The University of Virginia is defending the "truce" it signed with the U.S. Department of Justice last week against mounting concerns raised by state Democratic legislators who oppose continued federal oversight of the state institution.
UVa Rector Rachel Sheridan and interim President Paul Mahoney pushed back in a letter Monday to state Sen. Creigh Deeds, D-Charlottesville, and Del. Katrina Callsen, D-Albemarle, over what the university officials called a "misunderstanding" of the agreement with the Trump administration Justice Department over alleged civil rights violations.
"The October 22 agreement is essentially a truce," Mahoney and Sheridan told the legislators.
Deeds and Callsen had written the president and UVa Board of Visitors last week to express "our extreme disappointment" over the agreement, which they said "subjects the University to unprecedented federal control."
Democratic leaders in the Virginia Senate stepped up the pressure Sunday with a detailed, eight-page letter to Mahoney and Sheridan. It challenges the Trump administration’s interpretation of federal civil rights laws, its constitutional authority to use federal funding to coerce compliance to political demands and its authority to override Virginia laws that require universities to maintain plans to promote "diversity, equity and inclusion" goals President Donald Trump claims are illegal.
"Moreover, this agreement was disturbingly executed with zero consultation with the General Assembly, despite the fact that the General Assembly controls the University and provides the bulk of its funding," said Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell, D-Fairfax, and Senate President Pro Tempore Louise Lucas, D-Portsmouth, who also leads the Senate budget committee.
They accused the UVa administration and board of entering into "a sweeping agreement with the federal government that directly conflicts with state law, commits the University to eliminate legislatively mandated programs, subjects the University President to personal certification requirements and potentially places UVA in violation of its statutory obligations — all without any consultation with the legislative body that the statute says controls the institution."
"This represents a fundamental breach of the governance relationship between the University and the Commonwealth," Surovell and Lucas said.
They also criticized Attorney General Jason Miyares for replacing the university’s longtime legal counsel after taking office in 2022.
Surovell and Lucas previously had threatened to withhold state funding from UVa if it agreed to a proposed compact that Trump extended to UVa and eight other colleges. The proposed compact would have placed significant restrictions on the university, but UVa officials declined to sign it.
UVa spokesman Brian Coy responded Tuesday: "UVA’s agreement with the federal government was prepared in coordination with appointed counsel. The agreement preserves UVA’s institutional autonomy and academic freedom and permits the University to continue serving the commonwealth through world-class education, research, and patient care."
"The University has received the letter and is preparing a response," Coy added.
Mahoney and Sheridan, in their letter to Deeds and Callsen, said the university had negotiated an agreement in response to Justice Department investigations of hiring and admissions at UVa to ensure they meet the Trump administration’s interpretation of federal civil rights laws.
"The agreement suspends those investigations and commits the government to not open new investigations or impose sanctions as long as UVA works to comply with civil rights law," they said.
However, they said the agreement also makes clear that court rulings would take precedence over Justice Department guidelines. That includes the decision by the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in 2020 that upheld the right of a transgender student in Gloucester County to use a school bathroom based on his gender identity. The U.S. Supreme Court did not hear the case, so the appeals court decision stands.
Mahoney and Sheridan said UVa also avoided the significant financial settlements or penalties that other institutions paid the federal government to end their Justice Department investigations.
While the agreement requires UVa to report quarterly to the Justice Department on its compliance, the university is not subject to what they called "intrusive external monitoring arrangements" required of other institutions.
"Rather than ‘unprecedented federal control,’ as you state, having the University administration report our compliance with the law is typical in federal relations," the president and rector said.
Mahoney and Sheridan said the UVa agreement also is different than those reached at other institutions, such as Columbia University and Brown University, which are subject to longer-term obligations.
In UVa’s case, "if the United States believes we are not in compliance, its only remedy is to terminate the agreement," they said. "We have not given up any administrative, statutory or Constitutional protections against subsequent agency action."
Source: www.dailyprogress.com