The Virginia Tech Board of Visitors voted in favor of an exception to its own bylaws last year to allow John Rocovich to serve a third term as rector, a move that now has him overseeing the selection and transition of a new university president after Tim Sands announced his intention to step down a year early.
The rector is the elected chair of the board of visitors. The board’s bylaws limit the number of times a member can serve as rector to two one-year terms. Rocovich had served as rector from 2002 to 2004, which initially made him ineligible to serve as rector again for the 2025-2026 year.
But a lack of nominees for the role and Rocovich’s interest in serving as rector opened up a caveat within the board’s bylaws during a meeting last June, according to the meeting minutes.
Rocovich will now lead the board of visitors in the search for a new university president of Virginia Tech, after Sands announced his pending departure last week.
Former Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin appointed nearly all of Virginia Tech’s 13-person board, including Rocovich. Terms of five of the board’s members are slated to expire in June, and Democratic Gov. Abigail Spanberger will be tasked with reappointing or appointing new members before then. She reappointed Mehul Sanghani to the board Wednesday. Sanghani’s term was set to expire in June.
Rocovich told reporters at Tuesday’s board of visitors meeting that he believes the hiring of a new university president could be done by July 1, when Spanberger’s appointees are slated to begin.
“It might go over into August or September,” he said. “I would expect and hope that once the governor decides who she wants to appoint in July that she’ll tell me and I’ll just put them on the search committee.”
Kaine “deeply troubled,” Rouse “shocked” by Sands’ departure
Democratic U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine issued a statement the day that Sands announced his departure that was starkly different from the messages delivered by the governor and other political leaders that praised Sands for his leadership.
Kaine, who also praised Sands, added that he was “deeply troubled” by the university president’s “sudden departure.”
“He has been an exceptional leader for over a decade — a period of significant growth for the university,” Kaine said. “This action has the earmarks of previous well-publicized efforts to oust Presidents at other Virginia public universities — VMI, UVA and George Mason. I urge Governor Spanberger to get to the bottom of the latest attack on Virginia higher education and take all necessary action to insulate university leadership from politically motivated schemes.”
State Sen. Aaron Rouse, D-Virginia Beach, who is an alumnus of Virginia Tech, said in a statement that he “was shocked to see his departure during a continued period of tremendous growth for the university. I am eager to learn more about the reasons for this decision.”
Rocovich told reporters that the selection of a new president is not a political decision, however. He added that he has talked with the governor “several times” and that he is waiting to hear from her regarding board appointees. When asked about Kaine’s comment, Rocovich said he hadn’t seen it, and when asked if he had anything to do with Sands’ departure, he referred reporters to Sands’ statement. Sands did not give an explicit reason for his early resignation in his statement, however. Instead, he said he is leaving his post to “start the process of stepping aside so that the next president can take the baton in full stride.”
The governor’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
The board’s exception that allowed Rocovich to serve as rector again
Rocovich is currently in his fourth term on the board and in his third year as rector. Board of visitors’ terms are four years long.
According to minutes from the board’s two-day meeting in June, no nominee was put forward during the nominating committee meeting as a candidate for rector to assume the role after Edward Baine’s tenure was slated to end. That lack of a nominee did not preclude Rocovich or other board members from being nominated once the floor was open during the full board meeting the next day, however.
Kay Heidbreder, the university’s legal counsel, pointed out case law that would allow the board to vote to temporarily suspend a stipulation in its bylaws limiting a rector to two one-year terms.
Board member Letitia Long said that Rocovich had expressed interest in serving another term as rector, but that the nominating committee had not put his name forward because he is ineligible, per the board’s bylaws. Jim Miller, another board member, nominated Rocovich from the floor. Baine advised the board that, in voting for Rocovich as rector, the board would also be voting for an exception to the term limits in the bylaws.
Rocovich was elected rector for the 2025-2026 year by a vote of 11 to 2, with Anna James and Long as the opposing votes. Baine abstained. Both Long and James were appointed to the board by former Democratic Gov. Terry McAuliffe in 2017 and were reappointed by former Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam in 2021. Donald Horsley, who was the board’s representative for the state Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, voted in favor. He was appointed by Northam.
The remaining board members who voted in favor were largely Youngkin appointees.
Long explained her vote, saying that it would set a bad precedent to make an exception to the board’s bylaws, and that her vote was not against Rocovich.
“I’ve had a very long involvement with Virginia Tech,” Rocovich said on Tuesday when asked why he wanted to serve another term as rector. “It looked like it was a good time to provide some leadership.”
“We’ve had many important items that have come up, from trying to align ourselves with the federal government rules and make a new direction in athletics and setting the 10-year plan for high quality housing and regulations, it has been a very busy year,” he added.
What comes next in the search for a new president?
Virginia Tech plans to hire a search firm, put together a job description and advertise the role in the next few weeks, Rocovich said.
After about a month, the search firm will collect applications and resumes, sort through them and create a list of about a dozen of the best candidates. Those candidates will be interviewed, and the board will be tasked with making a decision.
Rocovich, who took part in the last two searches for a president of the university, estimated that the process could take two or three months. The search needs to be “concise, compact and focused,” he said.
“I would expect a few strong internal [candidates], this is a really good job so I would expect some really strong outside applicants,” he said. “This is the single most important thing a board does, is pick a president.”
Staff writer Erick Solorzano contributed to this report.
