Former Virginia Tech rector John Rocovich filed a lawsuit against Gov. Abigail Spanberger in Montgomery County Circuit Court on Tuesday after she removed him from the university’s board of visitors in May for undisclosed reasons pertaining to his conduct.
Rocovich was removed from the board in May, before his most recent term ended, with Spanberger accusing him of conduct that violated the Virginia Tech Board of Visitors’ Code of Ethics, the code of conduct for state appointees and governing statutes “requiring board members to act in accordance with the best interest of Virginia Tech.”
The governor’s office has not provided additional information or specifics about the reason for Rocovich’s removal.
Rocovich’s team of attorneys argued, in the lawsuit, that Spanberger did not have the power to remove him from the board because there was no “‘malfeasance, misfeasance, incompetence, or gross neglect of duty’ as detailed ‘in a public statement’ of ‘reasons’” by the governor pertaining to his removal. Rocovich is represented by Thomas McCarthy, Conor Woodfin, Tyler Dobbs and James Turk Jr., of the Arlington-based firm Consovoy McCarthy PLLC.
“Governor Spanberger provided no such reasons. That is because none exist. She identified no instance of Rocovich’s alleged misconduct–because there is none. Governor Spanberger lacked cause to remove Rocovich, so her purported removal violated the Commonwealth’s code and constitution. This court should right her wrong and order Rocovich’s reinstatement,” the lawsuit read.
Libby Wiet, spokesperson for the governor’s office, said she cannot comment on pending litigation.
“Under Virginia law, the Governor is ‘the sole judge of sufficiency of the cause for removal’ of a member of a university board of visitors. Former Rector Rocovich was lawfully removed from the board,” Wiet said.
Under state law, a governor may remove a board member for “malfeasance, misfeasance, incompetence, or gross neglect of duty” and must publicly lay out the specific reasons in a written public statement. State law does indeed say that “the Governor is the sole judge of the sufficiency of the cause for removal.”
Rocovich, a prominent Roanoke lawyer, argued in May that “no such grounds” for his removal exist and called Spanberger’s move “deeply offensive” and “legally unsupported.”
The Virginia Tech Board of Visitors voted in favor of an exception to its own bylaws last year to allow Rocovich to serve a third term as rector, a move that would have placed him in the role to oversee the selection and transition of a new university president after Virginia Tech President Tim Sands announced his intention to step down early from the role.
In a letter sent to Secretary of the Commonwealth Candi Mundon King’s office immediately after his removal, he said he would not step down, but he did not make an appearance at the university’s board meetings in Blacksburg in early June.
The Virginia Tech Board of Visitors appointed Jim Miller as rector at the board meetings, less than a week after Spanberger removed Rocovich from the role and the board.
Miller will serve as rector, or head, of the governing board of the university for the 2026-27 year beginning on July 1. The 13-member board voted unanimously to elect him rector.
Rocovich’s removal came about a month after Spanberger named four new appointees to the board — and after Sands announced his intention to step down.
Though the rest of Spanberger’s board appointees’ terms don’t begin until July 1, the governor made her appointments in advance of that date because Rocovich “committed to placing her appointees on the university’s presidential search committee,” according to a governor’s office news release at the time — and all were present at the first search committee meeting in May.
Governors removing a board member is unusual. Spanberger’s predecessor, former Gov. Glenn Youngkin, removed one of his own appointees from the UVa board in 2025. In 1993, then-Gov. Douglas Wilder asked the entire board of Virginia State University to resign amid financial problems and the arrival of a new president, whom Wilder wanted to have a clean slate. However, all those appointees were either people he had appointed or who had been appointed by a previous governor of the same party.
Over the years, there have also been instances when governors threatened to remove board members but did not. Gerald Baliles did that with the Virginia Tech board in 1986 amid an athletic scandal, and so did Bob McDonnell with the UVa board during leadership turmoil in 2012.
