\n<\/p>\n
University of Virginia board members blasted state lawmakers as \u201cextremist\u201d and faculty members as \u201cout of control\u201d in a batch of text messages published by The Washington Post<\/em>.<\/p>\n Richmond-based author Jeff Thomas sued the university to force the release of communications between board members and university officials from June 2023 through last month; he then released the 947 pages of messages to the newspaper.<\/p>\n In recent months, the Board of Visitors\u2014stocked with GOP donors and other political figures\u2014has defied state lawmakers, including Governor-elect Abigail Spanberger, over calls to pause a presidential search. That search concluded with an internal hire last month, though multiple critics have flagged process concerns and state lawmakers have also voiced displeasure.<\/p>\n The text messages show that board members reacted sharply last year when a Democrat-controlled board rejected multiple university board picks from Republican governor Glenn Youngkin. The governor lost a subsequent legal fight to seat the picks, and several boards remain hobbled.<\/p>\n In August text messages to Jim Donovan, one of the rejected picks, UVA board rector Rachel Sheridan called the General Assembly\u2019s refusal to approve Youngkin\u2019s nominees \u201cVery disappointing. Completely unprecedented and destructive.\u201d Sheridan added, \u201cI hope this backfires politically and reveals them to be the extremists they are.\u201d<\/p>\n Sheridan did not apologize or backtrack after the texts were released. In a statement to the Post<\/em> and Inside Higher Ed<\/em>, she wrote, \u201cI respect the General Assembly\u2019s authority on these matters but share the <\/em>frustration of those four individuals that were summarily rejected without the benefit of consideration of their merit and the value these individuals have given and could have continued to give to the university community.\u201d <\/p>\n Her remarks highlight tensions between the board and the General Assembly, which have spiked since President Jim Ryan resigned under pressure in June and the university signed an agreement with the Department of Justice in October to close multiple investigations into alleged civil rights violations.<\/p>\n In other text messages, Vice Rector Porter Wilkinson expressed frustration with the UVA Faculty Senate, which has demanded answers about whether Ryan was pushed out by the board and the DOJ agreement.<\/p>\n When Board of Visitors secretary Scott Ballenger texted Wilkinson in October to say the Faculty Senate was debating a resolution to demand a meeting with Sheridan and then\u2013interim president Paul Mahoney, Wilkinson responded, \u201cThat is insane.\u201d When he told her the Faculty Senate was weighing a resolution of no-confidence in Mahoney, Wilkinson wrote, \u201cSo embarrassing. For them.\u201d She added in response to another text from Ballenger, \u201cThis is out of control.\u201d<\/p>\n The published text messages also expose the board\u2019s dramatic behavior behind the scenes. In a text to Sheridan, former rector Robert Hardie, a Democratic appointee who has since rotated off the board, made vague references to an \u201cunhinged\u201d board member threatening the university administration.<\/p>\n Hardie called board members Stephen P. Long and \u201cBE\u201d (presumably Bert Ellis) \u201cassholes.\u201d (Ellis was removed by Youngkin in late March for his combative style on the board.) Hardie referred to board members \u201cBE,\u201d Long, Douglas Wetmore and Paul Harris as \u201cfour horses asses\u201d [sic<\/em>]. Hardie also complained about a member that he did not name trying to stir controversy and a \u201cfood fight.\u201d<\/p>\n The full batch of text messages can be read here.<\/p>\n The release of the texts\u2014spurred by legal action\u2014comes as UVA has been slow to release information in response to public records requests, prompting criticism from a local lawmaker and others. Citing \u201ca significant backlog,\u201d UVA has not yet fulfilled a public records request regarding communications with federal officials sent by Inside Higher Ed<\/em> in October.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" University of Virginia board members blasted state lawmakers as \u201cextremist\u201d and faculty members as \u201cout of control\u201d in a batch of text messages published by The Washington Post. Richmond-based author Jeff Thomas sued the university to force the release of communications between board members and university officials from June 2023 through last month; he then<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":41128,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[5476,1286,3350,5053,1996,16038,3576],"class_list":{"0":"post-41127","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-education","8":"tag-blast","9":"tag-board","10":"tag-faculty","11":"tag-lawmakers","12":"tag-members","13":"tag-texts","14":"tag-uva"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=41127"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41127\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/41128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=41127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=41127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=41127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}