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/yael-dayan-1939-2024\/\" title=\"Yael Dayan: 1939-2024\">external political pressures<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The letter included threats to examine the boards for insufficient independent judgment and indicated that those who do not comply coudl face legislative consequences. Despite Surovell&#8217;s stance,Youngkin&#8217;s office stated that the governor&#8217;s appointees,including controversial figures like Ken Cuccinelli,would remain in their roles as the entire General assembly,not just a committee,holds the power to remove board members.<\/p>\n<p>The situation highlights a broader struggle within Virginia&#8217;s government, as both parties vie for influence, especially in light of upcoming elections. Critics view Surovell&#8217;s actions as politically motivated intimidation tactics aimed at consolidating power amid a divided government landscape.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Virginia Democrat Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell sent a threatening letter to all current university rectors and board members in the state, telling them to comply with his brand of politics or face being fired. The move came after a handful of Virginia Senate Democrats blocked Gov. Glenn Youngkin&rsquo;s appointees to serve on the boards of public universities across the Commonwealth.<\/p>\n<p>The letter, obtained by The Federalist, voiced Surovell&rsquo;s intention to both usurp the governor&rsquo;s power to appoint Board of Visitor (BOV) members and told the current rectors and board members across all Virginia&rsquo;s public colleges and universities that their tenure could be at risk if he and the other Democrats do not like their priorities. Many of these boards <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vpm.org\/news\/2025-03-12\/dei-uva-george-mason-trump-glenn-youngkin-jim-ryan-gregory-washington\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">have been working<\/a> to dismantle diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) ideology since Youngkin&rsquo;s <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\" >appointees eventually gained voting majorities<\/a> around the middle of his term.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;In addition to the Governor&rsquo;s ability to remove any member of a Board of Visitors pursuant to &sect; 23.1-1300 for &lsquo;malfeasance, misfeasance, incompetence, or gross neglect of duty,&rsquo; I want to be clear that the General Assembly takes seriously its oversight responsibilities regarding Virginia&rsquo;s public universities,&rdquo; Surovell wrote. &ldquo;Should any Board of Visitors fail to exercise appropriate independent judgment or allow external influences to compromise their fiduciary duties, the General Assembly will not hesitate to examine the situation and take whatever legislative action may be necessary to ensure proper governance and accountability.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;This <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/supreme-court-approval-mired-near-record-low-survey\/\" title=\"Survey shows Supreme Court approval stuck near all-time low.\">means making decisions based<\/a> on sound judgment, institutional needs, and the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/how-joe-bidens-immigration-policies-wage-war-on-american-women\/\" title=\"How Joe Biden\u2019s Immigration Policies Wage War On American Women\">broader public interest<\/a> rather than external political pressures or considerations unrelated to the university&rsquo;s mission,&rdquo; he added.<\/p>\n<p>A board member at one of the 15 schools, who requested anonymity for fear of being fired, told The Federalist that Surovell&rsquo;s message was a political threat.<\/p>\n<p>Eight Senate Democrats on the Senate Privileges and Elections Committee <a href=\"https:\/\/virginiamercury.com\/2025\/06\/10\/va-lawmakers-reject-latest-youngkin-appointees-to-university-boards\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">voted<\/a> to reject eight appointments to various boards across the Commonwealth, including former Virginia attorney general and former U.S. Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security Ken Cuccinelli for the University of Virginia, as well as nominees for Virginia Military Institute and George Mason University.<\/p>\n<p>Democrat state Sen. <a href=\"https:\/\/rouseforvirginia.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Aaron Rouse<\/a> screeched that all eight nominees were &ldquo;MAGA extremists&rdquo; and &ldquo;Project 2025 supporters,&rdquo; an apparent effort to make headlines in a crowded field of Democrat candidates for lieutenant governor. Virginia has a statewide election this year.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;&ldquo;Just days before a contentious Democrat primary, Virginians see these antics for what they are &mdash; an obvious political sideshow,&rdquo; Youngkin Communications Director Rob Damschen told The Federalist. &ldquo;This sloppy attempt to boost one of the candidates is not only completely out of order with general assembly procedures, it also costs Virginians thousands of dollars. They should be ashamed. Make no mistake, these highly qualified appointees will continue to serve in their posts as the Constitution of Virginia affords.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>In a letter to a UVA official, Surovell <a href=\"https:\/\/richmond.com\/news\/state-regional\/government-politics\/article_fab3f094-f41b-4297-b96b-7e4b5ab4202a.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">asserted<\/a> that &ldquo;Cuccinelli is no longer eligible to serve as a member of the UVA Board of Visitors and must immediately cease all activities in that capacity.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>But Youngkin&rsquo;s office also told The Federalist that Cuccinelli, who has been serving on the board to fill a seat from another appointee of Youngkin&rsquo;s whom the governor later fired, will continue to serve &ldquo;because eight Democrat senators can&rsquo;t remove someone from the board.&rdquo; That would take a vote from the entire General Assembly.<\/p>\n<p>Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares agreed with Youngkin, <a href=\"https:\/\/richmond.com\/news\/state-regional\/government-politics\/article_fab3f094-f41b-4297-b96b-7e4b5ab4202a.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">telling<\/a> all university rectors that &ldquo;the recommendation of a Senate committee cannot be elevated to an act of the General Assembly.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Youngkin still has until the end of his term in January 2026 to appoint new board members, but given the governor&rsquo;s election this year in which many expect Democrat Abigail Spanberger to <a href=\"https:\/\/virginiamercury.com\/briefs\/new-poll-shows-spanberger-with-17-point-lead-over-earle-sears\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">win<\/a>, the Democrat-controlled Senate is likely to block everyone.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;It is important to understand that Virginia is currently and for the next six months will experience <strong>divided government<\/strong>,&rdquo; Surovell warned (emphasis original).<\/p>\n<p>That is part of the irony of Surovell&rsquo;s letter, which spoke of lofty responsibilities like the &ldquo;fiduciary duty&rdquo; and &ldquo;independent judgement&rdquo; of the board members, while trying to force his own politics on them under threat of being fired. He said the General Assembly &ldquo;will not confirm individuals who do not possess the judgment, character, or willingness to follow the principles articulated in this letter.&rdquo; (Read: Only his opinions are valid).<\/p>\n<p>He explained that while the boards operate &ldquo;independently of executive control,&rdquo; they are also &ldquo;<strong>at all times &hellip; under the control of the General Assembly<\/strong>&rdquo; (emphasis original).<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;I am aware that the Governor has advised his appointees that they are to follow his directives,&rdquo; Surovell wrote. &ldquo;The Governor of Virginia, while an important partner in higher education policy, does not possess the authority to issue binding directives to Boards of Visitors regarding university operations, policies, or governance decisions. <strong>Executive Orders do not carry the force of law &mdash; only the Constitution of Virginia and duly enacted laws of the Commonwealth carry the force of law<\/strong>. Your Board operates independently of executive control in the exercise of your fiduciary duties and governance responsibilities to each of your universities&rdquo; (emphasis original).<\/p>\n<p>Right now, the federal government is <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2025\/05\/29\/exclusive-doj-opens-civil-rights-investigation-into-university-of-virginias-dei-regime\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">investigating<\/a> the University of Virginia (UVA) over its leadership attempting to maintain its DEI regime in secret after the BOV voted to get rid of it. As The Federalist <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2025\/04\/11\/at-schools-like-the-university-of-virginia-dei-holdouts-flouting-trump-order-demand-a-reckoning\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">reported<\/a>, the leaders at the school who are tasked with getting rid of DEI are the exact people who put the ideology there in the first place. But if Youngkin told the UVA BOV to fire the president and other administrators, they would.<\/p>\n<p>Now, however, those BOV members might themselves be fired by Surovell and his cronies in the General Assembly &mdash; maybe this year, or maybe as part of a massacre under a new Democrat regime next year.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>      Breccan F. Thies is a correspondent for The Federalist. He previously covered education and culture issues for the Washington Examiner and Breitbart News. He holds a degree from the University of Virginia and is a 2022 Claremont Institute Publius Fellow. You can follow him on X: @BreccanFThies.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Virginia Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell threatened university board members to align with his politics or risk termination after Democrats blocked Gov. Youngkin&#8217;s appointees<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":179,"featured_media":2446255,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Screenshot-2025-06-11-154342.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[3685,5894,56994,15109],"class_list":["post-2446254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-democrats","tag-politics","tag-university-board","tag-youngkin"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Screenshot-2025-06-11-154342.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2446254","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/179"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2446254"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2446254\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2446258,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2446254\/revisions\/2446258"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2446255"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2446254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2446254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2446254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}