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He's simply making it publicly known that he does not agree with the decision, does not believe it is justified, and making it clear he is adverse to the removal. Board appointees can only be removed FOR CAUSE, and he's making it clear that he does not believe that cause existed. How does it look if you accept a resignation request for something like this and then try to fight it?
This right here. The law is clear. Although he was asked to resign (and didn't), the governor followed up with a public letter stating that he was being removed. He doesn't get the option to accept the resignation request. He's been removed.
I think part of the challenge we face is that the 80% we agree on is largely made up of "what's wrong" and the 20% we disagree on is largely made up of "who's fault" it is and/or "how to fix it"
Without getting into specifics - classic examples include education, economy, various rights, etc. We all agree that we need schools. We just can't agree on which direction to go there. Or what makes a good education. Or whether schools are getting better or worse. Or who's responsible for schools getting better or worse.
Like, we all want our kids to get the best possible education. We don't all agree on how to achieve that.
Adding on to this, to quote from the Code of the Commonwealth of Virginia, § 23.1-1300:
C. Notwithstanding the provisions of subsection E or any other provision of law, the Governor may remove from office for malfeasance, misfeasance, incompetence, or gross neglect of duty any member of the board of any public institution of higher education and fill the vacancy resulting from the removal.
D. The Governor shall set forth in a written public statement his reasons for removing any member pursuant to subsection C at the time the removal occurs. The Governor is the sole judge of the sufficiency of the cause for removal as set forth in subsection C.
This feels like a fight he will lose but it will be a MESS all the way through. The law part of it seems pretty clear. If she deems that he's been negligent to his duty to the University, she can remove him. She, and only she, gets to decide. Feels like there would need to be some kind of smoking gun that she was lying about the reasons or whatever for a court to step in. He doesn't get a lot of say in that. But, he can certainly make a stink about it on the way out.
See this is wild because i read that and go "well he has no recourse".
the initial announcement says she's removing him because his actions were unbefitting a member of the BOV -- where does anything say she needs to elaborate on that as the sole arbiter?
Yeah there is no chance I would take that accusation sitting down. If the answer is "not listening to others on the board", then say that. Don't leave an open ended accusation for people to draw their own conclusions.
Is the Governor well within her rights to potentially defame the character and reputation of a very well-respected attorney in VA and alumnus of the University for alleged "ethics violations" which are totally unsubstantiated at this point? You're telling me the Chair of a major University Board tried to use his influence and politic with other Board members to gain support on a hiring decision? SHOCKED I tell you, SHOCKED!
If Roc is comfortable with the discovery here, let it play out. I wouldn't want someone sullying my reputation either, especially as an accomplished attorney and businessman.
lol, if this gets us into the SEC I'll take it
This makes me much less sympathetic to Roc's cause. It doesn't matter what he thinks, the governor is well within her rights to boot him. Now he can either go away gracefully or drag this, and subsequently VT, through it.
yeah, exactly
Just curious how the back and forth impacts the search for a new President...if at all. There's a lot of dysfunction all around, but when it's on the front page at a major university, might dissuade some top candidates that just want to come in and work without having to worry about eggshells all around.
The rumor stunk of collusion dating back to Roco's appointment and would have been terrible for the university. If true, Spanberger was well within her right imo.
However, he's issued his rebuttal so I'm somewhat intrigued to see how this plays out.
They are elected in Michigan, at least for UM, MSU and Wayne State. But then again we elect judges, too.
Pretty clear her letter doesn't satisfy the requirements as I noted above. She could try to elaborate, but that would not be at the time of removal as required. But, suppose he "wins" some kind of Dec action, what is stopping her from just removing him again, in her sole discretion? What a mess of a situation and statute. Classic Virginia.
He was instrumental in getting us into the ACC. And at that time, we had some of the biggest/nicest facilities in the country and our assistant salary pool was one of if not the biggest.
As an aside, that is all the more reason that John Ballein's nostalgic mindset of "more with less, just like Frank" was not only stupid, but inaccurate. That's a separate discussion though.
For Roc, my only other comment at the moment is I'm not sure the governor's letter meets the legal requirements for his removal. She basically couches legal conclusions or statements of the law as facts, but without any specific allegations. His letter in rebuttal was quite strong. I suspect we'll see this play out in court.
Thanks for making me shotgun two Budweisers and run through a wall at 7:45 am.
Rocovich has responded and says he won't step down.
https://cardinalnews.org/2026/05/28/spanberger-fires-rocovich-from-virgi...
Pro squads spend lots of money on lots of players.
Agree and think about the effort required to recruit a 5* (and now the NIL), one 5* OLine doesnt make a huge difference than 5 well coached 3*. One really good OT doesny matter if Parker Clements is on the other side of the line.
Any 5* is great but trying to out compete UGA, Bama, OSU, Oregon just doesnt mske sense for the other positions.
For some reason I'm getting messy SEC vibes from this situation. All signs point to VT Football is BAK!
Rumor on Reddit is he tried to stack the deck of Presidential nominations for the BOV to consider and was pressuring other BOV members to do things his way. If the reddit reported nomination for President of Tech is to be believed, it might be a good thing he is gone. The person proposed was not qualified to be a University President.
Time to go down to the Winchester, have a pint, and wait for this all to blow over
Good thing politicians are so pure especially when money is involved, it's inconceivable that something ill could come from this!
The initial statement says he didnt act in the best interests of the university -- that's not defamation of character and doesn't require anyone (or invite them, really) to draw any further conclusions or to speculate.
If we are inviting speculation, just by connecting the dots i can surmise that this is connected to the rectorship and university president search, and could even include the university president vacancy to begin with 🤷♂️