Higher ed bill passes legislature, giving faculty and staff a seat — but not a vote
Virginia's public college employees scored a legislative victory Tuesday as the General Assembly passed a bill requiring each university's governing board to include two nonvoting faculty and staff representatives. But whether the measure becomes law is far from certain — Gov. Glenn Youngkin vetoed a similar proposal last year, citing cost concerns and a lack of oversight.
Youngkin argued at the time that adding representatives could drive up tuition for families and noted that these members wouldn't be subject to General Assembly confirmation or his removal authority in misconduct cases. A narrower 2023 proposal focused solely on the University of Virginia's board was previously stalled in a House Rules subcommittee.
Supporters say faculty and staff voices are crucial to informed decision-making. Cecelia Parks, president of the United Campus Workers of Virginia, said board meetings often fail to address key issues because appointed members by the governor lack firsthand experience in university operations.
'The people in the room just don't have that expertise because they are not living with a lot of these issues day in and day out,' Parks told The Mercury, emphasizing that advisory members would help strengthen institutions.
House Bill 1621, sponsored by Del. Amy Laufer, D-Albemarle, would again require all public colleges and universities to elect nonvoting faculty and staff representatives to their boards.
George Mason and Longwood Universities are currently the only public institutions that allow a faculty member to sit on their governing boards.
For months, advocates have pushed lawmakers to expand that model statewide, arguing that giving faculty and staff a voice in decision-making would improve policies on retention, recruitment, and overall workplace confidence. Supporters say such representation fosters trust among employees and ensures their concerns are heard at the highest levels.
Laufer emphasized staff's role in keeping universities running, from facility maintenance to student affairs.
'I just believe that people [who] are working with our students can add a valuable perspective on these boards,' Laufer said.
Last month, she rejected a House substitute that would have allowed governing boards to appoint faculty and staff representatives rather than letting employees elect them. While advocates want a seat at the table, Laufer said it's just as important that they choose their own representatives.
The bill narrowly passed the House in a 51-49 vote before moving to the Senate, where it passed along party lines.
SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
NBC News
a few seconds ago
- NBC News
Battle over Texas congressional map could tip Washington's balance of power
A Republican-led Texas House committee voted on Saturday to move forward with a gerrymandered congressional map drawn to net five new House seats for Republicans. The move has huge implications for the U.S. House, and could become a setback for Democrats as they attempt to win control in 2026. NBC News' Ryan Chandler 2, 2025
3 hours ago
GOP success with new Texas House map could hinge on Latino voters: ANALYSIS
With encouragement from President Donald Trump and the White House, Texas Republicans are redrawing their congressional map to create five new districts the GOP could flip next year, in a bid to insulate their House majority. But that outcome could hinge on Latino voters, and whether Trump's reshaping of the Hispanic electorate in 2024 carries into the next election cycle. Last November, Trump carried 48% of Hispanic voters, setting a high-water mark for a Republican presidential ticket that also won the popular vote. Trump's 2024 showing was 12 points better than 2020, when he lost Hispanic voters 61% to 36% to former President Joe Biden, according to polling by the Pew Research Center. Four of the new Texas seats would be majority-Hispanic districts, adding one more to the state's total. Two of those seats are in South Texas, and represented by Democratic Reps. Vicente Gonzalez and Henry Cuellar, who both narrowly won reelection in 2024. Both districts, which Trump carried in 2024, would become more Republican under the redrawn district lines. For conservatives, some experts say the 2024 election represented a paradigm shift, and a fundamental realignment of Latino voters towards the Republican Party, and its positions on the economy, immigration and culture."It's been both an embrace of the alignment of the Republican Party and a rejection of how different they are with what the Democratic Party has been trying to push on them," said Daniel Garza, the president of the Libre Initiative, a group in the Koch family's conservative political network that focuses on Hispanic outreach. Democrats concede that the new map does create challenges for them. But they point to historical trends that show midterm voters traditionally rejecting the party in power -- and an electorate showing frustration with Trump's tariff policies and the state of the economy. Matt Barreto, a Democratic pollster who worked for the Biden and Harris campaigns, has analyzed Texas voting data from every election cycle since 2016, testifying in the federal trial challenging Texas' existing map based on the 2020 census. "There was a Trump-only effect with Hispanics in 2020 and 2024, and it is the case that he improved his standing [in both cycles]," Barreto told ABC News. "It was not transferred to other Republican candidates on the ballot." Barreto said that Republicans did not see the same gains with Latino voters in 2018, when Trump was not on the ballot, and Democratic Senate candidate Beto O'Rourke lost to Sen. Ted Cruz by less than 3 percentage points – the tightest Senate margin in Texas in decades. In fact, one of the new districts proposed by Republicans in Texas this week would have voted for O'Rourke, according to an analysis from the University of Virginia's Center for Politics. "We're already going into a midterm where Republicans will be facing brutal headwinds over inflation, tariffs, Medicaid cuts and ICE raids," Barreto said. "It is extremely risky for Texas Republicans to assume that in a midterm election when Trump is not on ballot and there is an anti-incumbent mood, that they are going to come anywhere close to Trump 2024 numbers." Garza, who lives in South Texas, suggested that Trump's immigration and deportation agenda would not hurt him next November. "Latinos, we feel you can do both. You can do border security and we can expand legal channels. Where's that person, where's that party? Nowhere to be found," he said. "So they're going to stick with Trump because they'd rather have this than what you offered under Biden." Mike Madrid, a Republican political operative who wrote a book on Latino voters and co-founded the anti-Trump Lincoln Project, told ABC News that Latino voters have made a "rightward shift" away from the Democratic Party because of concerns about the economy. "There has been a rightward shift. There's no question about that. But is it a racial realignment?" he said. "This is an emergence of an entirely different vote. Most of these Latinos that are showing these more pro-Republican propensities are under the age of 30. There isn't even a vote history long enough to suggest that something is realigning." "They're not going to vote through a traditional racial and ethnic lens," he added. "First and foremost, they're an economic, aspirational middle-class voter that is voting overwhelmingly on economic concerns." Both parties will still have their work cut out for them, more than a year out from the midterms. And with Texas, and potentially other states, changing their maps to maximize partisan gains, Republicans and Democrats are redoubling efforts to identify candidates that can run competitive localized races in their districts. Trump's approval rating has dropped to 37%, the lowest of his term, according to Gallup, and he's lost ground this month in approval of his handling of a range of domestic issues, but it's too early for operatives and lawmakers to say if the environment will break Democrats' way. "I think a lot of my fellow Democrats think this is going to be a wave year," one member of Congress said this week. "That, to me, has not borne out yet." Whichever way it breaks, if the maps in Texas are approved, Republicans will have a larger bulwark against a potential midterm tide -- as long as they can keep their 2024 coalition engaged.
The Hill
5 hours ago
- The Hill
US deadlines in Ukraine are a gift to Putin and Xi
President Trump's announcement this week of a shortened window of '10 to 12 days' for Russian President Vladimir Putin to reach a ceasefire agreement in Ukraine reflects a continued evolution in his rhetoric. His growing frustration with Moscow and his willingness to speak plainly about Russia's escalation send a signal that many in the U.S. and Europe have been waiting to hear. But while the shift in tone signals growing frustration, it has not translated into action. Russia reads the action as a continued pause in pressure, which it has used to intensify its offensive against Ukrainian homes and hospitals. Russian forces are now making their fastest territorial gains in more than a year, and their attacks are becoming more sophisticated. Swarm tactics using Iranian-designed Shahed drones, now mass-produced and adapted inside Russia with Chinese parts, are overwhelming Ukraine's air defenses at an alarming rate. In just one day last month, Russia launched 728 drones, decoys and missiles in a single coordinated wave. Ukrainian interceptors and radar crews are doing heroic work, but they are stretched to the limit. The U.S. has tools at its disposal that remain unused. For months, a bipartisan sanctions bill, co-authored by Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and backed by 85 senators, a veto-proof majority, has been ready to move. The legislation would impose steep secondary tariffs on countries like China, India and Brazil that continue to buy Russian oil and gas, and would significantly raise the cost of doing business with Moscow. But in July, Senate leadership pulled the bill from consideration after President Trump suggested he would act if Russia failed to move toward peace within 50 days. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) said he would 'hold off' on advancing the bill, signaling that Congress would defer to Trump's timeline. House leaders followed suit. That decision was a mistake. While it is encouraging to see President Trump express increasing resolve, deferring congressional action in the hope that Putin will suddenly negotiate has only given Moscow more time and space to escalate. Every week of delay is a missed opportunity to tighten the financial pressure on Putin's war machine. And the clock is not just ticking in Ukraine. The broader contest involves China, too. Beijing's role in this war has become increasingly visible. Chinese companies are supplying entire weapons systems, not just components. Chinese-made drones and decoys are helping Russia saturate Ukrainian airspace. Chinese officials have even welcomed delegations from occupied Ukrainian territories and continue to sell heavy machinery to companies operating there. European officials report that China's foreign minister recently told the EU that Beijing does not want Russia to lose the war and fears that a Russian defeat would allow the U.S. to focus more squarely on Asia. Ukraine has responded accordingly. In early July, Kyiv arrested two Chinese nationals on espionage charges after they allegedly attempted to steal information about Ukraine's Neptune missile program. Days earlier, President Volodymyr Zelensky imposed sanctions on five Chinese firms accused of supporting the Russian war effort. These are not symbolic gestures, they are signs that Ukraine is increasingly realistic about the stakes and about China's alignment with Moscow. Support for Ukraine is not a distraction from U.S. competition with China. It is a critical part of it. Weakening Putin's military capacity weakens a key pillar of China's global strategy. And allowing Russia to continue its aggression without consequence would embolden Beijing's worst instincts from the Taiwan Strait to the South China Sea. To its credit, the Trump administration has begun voicing stronger concerns about Beijing's role. In the recently concluded round of trade talks, senior U.S. officials reportedly raised objections to China's purchase of sanctioned Russian oil and its sale of more than $15 billion worth of dual-use technology to Moscow. These are important warnings — but without follow-through, they risk being absorbed into the pattern of delay that Moscow and Beijing are already exploiting. The Graham-Blumenthal sanctions bill should move forward. It represents the most serious effort yet to impose real costs not only on Russia, but on the network of countries (especially China) helping it survive sanctions. It complements, rather than competes with, the administration's efforts to pressure Moscow. And it sends a message that the U.S. is serious about backing up its warnings with action. Countdowns can be useful. They create urgency. But urgency without follow-through is no substitute for strategy. What matters now is not how many days remain on the clock, but whether we are using each one to act. Jane Harman is a former nine-term congresswoman from California and former ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, who most recently served as chair of the Commission on the National Defense Strategy. She is the author of 'Insanity Defense: Why Our Failure to Confront Hard National Security Problems Makes Us Less Safe.'
