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Staff Editorial: Marshall law unwelcome

29 January 2008 | By The Flat Hat, | The Flat Hat » opinions

Not all things fare better with age — after more than 300 years, the College and the commonwealth have yet to agree on our governance. This time, though, one man is stirring up more trouble than usual. He’s Delegate Robert Marshall (R – Prince William) and he’s not about to have Virginia’s governor appoint the College’s Board of Visitors.

Marshall’s latest bill charges alumni to elect BOV members, marking the second time in as many years the man has attempted to personally intervene in College affairs. An outspoken critic of College President Gene Nichol, Marshall sponsored a bill asking the state to dock its portion of the president’s salary following the cross’s removal from the Wren Chapel. Perhaps we could take Marshall’s efforts more seriously if they weren’t such egregious displays of political posturing.

Consider that this bill, like the previous one, targets the College alone. Every other BOV member at every other public university in Virginia is appointed by the governor, yet Marshall somehow divined that the same system would no longer work here in Williamsburg. Curious. We find it hard to believe his sudden confidence in our alumni emerged independently from some of their open criticism of Nichol.

Granted, allowing a partisan governor to handpick the people governing the commonwealth’s colleges may not be ideal, but it’s better than Marshall’s alternative. The bill ignores the influence alumni already exert on the process and offers no solution to the problem of ensuring voting rights. The potential disenfranchisement of alumni who may not have an address on file can be neither fair nor equitable.

And speaking of elections, Marshall’s interest in creating a conservative College could not come at a more politically convenient time. As he and former Gov. Jim Gilmore vie for the Republican nomination in the U.S. Senate race, we would like to remind him the College is more than a bullet point in campaign literature.

If Marshall had expressed similar interest in other Virginia schools, we might hold more hope for his sense of altruism. His attempts at manipulation and politicking prove he is motivated by anything but.

  1. The only place that the College is going to find the financial resourses that it needs in order to realize its’ ambitions of greatness, is among the alumni. Don’t you think it might be a good idea to recognize this fact by giving the alumni some representation on the Board. This is exactly how it has always worked at every other sucessful top tier university. Anyone who has high hopes for the school’s future should be supporting this proposal in any way they can.


    — Greg    Jan 31, 10:56 AM    #

  2. It is often useful to distinguish between the merits of a proposal and the merits of the motives behind the proposal. There may be good reasons to oppose this particular measure, but its sponsors opposition to Nichol probably can’t be considered high among them.


    — D.A. Ridgely, '73    Feb 5, 10:14 AM    #

  3. Let’s no forget that it was Nichol who decided to use his office for political purposes. Lo and behold, other politicians enter the fray. Nothing surprising here! Nichol would like to be Superman, spinning like a whirlwind inside a revoling door, emerging wearing his academic robes one one occasion, his ACLU hat on another, and his “I’m just a helpless doof who can’t read a simple email” when his credibility is in doubt. Sorry, but you actually have to make a choice: university President: respected, neutral and above the debate; or politician: sneaky, mistrusted, and dripping with the ooze of partisanship. It’s ridiculously naive to accept his split personality without question. And it’s even more foolish to be surprised that a politician’s personal agenda attracts other politicians. (In fact, in a democracy, that’s healthy. Let those SOB’s fight each other instead of oppressing us.) Wake up and smell the coffee kids.


    — westerlies    Feb 5, 11:47 AM    #

  4. The W&M Alumni Assoc is totally controlled by the College Administration, it does not represent the Alumni in any real sense.It was appropriate for the Gov to appoint all members of the BOV when the state provided 100% of the financial support for the College.Now the state provides less than 20% of the funding so a change may be in order.It is a specious argument to suggest that alumni who do not bother to keep their contact information updated with the College would potentially be disenfranchised by Alumni voting on BOV members.BOV members should represent the taxpayers of VA and the W&M community at large – not the politics of the party or Gov in office at the time.VA taxpayers, legislators, W&M students and Alumni are probably 50% liberal and 50% conservative – a President who is far right, or far left [like Nichol]will polarize and destroy W&M.


    — Jeff '62    Feb 8, 04:31 PM    #