The University of Virginia’s Board of Visitors on Thursday voted to affirm the selection of Scott C. Beardsley as 鶹ƽ 10th president and tasked its Audit, Compliance, and Risk Committee with reviewing the process used to select him.
The committee will examine how the search was conducted “to identify whether there are opportunities for improvement in future searches,” released at the conclusion of the meeting.
The review is expected to focus upon:
- The process used to build and evaluate the candidate pool
- The collection of stakeholder input
- Record-keeping practices
- Assessing best practices from other institutions that could be adopted at UVA
“The intent of this review is to be as transparent as we can about how the search for 鶹ƽ 10th president was conducted and to strengthen the University’s playbook for future executive searches, not to revisit the outcome of that search,” Rector Carlos M. Brown said. “Scott Beardsley was elected the president of the University and the board is prepared to work with him on our shared goals, like increasing affordability, endowing financial aid and improving accessibility for all Virginians. However, given the significant challenges the University has faced over the past year, we have an added responsibility to check our work, to answer as many questions from the community as we can, and to make absolutely certain that our recruitment practices and procedures enable us to identify and attract the best possible candidates for key positions going forward. Answering these questions will hopefully be a first step in rebuilding the trust between the board, faculty, students and alumni.”
On Jan. 17, Gov. Abigail Spanberger, a UVA alumna, appointed 10 members to the board. The board later elected Brown as rector and Victoria D. Harker as vice rector. Both are UVA graduates.
Thursday’s one-day meeting was the first gathering of the board since the elections of Brown and Harker. It was also the first quarterly meeting in which Beardsley participated since the board unanimously appointed him to the post in December. He officially took office on Jan. 1.
The resolution charges the board’s Audit, Compliance, and Risk Committee with “a review of the presidential search process for the 10th President of the University of Virginia, with the objective of providing the Board with a clear assessment of that process, the roles and responsibilities of those involved, and the decision-making framework, and comparing those elements of the process to national best practices for presidential searches at peer public research universities, including prior searches undertaken at the University.”
“I am grateful for the trust the board has placed in me and intend to continue to lead with the same commitment to transparency, engagement and constant improvement that is at the heart of the resolution they passed today,” Beardsley said. “After a challenging period for our community, restoring trust begins with listening and answering as many questions as possible and making certain that we are in the strongest possible position moving forward.”
Chief Audit Executive Carolyn Saint and her staff will support the board’s audit committee. The committee may seek information from University faculty and staff, as well as from the Special Committee on the Nomination of a President, during the review process. Board leaders said the audit committee will provide an update on key findings during or before the board’s June meeting.
“Selecting a new president is one of the most important tasks the commonwealth delegates to university boards, but our current board manual contains only a few sentences about how that process should work,” Harker said. “Our goal, through this review, will be to bolster future searches with the guidance they need to run a thoughtful and transparent process and select the very best leaders for the University.”
