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Board briefed on major higher-education legislation including collective bargaining and board governance changes
Summary
Radford's government-relations director told the board the 2026 General Assembly left a budget unresolved and advanced bills with major implications for higher education: a collective-bargaining law with a two-year implementation and new board-governance rules that change term lengths, confirmation and advisory-representative requirements.
Radford University's government-relations update on March 20 highlighted several bills from the 2026 General Assembly that the board flagged as material to institutional operations.
Lisa, the university's government-relations lead, said the General Assembly adjourned without a final budget and will reconvene in April for final action. She noted that negotiation over data-center tax exemptions is a major sticking point between House and Senate negotiators and that conferees have met with data-center representatives.
Lisa focused on two higher-education items: collective bargaining and board governance. The collective-bargaining legislation that the board reviewed would repeal the existing prohibition on public-employee bargaining, include higher-education employees (with specified exemptions), and set a two-year implementation phase so bargaining would not begin until July 1, 2028. The law directs governing boards to assess tuition impacts as part of their six-year plans.
On board governance, the enrolled bill would change term lengths to a single six-year term with staggered implementation, add confirmation-process timelines, require nonvoting advisory faculty/staff/student representatives, clarify quorum and executive-committee powers, and add training and annual ethics reporting for board members. Lisa said some changes could be adjusted depending on the governor's action and related executive orders.
Board members asked clarifying questions about academic-freedom language and continuity of service where terms expire near the effective date; Lisa and administration staff said they will follow up with more detailed guidance and bring specific bylaw-change suggestions for the board to consider.
